Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Yesterday I worked in the yard.  Finally couldn’t stand it anymore and got out there by 8am and cut back shrubs, pulled weeds, picked up pecan tree branches, repotted a couple of things (one of which the ants – grrrrrrrrr – had climbed into), dug a trench for the last part of a flowerbed border, and made a bazillion trips from one side of the yard to the other dumping armloads of yard trash over the fence.  Also rearranged the location of some of the sun getting potted plants.  As the summer goes on, I tend to move plants from full sun to partial to shade.  Keeps them from drying out so badly, they look dead by noon. 

I should get all sorts of ATTA GIRL’s !

I came in at 10am, a dripping, dirt covered mass of wet-to-the-skin human and pretty much did nothing else strenuous for the rest of the day. 

The mosquitoes are terrible outside.  Ick!  This year I’ve invested in the newest miracle mosquito killer available at our local feed store. 

Consists of two plastic tubes filled with some sort of magical mosquito killer/repeller. 

You add water, hang the tubes at the furthest distance from each other and away from any people places and - bippity, boppity, boom – no, or at least, fewer mosquitoes.  I’ll let you know.

A few more things blooming in my yard.

  

This hibiscus bloom is, I kid you not, 9 inches across.  It’s bigger than my hand!  A friend gave me a cutting he started last summer and this year it is full of blooms.

The Devils Trumpet (Datura) is in full bloom also.  Datura was used (in the way back times) in shamanistic rituals as a path to enlightenment.  Occasionally in these modern times, idiot people experiment with it for the hallucinogenic effect, but the results are very bad (dark visions, disorientation, amnesia, blurred vision, dry mouth, and incontinence).  Plus, an overdose can result in death.  Never a good thing.

The Althea has finally started to bloom.  So, Did You Know? the flowers and young leaves can be eaten - added to salads or stuffed and fried. The roots and stem also secrete mucilage, which is used to soften the skin.  Medicinally, the root has been used since Egyptian antiquity in a honey-sweetened confection for the treatment of sore throat.  Later, the French made something called pâte de guimauve, which included an egg white whipped to meringue and flavored with rose water. Pâte de guimauve resembles todays marshmallows (which no longer contain any actual marshmallow in them).  The root also can be used for cleaning hand-dyed rugs.  It is considered the best method to preserve the vibrancy of vegetable dyes used in coloring the wool.

The two demon kittens are busy as they can be much of the time. Today they found my pile of “papers to be shredded at some point when I’m bored” and tumbled them all over the floor.  The picture looks like a ball of gray fluff but it’s the boys jumping on each other.  Ohmmmmmm – I have lost my mind – ohmmmmmmm. 

This is what keeps me from popping their heads off and telling god they died ….. such cute babies!  If I sit down, both jump up and sit in my lap or rather one in my lap, the other on my chest!  (hmmmmm this might be a problem when they get to be 20 pounders!)

I have leave here shortly – annual visit to the cardiologist.  I have to go once a year, problems or no.  Otherwise he refuses to renew my heart meds (F I N E – once a year). 

Then, I’ve got a couple errands to do including getting kitten food.

Tomorrow is Estate Sale day.  Ellen and I are going to, what looks like, a very cool sale.  Of course, I’m expecting the prices to be sky-high but it will be fun to look.

19 Jun 2019