George Floyd

I am still formulating my thoughts. My head is spinning and my stomach is churning. My emotions are on a rollercoaster. I need to find the words to say what I need to say. 

But I'm not sure I'm ready to...because I'm not sure that what I want to articulate will be coherent. And I don't want to sound like a raving old white woman. 

I want to believe that there's something each of us can do. But right now, with Minneapolis on a curfew, and #WhinyWhiteBroad types in NYC (I can't call 'em "Karens" because one of my favorite SILs is a Karen....a good Karen)...I have to wonder what in the name of God has happened to our country. 


Well. Then I look at Washington DC. The #ToddlerInChief can't be bothered to even speak one word of sympathy to the families of the 100,000 dead of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. 

And he hasn't done jack diddly about any kind of plan -- we know he sat on his Twitter and did nothing. Nothing. For MONTHS. 

But by golly --- let Twitter call him on his lies (finally, by the way...took 'em long enough)? Well, lickety spit he gets his Sharpie and does an illegal executive order. 

It IS illegal. There's this thing called the First Amendment. And there's this thing called "we're not a dictatorship - yet" -- Twitter, love it or hate it, is a public company. So they block a tweet of his. On his personal account. 

What does he do? He puts THE SAME TWEET on the WHITE HOUSE Twitter account. Right. That's cool. Not. 

So it's going to take me a day or two more to actually formulate what I want to say about George Floyd. 

Flora & Fauna...

As I was coming from work the other day, I saw this arrangement in someone's yard. I really like it; I've seen it done with smaller clay pots, but I think this could work in my yard for herbs. Now I just have to talk Hubby into it! You take a metal or PVC pipe and "stagger" the pots on it, by size. It's called a "Tipsy Pot" and I've got a link here in case you'd like to take a look. They're cool and a great way to grow herbs and some trailing plants if you have the space. I've seen them as fountains, too, but I think that's a bridge too far --- but maybe not. I've been asking Hubby if he thinks a fountain could work in the front yard. Hm..... 

As you can see, we have more than a plethora of milkweed. Hubby pulled some from inside my Icelandic Poppy today, and it's coming up in the yard. I can see the blossoms starting. 

I'm hoping to get monarchs this year; this is year #3, I think, of milkweed in the garden. Last year, I had ONE monarch caterpillar and I think a bird got it...I also got a bunch of swallowtail caterpillars last year, so I have my tub of parsley for them. We'll see how the dill does; it seems slow this year. 


I may have to get more stakes; depends on how many of these milkweeds I actually keep. There may be more thinning of the bed. 

These are Common Milkweed; it's what grows around here. It's in a bed along with 2 kinds of bee balm, lavender, dill, Cosmos, Prairie Blazing Star, the Icelandic Poppy, and Purple Coneflower. Oh, and both a large and small pot of parsley: one flat and one curly. I think there's some Gallardia there, if it comes back, and a bit of snapdragons. And a couple other wildflowers that I won't recognize till they grow past the "Is this a weed or a flower?" stage... I put markers in. Every year. And they seem to disappear. Every year. 

I think this will be a banner year for the Icelandic Poppy. It's got so many more buds on it than it did last year. It's funny: I have this in a V-shaped bed, and every year, it moves over a bit. I don't move it. It just pops up a few inches left or right of where it was the year before. Heaven only knows why... But as long as it comes up, I'm happy. I'll post pictures when it blooms. The blooms are the most delicate peachy-pink/ivory...It's hard to describe. 

So the tree-rats (squirrels) got to my one small tomato plant. I mean, really, they've got the whole yard. Why pick on my tomato? So I took a page from my friend's book and put a bottle in the pot. Apparently, the idea is that the wind comes across the bottle and makes a sound that the squirrels don't like. I have no idea if it will work, but so far, they've left my little sprout alone...so I'm good with it. Hubby thinks I'm nuts. It'll be worth it to see if I can get this little guy to grow. It's a "bush" tomato. Supposedly will not need a cage, but again - I have to keep the "tree rats" out of it!


I haven't grown irises in a long, long time. They were on the south side of the house, but gradually, said tree-rats ate them. Along with my tulips, my daffodils, my crocus, and my grape hyacinths. I mean, again - I feed them. I give them cracked corn and peanuts. I dusted the bulbs in both talcum powder (my granny's trick) and bone meal (got that from a garden expert). 


And still they ate 'em. So I gave up. These are alongside my office building. I thought about putting bulbs in the pots outside the yoga studio, but as I've done in the front yard, I've moved toward plants that benefit birds, bees and butterflies. I may "sneak in" some sunflower seeds; as far as Hubby is concerned, perhaps the squirrels will have planted them. I can blame lots of things on them!!

Anyway, these are gorgeous and they're needing to be thinned out this year. I had wanted to do it last year, but we didn't get around to it. This year it's got to be done. The whole bed needs a rehab. And maybe some sort of "fence" thingie that I can just push into the ground. Nothing too fancy, just a border that will spiff up that area. 

Knitting...

I'm stuck on Section 4 of the Breathe & Hope Shawl. It's 60 rows and it's taking forever. But 2 of the rows have a K1b (knit one below) and I really have to concentrate since it's knit 1, k1b - you can get hypnotized and then screw it up... I've made what I think are a few boo-boos, but I'm not sure I've screwed up the stitch pattern - I just know that it looks a bit wonky in some parts. 

That being said, I'm anxious to move on to the next part. I think that'll be tomorrow, since there are only 9 rows left. 

And yeah, try not to be freaked out. It'll all flatten out in the blocking. I've seen several of these in this shape, and the finished ones are great, after some pretty stiff blocking. 

Food & Drink...

No offense to the local Berkot's grocery store, but their latkes stink. I mean they're just not good. So I went to the Polish Deli the other day and got some soup, a batch of latkes and these beauties: chocolate covered gingerbread. 

I'm telling you they're incredibly addictive. The gingerbread is soft, with just a hint of bite to it. And the dark chocolate just accents the heat of the ginger perfectly. 

I kid myself: ginger is good for the belly. Well....it's a huge stretch to consider dark chocolate covered gingerbread as ANY way "medicinal" but I figure that as long as I don't eat these every day? Or even every week? My addiction will remain under control. 

I've been getting on the elliptical every other day. I thought I'd balance out the gingerbread with the exercise. Ha. It does require that I watch what I'm doing. And today was kind of a pain - I didn't eat anything. I mean, I skipped breakfast, thinking that I would be at work for a couple hours with a "quick AT & T repair." Which took 5 hours. 

So. No morning Keppra dose (yeah, I'm back on it. Long story. More migraines.). No breakfast. No lunch. I was starving. Which isn't a good thing. I have to do better. Tomorrow, we're hopefully going on a bike ride, so I need to pay attention to hydration and eating. 

Kid #2 turned us on to a company called tealyra out of Canada. Check this link. FULL DISCLOSURE: I DON'T DO AFFILIATE LINKS. I MAKE NO $$ FOR ANYTHING I RECOMMEND. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I like to recommend things I like. This is great tea. The White Champagne tea is lovely. And this here? This is fresh ginger (see the theme???) with verbena and lemongrass. It's delicious. And caffeine-free. I also got a few other varieties, but I thought this was a good one so I wasn't up all night (which I have been, thank COVID-19 stress, Keppra and who knows what else...It's 11:07 p.m CST and I should be asleep, but I am not. I just re-set the "blue light" level on my laptop, which probably isn't helping.... but I digress).  

The "mug" I'm using is a borosilicate glass, double-walled. It's 12 oz, which is perfect. I've even been drinking less of my British Blend -- which is very weird. 

Anyway, those are my recommendations for tea stuff. And gingerbread...

Random Picture...


This is what I found last night as I walked to bed...Tippi, "tipped" and snoring... This is apparently how she likes to sleep. And that's cool. She's so stinkin' cute!!!

Today, I left Raisa out later. She even gave up on me and stalked to her bed in the kitchen with a snort...I think the dogs sense my current state of insomnia and it's frustrating them (as in they're out of their usual routine) and it's frustrating ME... 

I'm just not sleepy. I don't fall asleep till the wee hours. And I wake up several times a night. 

I'm over it. I just don't know what to do with it...