I Have Something to Say...

I have been very circumspect about a lot of things on here, because I'm normally a very private person, but I've kinda had it and I need to say something. 

"Stay in your lane" is normally a pejorative statement uttered by underqualified white guys while they lecture someone (usually a woman or a person of color, or -- looking at you, JD Vance, and THE FREAKING POPE) on a subject that they really have no idea about, but because of their white-guy-special-privilege, they get away with saying a lot of crap and demeaning a lot of people. 

But in this case, I'm issuing a "stay in your lane" regarding a situation which has come up. 

If a person has, say, 40-ish years of experience doing something, and is accomplished in their field, and has been noted as a professional in that field (i.e., has been paid to do the thing), if you do not have those or similar qualifications, and this person has been doing a job - without pay, and gladly, because otherwise it wouldn't get done and materially affects this person's ability to do another particular job... and if you think that in spite of all the above, YOU still know better? 

Stay in your lane. 

I try to not let this kind of stuff bother me, but man-o-man...some days you just want to tell people exactly what you think. Mind you, that's not always the wisest thing, and you can get yourself into a lot more trouble. But sometimes, things DO need to be said because otherwise, they live in your head rent-free, and you don't deserve that. 

So. Take my advice. If you're confronted with a situation where you want to make a suggestion, please don't let that stop you from making the suggestion. But to wholesale say to that person, "You are incapable of doing the thing you've been doing for 40+ years, because I can do it better, it can't be all that hard, it's just plugging things in..." Yeah. No. 

Stay in your lane. Resist the temptation to open your mouth, because you're only going to insert your foot all the way up to your quads. And I'm not helping you pull it out. I'll actually help shove it in a bit more, just because you deserve it. 

The Garden...

Sadly, we haven't seen a caterpillar on the parsley all season. We really haven't seen the Swallowtails either. 

The Borage has been covered by little black ants. The chervil was destroyed by same ants... 

We trimmed off all the red romaine, and Hubby left the stubs -- surprisingly, we're getting a second leafing of this lettuce. And to be honest, that's about the only lettuce right now I'd trust to eat. Thanks RFK jr and what's left of the CDC... 

We have 6 tomatoes on one plant, and the one on the Cherokee Purples GOT EATEN BY A TREE RAT....  so frustrating! I don't expect any of the yellow cherry tomatoes to actually happen, because I bought that plant late. It was a "rescue buy," and if it actually grows? That's a win. 

The Prairie Blazing Star (Liatris), also known as Gayfeather (who knew?) is doing well, but the 3 new ones? Bunny appetizers. Two of the 3 new ones appear to be trying to come back. Fingers crossed. 

The Coneflowers (the purple native ones) are doing quite well. Happy with that. As are the Brown Eyed Susans. I did plant some additional seeds, but I don't see any evidence of them coming up. 

The basil is going nuts. I'm letting one plant go to flower for the bees, and nipping the other one. The Kid is in Maine, and has tried basil ice cream, so I need to freeze some of this, and see if we can re-create it. 

While the petunias are a bit leggy, they're still blooming, so I'm letting them do their thing. 

And while the dill and Monster Bleeding Heart did come up? Nothing like they were last year. The Bleeding Heart didn't even bloom. And even the Icelandic Poppy was wonky. 

On the plus side, even though this year (so far), we haven't put up the fountain (a/k/a "Birdy Bidet"), we've put up two bird baths and a saucer on the ground for the other animals. And the birds have been rotating between the two baths in the front and the one in the back. For a while, the back one rarely got used, but they've found it and they seem to be very happy about it. 

We usually have a line-up, and woe betide us if we let the baths get low -- they yell at us! 

We're in the middle of a heat wave, complicated by smoke coming down from Canada. But who cares about global warming? Surely nobody in Washington, DC... 

Hold the Phone...

A miracle has happened. I came home after the meeting I referenced in my first paragraph. I was frustrated, hangry, and just Not. In. The. Mood... So I made a sandwich for lunch. I had an avocado that felt a bit squishy. 

I thought, "Oh, FINE. Just. FINE. I'll probably have to toss this one... " because why not - that's just the way my morning went. 

Wait a sec. Here it is. And it's freaking PERFECT. And it was delicious. It didn't quite make up for the crap I put up with at the meeting, but ya know what? 

It was perfect. In the moment, I thought, this is just ... perfect. 

The Knitting...

The afghan is moving a-pace... I might -- JUST - might get it done by the time we visit. I have the two gold panels done, and I'm working on the second green one. There are 3 green panels in the project. 

I'm really liking how the colors are working together. I wasn't sure as I picked them, but the gold is also a bit of a "heather" which seems to play well with the green. The green heather seems to have a little of a yellow cast to it, so it works nicely. 

All that garter stitch...Whew! This separates the knitters from the knitters! You can really see the unique quirks in the yarn, and this is a "tension test." You can see the evenness of your stitches -- or the unevenness? Anyway, like I always say, the plain knitting is where you see more than you might want to. 

I found a dropped stitch about 3 rows back. So the ONE nice thing about all this garter is that I could rip back with impunity. Which I did. I must've been knitting late at night, because I normally am pretty good about paying attention to my knitting; only because dropping a stitch terrifies me!

I can't wait to start putting it together. And -- since we're in that heat wave, of course I'd be working on an afghan. Lucky it's in parts, and I'm not having a whole big wool-blend afghan in my lap! 

My next project will be a single sock - I have to find one of my sock bags. We're thinking of taking some short trips, and socks are great car-knitting. I usually try to have the fiddly bits done: ribbing and heel turn. So I will knit on the leg or foot - the mindless stuff. A 7 - 8" leg takes a while to knit, so it works for a trip. 

The Grand-dog...

Well, we have Basil for a while. It's been a long time, and she's shedding. A lot. I'd forgotten how much ONE dog can shed, and it's like, "How did we do THREE DOGS shedding either simultaneously or in sequence?" It was a constant snow-storm in the house, I guess. I never noticed when they were around, but I sure do now that they're not...

She's doing really well, considering (the heat wave...) -- we have to be careful when we walk her, because of the hot sidewalks, and she really zonks out when she gets back in. 

She has, however, proven herself to be The Sploot Queen. She sploots on the carpet, on the floor, and even on the couch as she's napping. Boy, I wish MY hips were that limber again! 

She hasn't quite plopped herself on the AC vent, and surprisingly, she's quite incurious about what's going on outside. She's not much of a barker, but I don't think she has to -- take a look at her and you'll think twice about anything stupid you might want to try. 

Fun story: Well, it's not actually fun... Basil gets car-sick. We've tried everything: not feeding her, confining her, even taking away her water (which sucks). And finally, the vet suggested some meds. The last time I transported her, she yarked up so much (on an empty stomach) that she literally flooded my back cargo hold; thank goodness for WeatherTech liners. She's nearly 70 lbs. That's a lot of "tummy juice." 

This time, we had a slight miscommunication. I was at a birthday party (80th) for a friend, and I told her I had to bug out early because Basil's ride home was coming. Hubby gave her the pills around 1 p.m. We waited. And waited. And waited. You're supposed to give it 1 hour after eating and 2 hours BEFORE travel. She hadn't eaten since 6 a.m., so we know her tummy was empty. About an hour after she had the pills, she took quite a nap. 

Finally, around 4 p.m. I get a call, "I thought you were bringing her back..." (sigh) So into the car we go. Basil was doing really well. I kept thinking, "don't jinx it, don't jinx it, don't jinx it," and "who's the patron saint of dog barf??" 

I pulled into the driveway. And.... There was NO barf. None. Not even a tummy rumble. We were gobsmacked! 

I think, to make this all work, we have to give her the meds, WAIT for longer than 2 hours, and then she can get into the car. That's such a good outcome. She was so upset, she'd barf her guts out, and it was just so nerve-wracking to drive her anywhere longer than 20 minutes. 

So. Yay for a miscommunication? I'll take it. 

The Houseplants...

Well. My snake plants have had babies! We have three pots which have little pups. Two of the older ones are a little shaky, but I think they're still ok. And the big one in the back (upper right corner) has FLOWERED!! Yay!!! 

And Hubby's orchids are really doing nicely as well. A few are ready to pop again, I think this is the third time this year they've bloomed. 

I'm still looking for that elusive Golden Haanii, which was one of the first ones I bought and promptly killed. My Moonshine is a bit leggy; it seems to like the grow lights a bit too much. But I don't want to risk moving it. 

And my baby spider plant is fluffing out well. So the green thumb is working inside almost as good as the one outside. 

Random Picture...

We've had some pretty impressive storms. Lots of night time tornado threats, too. This was a shot I took from the studio, and these seriously look like "mushroom clouds," and were quite stunning when I left after class. 

That was a night when we had some particularly intense storms. With hail and all... while we didn't have any actual funnel clouds, they were around us in other counties. 

We've had so much wet weather. The maples didn't do their "twirly bird" thing, and the storm sewers are running like crazy. The rivers are high. I mean, I'm not necessarily complaining -- too many folks out west and in Canada are in droughts with wildfires burning like crazy. 

And in case you even THINK it, no -- raking the forest floor won't help. These are ANCIENT forests burning. Mother Nature is screaming at us. When will we listen?

We're pretty much past the tipping point; right now, we need to realize that the Earth will survive. As far as Mother Earth thinks, WE are the pestilence. We can be gotten rid of. And it seems like she's really trying.