Monday, 7 March 2011
We took an afternoon ramble to TJs under uneven skies. They were brighter when we set out than when we returned. Many of the Malus, Pyrus, and Prunus trees (apples, pears, plums) that used to festoon the neighborhood have been sent through the chipper, but a few pockets remain, and they’re in their glory right now. Love the delicate pink of these petals!
Sunday, 6 March 2011
This is what I call a documentary photo—it’s so I can remember something—with the help of many pixels.
And this one shows the amaryllis bulb in its current state. That blob to the left is the desiccating bloom cluster. Meanwhile, the bulb is sending up leaves. I guess the leaves are to gather “food” for the bulb to store for the next time around.
Cold snap tonight, so I’m glad I walked by the tomato plants I saw yesterday, and left them on the shelves. I’ll plant a few later if I can figure out a way to discourage the ’mater thieves aka rodents.
Saturday, 5 March 2011
These daffies are in the front yard, a legacy of the border from our old walkway. I need to transplant them…. Photo from before the rain.
Winter rains arrived today, and I’m glad. I don’t feel quite so cooped up and trapped by winter’s short days and inclement weather, so having a bit of the life-giving precip seemed rejuvenating. (That’s an unfortunate circular argument; maybe it seemed timely? Something.)
Friday, 4 March 2011
An old variety of daffodil that came with our house. It’s in the lawn, not a flowerbed.
My new favorite breakfast is what I call oatmeal deluxe (with dried fruit and cinnamon/ginger)—and I didn’t eat oatmeal willingly for decades after a childhood encounter when I was in the hospital after having my tonsils removed. I remember I had a coloring book before I went in to introduce me to what would be happening, called Tommy’s Tonsillectomy. I liked that it had a big word in the title.
Anyway, I felt weird when I came out from under sedation. I don’t remember if Tommy discussed that much, but I was unprepared for the sense of altered reality.
I entered the hospital as an unenthusiastic oatmeal-eater, but when they brought me a bowl of light blue oatmeal* the morning after the surgery when my throat felt terrible, I felt skewered by reality and became a quiet non-fan of oatmeal. Besides, it was a gluey lump and not particularly warm.
I stayed a non-fan until sometime last fall, when I developed this recipe, with powdered cinnamon and ginger, and added dried fruit. Yum.
* Mom told me much later that someone at the hospital thought if they added food coloring kids would eat more readily. Not.
Thursday, 3 March 2011
It’s apple and pear blossom time, although with most of the pears in the immediate area gone (chopped, eliminated, split and removed, various sad tales), I was glad to find this ancient and huge apple tree in the corner of the middle school parking lot, managing to hang on—and even thrive. Perhaps it gets a boost from the huge heating-and-AC unit that’s nearby?
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Yesterday’s rain has invigorated the blooms.
I can’t figure out why all day it felt like either a Wednesday or a Friday. Neither makes sense.
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Piedmont Park is donning its spring regalia. I present…an almost-open deciduous magnolia…branch…cluster…bloom-bunch.
Monday, 21 February 2011
Bloom from the ABG, but outdoors and not the camillia show…
Wisconsin’s current legislative tension is pretty simple to diagram: Governor Walker is making a major power play. Here’s Nobelist Paul Krugman in the NYTimes:
The bill that has inspired the demonstrations would strip away collective bargaining rights for many of the state’s workers, in effect busting public-employee unions. Tellingly, some workers—namely, those who tend to be Republican-leaning—are exempted from the ban; it’s as if Mr. Walker were flaunting the political nature of his actions.
Why bust the unions? As I said, it has nothing to do with helping Wisconsin deal with its current fiscal crisis. Nor is it likely to help the state’s budget prospects even in the long run: contrary to what you may have heard, public-sector workers in Wisconsin and elsewhere are paid somewhat less than private-sector workers with comparable qualifications, so there’s not much room for further pay squeezes.
So it’s not about the budget; it’s about the power.
This is because unions are the only non-Republican, non-corporations to step up with amounts of cash that can fund significant and effective policy responses—”counterweights to the power of big money,” Krugman terms it. Their absence, he notes, will result in essentially an “oligarchy.”
Yes, right here in the good ol’ US of A, land of one citizen, one vote. Except when it isn’t.
Remember that.
Thursday, 17 February 2011
I’m still (ha! always?) catching up with old New Yorkers, so forgive me that this statistic is from the Dec 20/27 2010 issue: prediction—by 2014, the computer network in the USA will require the amount of energy used by the whole country of Australia (now? author David Owen isn’t clear) to power it.
Add to that the power it takes the rechargers, and, whew, how efficient Wal-Mart makes its buildings and delivery trucks pales.
The article is called “The Efficiency Dilemma,” and starts here. Owen gets the statistic from Stan Cox, I think from his book Losing Our Cool.
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
It’s an annual seasonal dance, and this one is ending: the amaryllis is fading. I know it was silly of me to cart it north and back, yet I am tickled to have been able to see the blooms in full glory.