Tomorrow’s Tombstone Today

So. Anything been happening? No? OK. Figured as much. Same old, same old. McWhatevs.

This is cute.

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.: Well, I may walk the dog before my first aid/CPR class. Missing irrigation ditch cleaning at the ancestral home today, but I already paid for the class and need to know the new CPR technique. Besides, I went up for fence repair work on the communal pasture a couple of weeks ago.

@redmanlaw: I’m at work. Deadline approaching. Might do some clearing out of flowerbeds. Bulbs are all well on their way and might get some early-blooming daffodils today.

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.: The spring bulbs came up but no blooms on the daffodils, probably because of the lack of moisture over the winter.

@redmanlaw: Oh no. But you’re kind south there for them, aren’t you? I thought they needed a cold winter to bloom.

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.: Red tulips came up in my front yard. It’s odd because I don’t remember planting them and because I don’t think it got cold enough here last Winter. Possibly the Tulip Fairy stopped by.

@Dodgerblue: Can’t remember where you are, if I ever knew, but here in southern Indiana, I have two blooms of some species tulips that I planted years ago that did well for several years running after the year I put them in (unlike the big hybrid tulips which usually die out very quickly) but had seemingly disappeared a few years back. I usually deadhead the tulips but not much attention has been paid by me to anything outside the house for the last several years. So–either these guys seeded themselves long ago and grew a bulb over however many years that takes or else old bulbs that had been sulking really loved this last year’s peculiar weather. Mysteries of the organisms.

You know what pisses me off? Jasmine. I put in a little Jasmine plant at the front of the house a couple years ago in a nice warm sunny spot, fed it regularly, watered it, let it train up the side of the house. I’d never gotten it to bloom, though, not a nice full bloom like you see in pictures. So I look it up on the tubes and you know what makes Jasmine bloom?

Cold temperatures and a lack of nitrogen.

Nature would be better if it were more dependable and less random, like a computer.

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.: I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they go by.– Douglas Adams

@Tommmcatt is with Karin Marie on This One: But can’t you grow bouganvillea? I would give your right nut to be able to grow that. But the supreme vine is Autumn Clematis. They die on me here but maybe you’d have some luck.

I’m in reasonably good shape re deadline. I should be OK. I am in awesome shape with Angry Birds Rio, however. I have aced that sucker.

@lynnlightfoot: There’s no explaining tulips. I have a lot on their way if the bunnies don’t eat them. Faves are Queen of the Night and Angelique. I like the species but they tend to get lost here. Or maybe I don’t put them in the right place. My magic, no-dig cardboard flowerbed is bristling with tulips and daylillies. I have to take away the cinder-block surround and work out a way to keep the edges defined. I expect it will involve digging. It usually does.

@Dodgerblue: You mean Nigel the Tulip Fairy? An elusive sprite.

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.: Bouganvillea grows very well in So Cal and attracts bees which are helpful if you have a veggie garden. We have bougs, star jasmine and trumpet vines in our back yard. Plus a lot of weeds that I need to clear out.

The Trump craziness has jumped up a notch. I love that his rambling, passive-voiced letter is attacking Gail Collins for her writing style.

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks. and @Dodgerblue: In our yard: Bouganvillea, lilies (Trumpet and African queen), straggly redwood tree, juniper tree that the wild parrots of SF sometimes visit, three dwarf Meyer lemon trees, out of control ginormous rosemary plants that are basically a hedge, roses, and right now a shitton of California poppies. Where we used to live had a giant Bird of Paradise plant in the front yard that I miss.

BREAKING HARD Thursday’s news in today’s NYT @Dodgerblue: Bombing at Santa Monica synagogue — is this your temple?

@SanFranLefty: No, but it’s about a mile from my house. The cops suspect a crazy homeless Jewish guy who is well-known to them, but I’m skeptical that a bum could acquire and put together the ingredients for a bomb powerful enough to blow a 300 pound hunk of concrete onto someone’s roof.

@SanFranLefty: Hedges of rosemary are my idea of heaven. When I was staying in Brentwood there was such a hedge outside the apartment building. It seemed so unfair.

I’ve planted california poppies here but they laugh and run away, like a child at play. Luckily, I have hundreds of our local poppies all over the place.

I see your parrots and I raise you barn swallows. The air was full of them this morning.

@Dodgerblue: Please make it stop. Did you see my funny link to Moses with facebook?

Unrelated, but hilarious:

New TLC lineup

I think the fact that I’d likely check out “Cake Whores” means I’ve watched too much reality TV. :)

@al2o3cr: That is hilarious. Particularly as it rings so true. My fave was Old Face: New Vagina.

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.: I did. My wife also sent that one to me.

@Benedick is never as stupid as he looks., Lefty, Dodger, PROM!:

I remember seeing my first Bird of Paradise in SD; I was transfixed.

Bouganvillea — I’ve only read about it and about Spanish moss in books about the South. Would love to see it.

Rosemary hedges — I think I’m the only person on Earth without a taste for rosemary. Sage is my favorite followed by thyme and ginger and garlic. Gilroy! Loved driving though there. I miss how Coastal CA just smells good. The earth, the ocean, a little inland and the flowers always in bloom. Sigh.

Wisteria — Prom and I love it. You smell it before you see it in NJ. Lovely.

Driving West on I-91 where the cornfields break and the sunflowers start. Amazing.

Oh, the poppies!

@Dodgerblue: That was my response too. Where the hell did some homeless dude come up with, store, and transport that much explosives, not to mention assemble the bomb?

@JNOV is like, FUCK!: Gilroy, the garlic capital of the world.

@SanFranLefty: More importantly, if not him, who?