Weekend - late November 2017

Monday 20th November 2017. Another weekend gone by, and it has been months since I blogged here.
     Well, in reverse order, nothing unusual, most recent 1. Barb called 2. planted some bulbs in the back yard 3. mowed the leaves or grass 4. had a good brunch 5. Networked Deej's laptop to my printer and then 6. back to Saturday - didn't get outside, did some computer stuff 7. finally put the cans in a bag 8. matched my washed socks, and 9. collected elephants and took photos for Facebook.
    1. Barb called on Sunday evening reporting she enjoyed her daughter visiting with her for two hours Saturday afternoon, and she (daughter) stayed the night with her brother, and they got Barb 'out of her prison' to have Sunday morning breakfast all together.  They had stopped by in Richmond on their way to see their golf-playing son in the university in South Carolina.
     2. Earlier in the fading light of the late afternoon I planted 5 different kinds of flower bulbs, mostly in the back yard around the dead tree trunk, but also two other places in the front year, by the west plot, and  over by the trash bin.  Here's further details -

  3. Before then I mowed the grass, or rather mainly mowed the leaves, as Deej had asked me and as she advised me to leave the mower on high.  Side benefit, I got some Fitbit steps (7,000) doing it.  I was surprised the mower just hummed along, no problems.

There I am after mowing - with Kali (cat) at my feet

4. Before then, in the morning I cooked a great brunch soon after getting up - my normal brewed coffee, 2 eggs, toast with jam, and bacon. Listening to WTJUs gospel hour on my Tap.

 5. In the early afternoon, we worked and worked, but we eventually succeeded in wifi networking Deej's laptop to my printer, yeah!


6. OK back to Saturday - didn't get outside hardly at all, I did some computer stuff
7. Also finally got around to putting the cans, collecting by the refrigerator, into a bag and toke it outside.
8. I did a wash on Tuesday, but I had not matched my socks until Saturday afternoon, listening to the joyous first half when UVa was surprisingly beating Miami - but stopped listening when Miami made two touchdowns right in a row in the second half and kept going (final score, I think, 44 to 28? boo),
9. Woodstock and Colorado firend Iris had put up a very interesting photo of a variety of her elephants on Facebook, which directly inspired me to gather my elephants and take photos and put them up on Facebook

 There you go - That's the late November 2017 weekend.

more Garden this week Monday 6 June through Sunday 11 June 2017

     During this week ( Monday 6 June through Sunday 11 June 2017) we visited the library a couple of times and did a little work. Tuesday evening we added 2 yellow squash pants and seeds to empty hills; also 2-3 cayenne pepper and 2 bell pepper plants, and 5 cucumber and 4 sugar baby watermelon around our circular cages in the middle east quadrant of the garden.  Brought in two loads of mulch for the corn.
     Then Saturday Deej picked peas, onions, and weeded. Also thinned to beets.
            She had gone and visited Sharon over in the valley to work on the funeral, obit, etc.
            Meanwhile Philip had gone to the morning T-Ball game, taking the forgotten 2 left (from the beach) kids cereal boxes. Also gave Clementine a sea creatures small hard page little book which Naomi read to Clementine in the shade; Elijah kept 'harassing' a teammate girl but repeatedly knocking off her cap.  I gave Elijah a Shark book Tim and Kathy brought chairs and were at the game for the last 1/2 hour or so. Talking about picking mulberries for juice; Naomi said, right, we have two trees also at my mom's house, which keep falling on the car as we drive in.
      Then at 2:30 pm and after I helped Hauser, driving the 88 Dodge Diplomat (without air-conditioning working), loading and taking 13  boxes and 17 broken down cardboard boxes to the Recycling. Bringing back the empties and carting them into his office and then heading out to (Putt Putt) Storage - lots of problems getting in because the office had closed at 1 pm  and Hauser's codes didn't work when he punched them into the keyboard, but another guy helped us to get in - then we were concerning about getting out. Loaded up 16 boxes of more than 60 boxes in his storage cubicle quickly with the borrowed cart. We got the car out fine at the gate with the new code procedure he had learned for another storage guy, but almost got guillotined by the heavy metal gate as it came crashing down and  closed on top of us as Walter and I tried to rush out after putting in the code at the keyboard 25 feet away from the gate.  Barely made it.  Whew! Back at University Apartments, I unloaded and then loaded the 16 boxes into his office as Florence and he road off for a 5 pm supper. 
     Sunday in the middle of a very hot (90s) day, we prepared a south row for okra and planted them - forking and scuffle hoeing the row.  Also brought in two loads of mulch to place on each side of the planted okra. Deej didn't want the plants too close, so we put two seeds at 5-6 inches apart. Philip thinned one middle row of corn.  Too, too hot. Deej pumped water into a can, and watered the droopy tomato plant. Sweaty work.
   Picked up tacos and senior root beer drink.
   Where is our swimming pool? 

Garden after beach

Before I forget too much, I wanted to list what we did in the Azalea plot on Monday the 5th June 2017, after we returned from our beach week.
     Deej, please read and add or modify this post with your Comments.
     The garden generally looked okay, without deer eating all of the new corn or other shoots, or the recently added tomato and pepper plants. There were spaces between the corn shoots, especially the south early corn rows; 2 or 3 of the squash or zucchini seeds had sprouted. Peas and beans generally looked good, even the recently planted 6 marigolds around the boarder.  Sunflower seeds in the corners had not spouted yet.
     We had different reports of rain occurring or not during our week away. Our home rain gauge reported only .2" of rain during the week, but Lorenza and Sandy claimed it rained almost everyday (but not in our Druid yard?!)
       So Monday after a good rain the night before we brought in 3 loads of mulch which we generally added between the corn rows. Also planted early corn seeds in the blank spaces of the early corn rows.
        Added 4 cayenne and 2 bell pepper plants to the pepper area; forked two round areas and mixed in horse manure, so as to plant 4 cucumbers and 4 watermelons plants on the outside of the rounded cages. Added some yellow squash seeds to the empty hills in the NW sector. Scuffle hoed along one of two bean rows. 
     Deej picked peas.
      Considered what to do with the already overgrown area south of the peas - fork or scuffle hoe that and plant? beans maybe. Need to  work on the fence some more - though I was able to push into the wet soil, 3 of the 6-feet bamboo poles along the NW side of the plot, but did not add the fencing net - need to do that as well as fix the north net and the SW net.
     Plan to start systematic planting of flower seeds along the border - cosmos, zinnia, marigold, etc. seeds.
     Ok - worked on corn (seeds and mulch), pepper and squash replanting, and some weeding.
     Anything else?   

Plan for garden plot 2017

 How about this Plan for the Azalea garden plot for 2017?
 

What would you change, or add, or remove? Let us know, quick!

till work mow work

A full day - almost 17,000 steps.  Morning went to Azalea Garden plot as Michael double tilled our plot, in spite of lots of grass clogging his tiller, from 10-11:20, as Deej had helped to arrange, $40 for his favorite charity - Casa something. 

        Dove and bused to work, almost forgot my cell phone which I had put next to the shed - changed from dirty garden cloths to my white, in time to go down and have a left-over fish lunch. Worked on various things. 

        Had to take notes for minutes for our A & H committee meeting on outlook with faculty. Walked with the three (Sandy, Lorenza, and Deej) at 3. More work - bust to car, to garden for Deej to see the lumpy tilled garden.  

                           Home, drink, papars, nap, redress and mowed back yard as it got too dark, so did some of it in porch light.  Mower wouldn't start for about 20 minutes.  Ate the tasteless beef golash. Watched some TV, responded to Kurtis and David Gs request which John Unsworth had responded to about - put the Tibetan collection in Clemons during Alderman Renovation - Not. But maybe in Ivy Stacks II with Nawang spending 3 afternoons a week there.  Uncataloged materials? John suggests find donors and start the huge cataloging project.

     Deej's starting to read a new 371 page book. How long will it take her to finish it? Guess - 1 week, 2 weeks?  http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/u7021792

    I couldn't put down so finished reading, at 4:30 am Stephen Alter's "A dalliance of Leopards" Thriller - Afghanistan, Alfridi, Mussoorie, intrigue, etc.  http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/967543480 . The Dalliance of leopards.WW Norton 2017. Luckily then I could sleep late til 9 to get to garden by 10.

     Also email exchanges with Walter to fix or correct link to Jacques Pouchepadass' review of Hauser's book in Seminar. Anand also liked it. http://www.india-seminar.com/2016/688/688_books.htm As well as 1917 Champaran centenary.

      Facebook seems to indicate Christopher had his retirement party yesterday.  Good for him. What a hat!

 

ring a ding ding - found!

wow, Deej found my skull ring under the cushion in her couch after we got back from work and groceries.  I had given up ever finding it -but there it was.  I noticed I had lost it at work one morning, when? Maybe Jan 2nd Tuesday? contacted all the lost and founds, searched and searched all possible places at work and at home, again and again.  Nope. I gave up it for lost. But now, joyous we have found it again!

      I had bought the ring in Landour at the top of the hill, Prakash's at Sister's Bazaar, in October 2009, I think.  I had never seen anything like it before, and we've looked and looked, but never been able to find anything like it again.  It all relates back to my youth - see, I belonged to a Skull Gang at Woodstock School (India) when I was a high school freshman (1954?), and we used to run around the dark corridors of Parker Hall and hold meetings, planning, while basketball games were being played in the evenings nearby up the covered passage way on the basket ball court.  I cracked my head (skull!) falling down and hitting my head on the concrete steps, as I missed a step while turning around to wave bye to Bruce S. and other gang members. Luckily we found Dr. Bethel Flemming up at the game and she took me down to the Quad and then up the 3 flights to open up the school dispensary and give me 7 stitches.

The skull ring

         Did that hard knock on my head - the back upper left side (above the speech center of the brain) cause an internal scar which flared up years later when I was in my late 20s and contribute to my grand mal and petite mal (aphasia) epilepsy episodes, which occasionally recurred for about 10 years in the 1970s, but then disappeared? What a skull story!