So... How'd Your Day Go?

HeardBuzzwords: Love bomb... Ghosting... Swingers. The first two I had to look up. All three are current (again). None of them really seem unheard-of, outlandish...erm..thematically. Love bombing is an old technique used by cults. Ghosting is just something males naturally do. Females do it too. And swinging (snicker) ...it makes me laugh. (yeah baby, I am extremely uptight--only do the for-procreation bit , unless plied with drinks and/or cocaine) We have a couple of old-school swingers (couple of couples?) on our block, but these are 'new' swingers clustered in an exclusive neighborhood... anyway, they ( two wives) propositioned someone we know.

And another good story in the uhm, 'justice files' : Guy ( someone we know)was at a blockparty/bar-b-que with neighbor's when one of them drunkenly confessed that it was he who had set up the burglary of the 'guy' in question's home some years earlier. The plastic yard chair upon which he was sitting split apart as the confessor crashed though (one punch) to the ground below. The police were called and the president of the neighborhood watch told them he hadn't seen a thing. The 'guy' ( who'd been burgled) pointed out that he was much scrawnier than the complainant, so how probable was it that he was the aggressor? And that was the end of it.

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Originally Posted by H.Brown

:-) What seeds are you bagging up? (if you don't mind me asking, I enjoy growing different things is all.)

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Zucchini, tomato, jalapeno, green bean and cucumber. We usually buy seed packets, but I wanted to try another level of sustainability. Seed packets are cheap, but they are increasingly GMO and hybrid.
We'll see next spring if I can get them to sprout.
Now, it's off to the party...

Pretty cruise.

Even after thirty years or so in New England, I'm not sure what "normal" weather is, but this summer seemed cooler and damper than usual, and fall is warmer and drier. Our organic garden didn't produce as much as in past years, likely because of the weather, but my natural garden outdid itself. Just before spring we had a good start with more maple sap than usual, and through the summer there was a good variety of pickings, like blueberries and sweet cicely. Now this fall I'm inundated with fruits and nuts, like peaches, oriental pears, plums, and hazelnuts. At the moment I've near a bushel basket of peaches on the kitchen counter, and am trying to eat as many as possible before they go bad. Also making and freezing peach cobbler, since I have plenty of sweet cicely at hand (I don't use sugar). There's still plenty of fruits and nuts on the trees for wildlife to enjoy.

While writing this I heard a strange scratching from the dining room. Looking to see what it was, I saw a bat making passes at the bay window to eat the insects attracted there by the light. I left an electric candle in the window to attract insects, so the bats could fatten up.

Oh, and a friend sent me five pounds of Meco Chipotles. Gonna be a lot of great crock pot dinners through the winter :-)

Be away for a while around the beginning of November. Going in for another operation, and hopefully I'll catch up some with my reading. Good to get the operation in before the politicians start another war to get richer off of, and to distract the populace while they gut the medical care I've more than paid for in my working career. As I've said before, they're gonna be surprised if there is really a heaven. They'll be looking up at it of course :-({|=

To continue the saga of our water supply ... today we received a phone call from the company to check that the air had cleared from the pipes after the supply returned yesterday. I said that it had but that I wanted to know why only our house was affected. A long discussion about airlocks in pipes then took place. The lady said that we should call them next time it happened so that they could investigate it, but I pointed out that it only seemed to happen on Sundays when only their emergency service was available, so the regular office staff would be unlikely to get involved. Eventually we agreed that an engineer would visit on Friday to find out which main pipe our supply comes from as their plans suggest that we could possibly be connected to the one for the next street along instead of our street. That all agreed we went shopping.

On our return there was a note in the door from the engineer who had called while we were out. It said that there was no problem with the supply to our house and the fault must be caused by our own plumbing. Duh, we know that there is no problem today because it miraculously went away yesterday, as I told the man on the emergency line during my second phone call then. So I phoned the company and they said that he hadn't cancelled the call-out for an engineer yesterday, who finally arrived this morning even though he wasn't needed. Of course he only checked that the supply was okay but not where it came from, so another engineer will still be coming on Friday to do that. Meanwhile the emergency line's operator from yesterday is going to get a ticking off from his boss for not cancelling this morning's wasted visit. Quite possibly the engineer who called this morning will be the same one who comes on Friday wondering why he's back again.

Even as I was typing this I heard strange noises from the pipes just now when my angel flushed the toilet. Apparently there's air in the pipes again. Oh, pass me that bottle and, no thanks, I don't want any water with it. Just give me some air.

To be continued ... no doubt.

Pipe Pixies - Merry Xmas :-)
Good idea though to have the water supply checked, knowing which ways it takes from the waterworks :-)

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Originally Posted by LeeC

Even after thirty years or so in New England, I'm not sure what "normal" weather is, but this summer seemed cooler and damper than usual, and fall is warmer and drier. Our organic garden didn't produce as much as in past years, likely because of the weather, but my natural garden outdid itself. Just before spring we had a good start with more maple sap than usual, and through the summer there was a good variety of pickings, like blueberries and sweet cicely. Now this fall I'm inundated with fruits and nuts, like peaches, oriental pears, plums, and hazelnuts. At the moment I've near a bushel basket of peaches on the kitchen counter, and am trying to eat as many as possible before they go bad. Also making and freezing peach cobbler, since I have plenty of sweet cicely at hand (I don't use sugar). There's still plenty of fruits and nuts on the trees for wildlife to enjoy.

While writing this I heard a strange scratching from the dining room. Looking to see what it was, I saw a bat making passes at the bay window to eat the insects attracted there by the light. I left an electric candle in the window to attract insects, so the bats could fatten up.

Oh, and a friend sent me five pounds of Meco Chipotles. Gonna be a lot of great crock pot dinners through the winter :-)

Be away for a while around the beginning of November. Going in for another operation, and hopefully I'll catch up some with my reading. Good to get the operation in before the politicians start another war to get richer off of, and to distract the populace while they gut the medical care I've more than paid for in my working career. As I've said before, they're gonna be surprised if there is really a heaven. They'll be looking up at it of course :-({|=

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had to look up cicely...
The description was similar to our hemlock. We have celery (escaped wild, right at the water, in the mud) anise (escaped , wild, full sun; side of the road; yellow flowers, feathery leaves- stringy even) and hemlock ( tall like anise;white flowers, shade lover, near moisture, but not in it )And there is rarely caraway (which could never be mistaken for any of the others, being so low growing and most often up on hillside; north face, shade of rocks). No Queen Anne's lace; never.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kevin

had to look up cicely...
The description was similar to our hemlock. We have celery (escaped wild, right at the water, in the mud) anise (escaped , wild, full sun; side of the road; yellow flowers, feathery leaves- stringy even) and hemlock ( tall like anise;white flowers, shade lover, near moisture, but not in it )And there is rarely caraway (which could never be mistaken for any of the others, being so low growing and most often up on hillside; north face, shade of rocks). No Queen Anne's lace; never.

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Didn't even mention many of the other plants like Chicory and NJ Tea bush, but here is Sweet Cicely:

Common Name: Cicely, Sweet
Latin Name: Myrrhis odorata
Family: Apiaceae or Umbelliferae (Carrot/parsley family)
Native To: Central Europe


Basic Info:
A clumping herbaceous perennial growing to 3'h x 3'w, that is hardy to zone 4. It prefers moist rich semi-shade soil, but grows well in most all moist soils in full sun to semi-shade conditions. The flowers are hermaphrodite, and the seeds ripen from July to August (plants self-sow freely). The plant produces fresh leaves from late winter to early the following winter, which can be be dried for later use.


The anise-flavored foliage has been used as a sweetener for centuries in Europe before wide availability of refined sugar. The leaves lose their flavor when the plant is in flower.


Additional Info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrhis_odorata

Beneficial companions:
Clover, Nettles, Lovage, Yarrow.


Usage:
Edibility: Leaves (raw or cooked); Roots (raw or cooked); Seeds (raw or cooked).
Medicinal Indications: Antiseptic; Carminative; Expectorant; Stomachic.
Other: Leaves and seeds make good polishes for wood.
Drawbacks: Dispersive.
Vegetation Layer: (H) clumping/running herbs above 6"
Nectary Calendar: Specialist, flowering in June through August.

Attachment 19656

Attachment 19657

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Oh, and Queen Anne's Lace is also in the natural garden, being beneficial to and attracting wildlife. It's a beneficial companion to some other plants and an alternate host for pests and diseases to others, and can cause humans allergic reactions. Good and bad in everything, and Nature is that big gray area in-between our perspectives of black and white, which we've mostly lost the knowledge of benefits of. As you noted, Queen Anne's Lace is similar in appearance to Poison Hemlock, and can also be confused with Woodland Chervil (Anthriscus sylvestris) which looks similar and is also alternately called Queen Anne's Lace. Woodland Chervil is an exotic super-competitive dispersive plant that can take over a natural garden.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kevin

HeardBuzzwords: Love bomb... Ghosting... Swingers. The first two I had to look up. All three are current (again). None of them really seem unheard-of, outlandish...erm..thematically. Love bombing is an old technique used by cults. Ghosting is just something males naturally do. Females do it too. And swinging (snicker) ...it makes me laugh. (yeah baby, I am extremely uptight--only do the for-procreation bit , unless plied with drinks and/or cocaine) We have a couple of old-school swingers (couple of couples?) on our block, but these are 'new' swingers clustered in an exclusive neighborhood... anyway, they ( two wives) propositioned someone we know.

And another good story in the uhm, 'justice files' : Guy ( someone we know)was at a blockparty/bar-b-que with neighbor's when one of them drunkenly confessed that it was he who had set up the burglary of the 'guy' in question's home some years earlier. The plastic yard chair upon which he was sitting split apart as the confessor crashed though (one punch) to the ground below. The police were called and the president of the neighborhood watch told them he hadn't seen a thing. The 'guy' ( who'd been burgled) pointed out that he was much scrawnier than the complainant, so how probable was it that he was the aggressor? And that was the end of it.

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https://www.sffchronicles.com/attachments/39738/

This year there have been so many incidents that have contributed to the writing of my novel in 2011 via my mental time-warp that I don't keep a record of them any more. However, an item on the lunchtime news today proved to me that they haven't stopped yet.

In my novel my main character falls into a coma and wakes up fifteen years later. Today it was reported that a new experimental treatment appears to have brought a man out of the persistent vegetative state in which he's been for the past fifteen years. It is a simple coincidence until I add that my novel implied that it was based on events that would happen in 2017 or before and I attribute my brain's weird behaviour to some as yet undiscovered aspect of neuroscience, just as this man's change demonstrates an advance in neuroscientific understanding. When I wrote the novel I did wonder whether fifteen years was stretching plausibility, but evidently not.

So, another day, another coincidence. I just shrug them off nowadays, they're such a regular part of my life. Back to the present then.

Guardian article