As I mentioned recently, we needed a bit more mulch before the winter weather hits. After a couple weeks, I cancelled my Chip Drop request – I can always enter a new one – and bought some mulch after my garden planner said these magic words: “If we don’t mulch it, we need to sod lift the whole area.”
Yeah, I’d rather mulch it. Here’s the work in progress, starting with a perimeter mulch path at the edge, then a combination of sod removal and mulching. The areas where grass was removed are destined for more immediate planting of somewhat tall plants. We briefly considered a metal edging for the perimeter plant, so the mulch doesn’t wash into the neighbor’s grass when it rains, but realized how expensive that would get given that the entire north edge has a bit of a slope into his yard. We’re looking at a plastic edging instead.
A new pile of dark brown mulch – about 10 cubic yards – on our driveway, the day it was delivered.
A 2-foot wide line of mulch along the edge of our property in the northwest corner of our yard.
A mulched area around the lilac, with a small portion where we did sod lifting instead for upcoming planting.
A view from the side patio to the mulch pile, showing the recently mulched area and the remaining grass for the northwest corner, which will all be mulched over or removed.
The internet has been fairly vile this week, with videos of two different murders that occurred in the United States circulating: a violent stabbing in North Carolina and a targeted shooting at a college campus in Utah. You’ve probably seen more commentary about the second one, despite another school shooting in Colorado mere minutes later, because the person in question was famous/infamous (depending who you ask). Either way, most of the comments you’ll see online about it are pretty terrible, with many people celebrating the death and conspiracy theorists on the other side somehow naming every person who votes for the Democratic party as a murderer, despite not knowing who the murderer is or their motive. For anyone who thinks that way, please pull your collective heads out of your collective asses instead of painting a diverse group of people with a single label. Whatever the method or motive, senseless violence is wrong.
Ideally, I would have segued into a photo that involved both a head next to an ass here, but I typically don’t take photos of the cats in those particular poses. Instead, here’s a spattering of more delightful cat photos, in the hopes that they offer you a smile today and a brief refuge from whatever you need to hide from.
June, sitting on a blue tub next to our gaming table, with a plush Flying Spaghetti Monster lurking behind her.
Zuko lounged on our Gamefold table – folded, leaning against part of our games library.
Two cats, Arwen and June, sitting on a Hello Kitty blanket on the sofa.
Diane, mere inches from a water bowl, perches with front paws on the edge of a full bucket on the shower mat to drink.
One our perpetual summer projects is acquiring and distributing mulch around the yard, to help with weed suppression and generally improve the appearance of the yard. Earlier in the spring, I had a request in with GetChipDrop.com for wood chips, hoping to get a free (or close to free, with optional donation) supply of wood chips to mulch the yard. ChipDrop partners with local arborists and gardeners to mutual benefit: the arborists get somewhere local to drop the wood chips, and the gardeners don’t have to call every tree company or outright purchase mulch. It’s a simple process, but it doesn’t mean the availability of wood chips is sporadic. Each request is good for a month, and when we returned from the Canary Islands without having received wood chips, I bit the bullet and ordered mulch from a local supplier. (To be clear, their mulch is fabulous… but mulch is not cheap.)
The initial distribution wave went quickly – from delivery on May 3rd to the second photo on May 10th, we probably distributed half of the mulch. This was the easy phase, re-mulching areas that were mulched in previous years. You can see how good the fresh mulch looked around the raised vegetable beds. We have a large yard and progressed fairly quickly through those initial 10 cubic yards. I was quickly becoming concerned with other areas of the garden I wanted to mulch as I ran through the pile.
So, before clearing the entire pile, I placed a new request through GetChipDrop.com on a Friday… and received a response Saturday morning asking if I wanted a 15-yard delivery. Woot! It wasn’t until partway through distributing the refreshed pile that I named it “Mount Mulchmore.”
The process inevitably slowed, between some intolerably warm weather, my wasted time at PT, and our discussions as to which areas needed weeding before mulching and which should have landscape paper set down first. I expanded the back border to put more distance between myself and the poison ivy lingering under the neighbor’s white mulberry tree. And then, in mid-August, after mulching around the strawberry bed, I cleared the rest of the pile.
Come From Away just opened at the Paramount Theatre, and it is, as expected, fabulous. It does, however, need warning labels if you are unfamiliar with the plot, and in some cases, even if you are familiar with the story they’re unfolding on stage, particularly if you’re of an age to remember the foundational event: September 11th, 2001. In that case, it’s likely to bring up memories, shared these so many years, of near misses, such as the friend who was late for work that day or family members who flew out of New York the day before, or of the ones who weren’t so lucky.
Come From Away is not fundamentally about the disaster that occurred. Rather, it approaches this historic event from the town of Gander, on an island which is part of Newfoundland in Canada. If you can’t immediately place that on a map without help, don’t worry, neither could I. Or most of the people whose flights were stranded there – 38 planes were rerouted to Gander when US air space closed because of the terrorist attacks.
The story told is primarily about how Gander rallied to host these stranded travelers whose presence almost doubled Gander’s population, and the friendships that were formed in those handful of days. Instead of replaying the disaster details themselves, the horrors of that day are portrayed in the cast members’ reactions, particularly the desperate attempts by the travelers to reach family and friends back in a time when most of us weren’t carrying cell phones everywhere. The creators made a good effort to break up the serious moments with odd bits of appropriate humor, so rest assured, you won’t be crying the entire time.
There is a brief glimpse of the beginnings of the Islamophobia that spawned from September 11th, but the story ends before reaching the infringements on our constitutional rights from the Patriot Act and the blatant imperialism of the wars the United States launched in revenge. Instead, the story manages to end on a high note celebrating the friendships forged in Gander.
In this particular instance, I’m referring to my anxiety related to nests inhabited by stinging insects, particularly wasps. You may recall a couple years ago, I had a terrible Saturday morning when I accidentally disturbed a yellowjacket nest on the east side of our house, safely tucked between an empty planter and our shed. This past Saturday, I was talking to my neighbor about our plethora of balls in the deck box, specifically in relation to something his puppy could use. (The deck box moved to this house a couple years ago and had not been sorted through in that time.) I had already handed him an old volleyball of mine that was stored under a nearby bench, but flipped up the lid to show him how many other balls we have. As we stood there talking, I noticed movement in my peripheral vision and realized that there was a hornet’s nest on the underside of the lid.
I swore, and we both immediately moved away from the box, him in response to my action before he noted the nest as well. We both took a few more steps for safety, and he offered to lend me the wasp spray he owned, though we both noted that it should wait until evening – wasps tend to be active during the day and dormant at night, so the ideal time to spray a nest is when most of them are clustered on it, resting. I sent Cassandra a warning to avoid the side patio and after lunch, we wandered off to an Arts & Crafts Fair at Morton Arboretum.
As the afternoon wore on, I noted that the impending thunderstorm might interfere with my plan to spray the nest that evening. Before the rain started – splendid rain, bringing about four inches of water to our yard – we had some high winds that caused me – after it started raining – to pop out the side door and see if the lid to the deck box was still open. Upon discovering that it wasn’t, I stepped out under the overhang and carefully flipped the lip open again, thinking that when the opportunity arose to spray the nest, I didn’t want to disturb them with the motion of opening it again.
A little while later, the rain let up, so I popped outside, grabbed the can, sprayed the nest thoroughly, and promptly ignored it for the rest of the evening as the rain came and went. Come morning, I verified that the nest was empty, noting several corpses in the deck box. I used a plastic bag to grab the nest, tied it off, and dropped it into our garbage can. I then emptied the entire box, organizing as I went… and much to my dismay, discovered a trio of yellowjackets tucked into the palm of a rather wet softball glove. The dismay was augmented when I dumped them into the grass and they began moving! Fortunately, they were the only ones, though I did proceed carefully in case there was another nest buried in the box.
Once the box was empty, I hauled it onto the grass, scrubbed it down, and left it to dry. In the afternoon, we started to refill the box, though we left some damp items drying nearby. We closed the lid… which turned out to be a mistake. When I went back out to put other items into the box, there were a few hornets at the spot where the nest had been, presumably trying to rebuild. I left the lid open again and retreated. When I returned a while later, they were gone, and I sprayed the area again to discourage them from returning.
A couple days later, with no evidence of hornets in the open box, I finally closed the lid again. So far, so good.
Yes, I’m late to this game, primarily because we don’t have a Netflix subscription. I’m a bit too young to have been original audience for the first Addams Family TV show in the 1960s and far too young for the debut of the standalone single-panel comics – started in the late 1930s – that inspired that show. My introduction to The Addams Family came through the movie in the early 1990s, when a group of friends walked from campus to a nearby movie theatre in that day or two between the ending of finals and everyone heading home for the holidays. Based on IMDB’s search results, I’ve apparently missed some iterations since then. But I heard of Wednesday when it aired and recently checked the library to see if the DVDs were available.
Wednesday Addams is the quintessential macabre goth girl, both in appearance and her general approach to life, clearly highlighted in the opening scenes where she walks into a normal school in her usual attire and through a quick sequence of events, proceeds to drop piranhas in a pool where the boys who were bullying her brother are swimming. As she proceeds with her family to Nevermore, the boarding school her parents attended, her regret regarding the piranhas is that she will be seen as a failure, having been expelled for attempted murder. (Rumors, of course, are flying regarding the new student, and nobody there realizes she failed in her murder attempt.)
While that sets the mood, Wednesday is about more than just some macabre goth jokes. Clearly intelligent and curious, she immediately becomes embroiled investigating what appear to be serial killings in the area, as well as a long-dormant murder accusation against her father. She notices minute details overlooked by others, assembling the pieces together while adjusting to her new school and the possibility of actual friendships. Ultimately, the first season is just as much about found family as it is about the mysteries she is trying to solve.
I look forward to Season 2… you know, some day, when it reaches DVD or we pick up a Netflix subscription.
It’s been a weird growing season. Yes, I started things like tomatoes late, but the okra, beans, and corn were planted at appropriate times. You wouldn’t know it from looking at them. The okra is the smallest of them, just finally peeking over the edge of the raised bed it’s planted in. There are a few beans on the bushes, and most of the corn is still shorter than me. (And I’m pretty short!) The back vegetable garden has just been growing slowly this year, well, except for the kale and chard, which are huge. The surviving squash, cucumber, and melon plants in the back are just barely showing off flowers. And it’s mostly been outside our control, just the weird range of hot and dry weather we had earlier in the season, with the occasional cool dips. The surviving plants have started to expand – later than usual – as the weather has almost settled into something resembling normal. And our grass has replenished from the intermixed brown that carried into July.
It’s not all bad though… our berries have been amazing this year, from the ever-bearing strawberries (now preparing for a third harvest round), raspberries, and a mulberry tree that would normally have been done a month ago and is still filled with a plethora of red (still ripening to purple) berries. Our grand success for the season, however, sits in the front yard, a placeholder for an area that will acquire more fruit in future years. In fact, the white pumpkins’ vines filled those placeholder spots and sprawled across the new herb garden, eclipsing the basil and cilantro in their beds. With an anticipated two months or more of growth still left, some of the pumpkins are already huge and new ones are still forming. If we’re lucky, at least in terms of the garden, fall will come slowly and we’ll be able to harvest some delicious treats from the back yard.
Well, mostly. Earlier this week, we attended a snacking adventure at our local library, which consisted of a box of eleven distinct treats from Universal Yums from one of their country boxes – in this case, Taiwan.
This was our first tasting adventure at the library and our first chance to try Universal Yums, though we’ve been aware of the concept for a while now. The library event was described as “Yum Club”; we didn’t know the theme was Taiwan until we arrived. This was clearly not the first iteration of Yum Club at the library, and many of the attendees were familiar with the process. It was our first, hopefully of many, Yum Club exploration.
The library provided information booklets – from Universal Yums – to each participant. The cover features the theme and a map of Taiwan, highlighting some important places with a tidbit of information about each on the map. The second page has “The Yum Scoreboard,” which includes a spot to rate or record comments about each snack, suggested ratings (essentially Wow, OK, and Yuck), and a spot to guess at which four of the eleven treats will be your favorites. We were warned going in that each person would be asked their top and bottom choices at the end, so I ranked the treats as I went. Of the four that I guessed for my top choices, two made it, and a third treat only missed by one.
The third, fourth, and fifth pages have images, names, an abbreviated description, and then a detailed description and some context for each item. For example, the first item we tried was the Triko Foods Taro Cookies, described briefly as Crispy Cream-Filled Cookies. (Unfortunately, there weren’t enough of these for everyone, so we broke them while still in the package, which resulted in one person trying the center of the cookies – which was cream-filled – and the other person tried the crumbly exterior. I suspect I would have rated these higher if I had gotten some of the cream filling.)
The last page of the booklet is the important one for those of us with food allergies: the ingredient list for all included items. Having arrived a few minutes early, I was able to verify that all of the treats were safe for me before we started snacking.
My guesses at top four were (in no particular order) Taiwan Choco Ball (Creamy Peanut Filled Mochi), Cadina Crunchy Corn Layers Snacks (Butter & Garlic Flavored), Nice Choice Peanut-Brittle Candy (Crunchy Roasted Peanuts), and Triko Foods Taro Cookies (Crispy Cream-Filled Cookies).
My actual top four were (in order, starting at my top choice) Nice Choice Peanut-Brittle Candy (Crunchy Roasted Peanuts), Koloko Crispy Pea Snacks (Lemon & Pink Salt Flavored), Nice Choice Yogurt-Flavored Biscuits (Crispy Animal-Shaped Crackers), and Taiwan Choco Ball (Creamy Peanut Filled Mochi).
I was an odd one out listing the mochi fairly high; several people listed it as their least favorite when we went around the room because of the consistency. That said, more people – myself included – listed the Khong Guan Smoked Candy (Plum Flavored) as the one they liked the least, mainly because of the smoked part of the flavor.
If you’ve tried Universal Yums or something similar, drop a comment and let me know what you thought. I think it’s a neat way to catch glimpses of other cultures.
Near the end of May, I visited the Orthopedics department at my medical group to assess a new problem in my right hand – my fingertips were intermittently numb. A couple days earlier, I had been discussing that problem with a pair of people who had similar symptoms dealt with, and in each case, it was related to carpal tunnel. I received a carpal tunnel diagnosis years ago, so it made sense that these new symptoms could be related.
And yet, when I saw the doctor and mentioned my carpal tunnel, instead of being sent for an EKG – apparently the only accurate way to diagnose carpal tunnel and determine the severity – I was sent to a month of Physical Therapy (PT) on the possibility that the arthritis in my neck was causing the numbness. Here I am, eight PT sessions later – with out of pocket expenses and eight gardening mornings lost – scheduled for an EKG a couple weeks from now.
I’m not clear on the decision making process here, though I suspect the bureaucracy of insurance is part of it, opting for the presumably cheaper PT instead of another test. (I’ll know for sure which is cheaper once I see the billing.) I am disappointed in the process, having to wait more than two months from my initial appointment to possibly discover the cause, and having lost so much gardening time.
It’s summer, and that means it’s Renaissance Faire season in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. We made our annual trek up to Kenosha last weekend, following a similar approach to last year – stopping for lunch on the way up to avoid both the parking and food lines at Bristol. When we arrived, a couple hours after opening, we easily parked (now $15 for “preferred parking”), stopped at security for the bag check (with our normal stash of bubble wrap and catnip to drop off with our friends), and handed off our tickets at the entrance.
PlayWrecked is a musical improv show, combining the talents of the Brothers Blackquill with Ship Shape, developing into a hilarious musical, in this case about time travel using a pickle. And somehow, I had never seen Don Juan and Esmeralda’s show, so I was delighted to catch their final show at Bristol – Don Juan is retiring after 48 years of performing at Bristol.
As usual, the Bristol Renaissance Faire runs through Labor Day weekend. If you’re lucky, you’ll find yourself at Faire on a day that has as fabulous weather as what we experienced this past weekend. Sunday
