Day lilies popped! Safe in their fence... not a day too soon, either.

 

We are on water restriction but I'll dump some bath water on them tonight. Yay!

I am to the heel of the sock. It's such a nice color. It's color 133, and I think it might be called cotton candy. It's the "Old" 133 (miss typed that number to be 131)  from Collection #3 at Carodan Farms' Page.  I bought this older skein from Carodan Farms. I couldn't find it anywhere on the web tonight, except on Ebay, so I snagged another one on there.

Knitting!

 

I have to get more of this yarn. It's going to make pretty socks. Yippie!

Day lilies go to prison

Something had to be done about the maurauding tortoises, so we put up a fence. The lilies don't mind at all. This way they can put energy back into their leaves after the flowers grow. The torts ate the leaves all the way back down to the bulb, the rascals!

When the tiny day lilies go into dormancy, in late fall, I will dig them up and pot them.

This is good. This is REALLY good!

A friend sent this and it's too good not to share..

  It's called, "Don't Gross Out the World" and it's about manners all over the world.

I got 7 out of 11 but in lots of cases it was just lucky guesses!

African Violet Surgery

Leggy from not getting watered correctly when we were away, this violet needs some help. I turn this plant daily and forgot to take it with me. So it suffered from being too dry too long, and from not being turned to make up for unequal light shining on it.  It leans for the light.

The "Mother" plant will grow more plants after it has been re-potted.  I make these pots in ceramics and they work very well.

The Operating Theater

Surgery to cut the whole top off, leaving two rings of leaves for new plants to grow on the stump. The cut top and a leaf are transplanted into vermiculite. The single leaf was a surgical "victim", snapped off accidentally by my being all thumbs. Oh the brutality!

The Recovery "room". This little tent goes into a place where it won't get direct light. In about four months I'll know if all this effort works out. Fingers are crossed! The table cloth was due for a wash anyway, so it's prettier than a black plastic bag.  And.... there you are....

Séraphine Louis

We watched this blockbuster of a film from France and Belgium tonight called "Séraphine", about the painter who had visions in which Angels told her to paint, and paint she did!  She is known as Séraphine d' Senlis. 

Her art is amazing and so luminous that it seems to glow in candlelight.  In fact, she painted by candlelight and mixed her own paints.  This is a tantalizing look at the period of art in Europe from 1914 to just before Séraphine died in 1942.

HERE is the IMDb site's page on the film. The film is pretty long so if you want to see this beautiful work of art I recommend putting aside some time to be enchanted.  This is about a real artist, who lived this life, and I think it's time well spent.  I hope you will, too.

The Actress who portrayed Séraphine, Yolande Moreau, gave a stunning and award winning performance.  An Aside: I used to call my youngest daughter Séraphine as a nickname.

For all the nobs out there who quash small blogs like mine when I post about healthcare....

This:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2211985220100622

put with this:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65M0SU20100623


.....just makes no sense whatsoever.

The "industry" is already delivering rock bottom care and charging "an arm and a leg" for it. Do you all think we are stupid?

Obama is right and I hope he really hammers home the reforms. "Health" insurance as an "Industry", is a business purely and simply in place to suck at least 23% of the insurance premiums we pay into shareholders pockets.

And no, I won't shut up. I have big and personal reasons for not doing so.

Two "rescued" African Violets

Yesterday when my sis and I went grocery shopping, these little ladies were marked down so I bought them; they are slightly different in color and also in blooming habit. You should have seen how pathetic they were yesterday.

Today, after being watered and set in a place they like I think they are a lot happier. I'll give them new pots and some new soil soon, too. DH said, "You can get a $6 plant if you want one." but I like the challenge. But maybe I'll get something fancier soon!

Tomorrow, the surgery on the bigger leggy plant that is an heirloom from my mother's plant. I'll take some pictures of the process, and the after pictures. Hopefully nothing dies!

On the knitting from, well, *kicks toe at the dust bunnies*. I just have to clean and water today. " 'But', she said brightly, 'the pattern, yarn and needles are all in the same place'"!

Is that progress?

The Zuzzahorns or whatever they are called are blaring from the Big Room. Maybe I'll go cast on the socks and watch. Y'all know what I think of the world anyway. We Frakking need some help down here. But that's enough of that. I did cry this morning over the baby dolphin, and little Wolfie came to me and cried too. See, Nature knows.....

African Violets

This video has parameters that are too wide for Blogger, so click once to get started, then double click it to be taken to YouTube where you can view it correctly.



I've got a leggy, long suffering African Violet that is years old, maybe 25?  Anyway, I feed it on tea and got the best blooms ever, doing that.  Yes, just cold brewed tea, and the interesting thing about this, is that the tip came from a LYSO who had a fantastic and huge African Violet blooming in her front facing window at the shop.

As you can tell from the comments on this video, there are about 70 different ways to do this thing.  My own mother propagated leaves in water, and so did I.  I want to do something different this time.

I am going back to regular feedings of commercial violet food to get the plant re-established.  Maybe I'll take some pictures of the process but, really, YouTube has seemingly thousands of videos on the subject of transplanting and propagating African Violet.  Just Google it I guess.  Lol

UPDATE:  If you are really serious about this propagating stuff, or really REAALLY bored, you can go HERE or HERE to see how the big guys, God help us if Monsanto starts getting interested in African Violets, propagate their plants for sale.
 

Now for a One Penny Book

Yes, it cost a penny. Shipping was normal, but the book was a Penny! Incredible.
I'm trying to cheer myself up. Manic-Depressives probably shouldn't read my blog.  It's such a roller coaster ride!

First a Death Lily.  Actually it's a Stargazer Lily - more fitting, really.

I love these things. What's in a name? And, welcome to my roller coaster ride.

35 cents please.

Why is the Pentagon doing studies of Mineral Deposits in Afghanistan?

This absolutely floors me, that the Pentagon did THIS study.

Big Guns+ Big Business, Voila! 

We have more than a natural gas pipeline for an ulterior motive?  Is this the Big Idea?  Don't stand too close or the salivation might drown you?

This makes me very tired and very, very sad.  I just had an argument with someone at ceramics because she was saying, "These people have been fighting each other forever. blah blah blah.."

I said that wasn't true and this is why:  The Ottoman empire, which preserved and respected diverse cultures, collapsed after the WWI, and the western powers, including us, set about setting up borders, breaking up the area into "new" countries, disinheriting the Kurds- though they were promised an autonomous area for their help to the allies.

The Western powers planned that these borders were almost certain to have conflict.  This was seen by the West as a way to control the area; it was done so that it would be easier to control this mineral rich plain,  The Great Syrian Plain.  At this point, it looks like that plan succeeded. 
 
I'm always trying to find an unbiased history of that time and that region. So, if anyone knows of such a thing, please suggest it?

What I'm reading

Actually, I'm listening to it. I can't recommend it highly enough. If you go to the web page for the book, HERE, it will tell you a little about this amazing story of friendship, forgiveness, hope, and Justice.

It's Time to Totally Apologize to BP!

Those maniacs at Grist of course!

Yay for Grist!

Here be the FUNNIES 

And even MORE are here!

Now, go on out there and apologize to those po' folks, ya hehr?


Knitting??  Meh!!

Button's Big Cousin

This is Button's Big Cousin, who lives in Ohio.

One of my DD's took the picture of my other DD taking the tortoise's picture. This Tortoise comes from Africa and is a Sulcata, I think. They grow to be 150 pounds and though we were offered a baby of this species, we declined. I would need an acre of grasses to feed such a big tortoise! It lives on a farm in Ohio. I guess they keep him in a warm place during winter as this species never hibernates, or goes into torpor.  I am calling it, "him", since the shell goes under in the back.  I can't imagine trying to keep my toes out of it's reach.  Churchy attacks my toes during the summer when I paint the toenails.  He must think they are strawberries which he loves to eat.

I've found my sock knitting DPNs and am still searching for the Regia yarn booklet ( I will find it I'm sure) so that I can start the socks.  Pink, of course, and just for me.  I'm hoping this will ignite the dormant knitting gene in this poor tired out brain of mine.  A few days ago a spider decided to bite me.  The nerve!  I'm still getting the typing skill part of my brain realigned, lol!

Meanwhile we went through the hallway closet and cleaned out about half of it.  Excitement!  We found the Mahjong set, and hopefully will find other people who like to play it.  It needs four I think.  I can't play but I want to learn.  Apparently I lack a Mahjong playing Gene as well as having a crippled knitting gene.

What the Republicans have forgotten.....

"Meg or Carly or anyone else Who Would Run the Government Like a Business can lay off all the government employees they want, get rid of the IRS or the Department of Education, and slash entitlement programs, but the people who staff these organizations or depend on these programs will still be on the payroll somehow—be it through drawing unemployment, Medicaid and food stamps, or hanging around on the street asking strangers for food or change. There are plenty of sobering images from the Great Depression showing what a country that cuts all obligations to its citizens the way a corporation cuts all obligations to its employees looks like."

I quoted the above from HERE at Open Salon.

An Article I found while researching something entirely different.

Awesome, AWESOME article on the genesis of Tea Party Rages and visceral defenses of the Sense of Self.

HERE is the article, From New York Times Online.

Haven't heard of Hegel lately? Well, he's baaa-aaack. lol A very interesting expansion of his philosophical musings on the nature of man under self governing systems that pretend to offer them democracy. Like ours does. I'm a progressive; the tea party seems to be regressive. How much are they willing to give up, I wonder; their library cards, Fire and Police protection? Colleges?

Anyway, this is Philosophical analysis at it's best.

Tortoise report

Baby Button is still quite tiny; she fits on my shoe top, so she eats her breakfast by herself. She gets bullied by the others, even the rather small Mosquito!

Dusty and Mosquito eating breakfast. Milagro, the largest by far of the four, has finished eating so she's walked away.

These tiny tortoises are lucky, as they are hand fed everyday. The older torts have to forage for their food, eating the tall weeds that they can bulldoze over in the garden and eating the leaves, as well as any dried grasses they can find. Poko, the mother tort eats Euphorbias, as well.

We do feed them, later in the year, with some greens, spent roses, and elm leaves from a stump that is still growing. They also eat other fallen flowers. I can't plant day lilies because they dig up and eat them every time!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEwww, Meg Whitman: Governator II? Screw that!

Vader for Meg? Join the progressive rebel alliance from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

Padre Newest Color

New color..

This one is from the 80's.  Same sort of day and Spring time, of course. hehe.. what am I thinking?

Der Mudder Duv and the Scissor weed

More weeds! And, a Dove...

Scissors Weed and de Duv.

Der mudder Duv was eating seeds earlier and she's pretty used to me, since I allow her to nest in my yard now to feed the neighborhood's cats, I suppose.

Anyway, that is the plant, and the flower, of the "Scissors" weed.  I don't know what the botanical name is but we used to make the long pods into "scissors" when I was a kid, so it's in the Kiddielore from WAY back there.   Now, go have fun with your weeds.  But, be sure to pull that that sort up, and this is why.  It makes corkscrew twister device with a sharp as a tack seed delivery system that is out to get you, or your dog, if ever a weed seed was designed to do such a thing.

Ah, gardens and weeds...  We have rampant weeds every year because we leave some of them in until the migratory birds that eat them get their fill. 

This practice is probably the bane of our neighbors but 50 years ago the doves and other creatures came here for a winter feeding ground, and I frankly feel sorry for these creatures who have done this for possibly millions of years.  We have a lot of migratory birds here because the whole of California is part of the Pacific Flyway.  I just wish we could have afforded a big coastal property because I would plant a huge bird garden for them.   We have a tiny respite sort of garden and they come back year after year. 

We get Chipping Sparrows and Phoebes, as well as other fly catchers, like Western Kingbird and Cassin's KingBirds, Phainopeplas, and all sorts of Warblers, and lots of Doves, Jays, Humming birds, and Towhees, Finch of all varieties, the Three species of Oriels, etc.  This whole area is full of a variety of birds because a few people also feed seeds so that brings in Mountain Blue Birds and the Flickers.  We also live on the edges of a huge Preserve that is still recovering from big fires in 03 and 06, I think those are the years.  If we don't feed these least of all brethren, they will risk their long flights up the coast with less muscle and energy.
 

Now the flower.. this is a weed.

It is a drought tolerant non-native that escaped captivity and went wild. I love the thing and am trying to get it to grow along some places that will get ME into trouble with my DH. I think of it as the perfect plant for the weedy patches in our front yard. It's really quite gorgeous and not as dastardly as say, red grass. At least this the butterflies can use for a food source. Red Grass drives out native Buckwheat that is an important food for a lot of wild creatures.

Isn't it cute?

Not a bad picture while going 40 mph. I love these little versions of Heavy Equipment. Seen yesterday. I still vote for the Bobcat in this contest of cuteness, though. But if someone gave me a Little Deere Dozer, I wouldn't turn it down.

And speaking of LITTLE!  And HERE, too... And several years ago, the a little chopper similar to THIS one was grounded!  It had been made to look exactly like the Astria that the Sheriff's Dept. operates and it got too close to the big one!  So funny.  It got it's picture in the paper with the headline, "Busted!"

how to make fire cloth aka charcloth

K mentioned in her comment that she would like to have some fire cloth. I know lots of people make this themselves, and THIS is one of the best sites for wilderness skills I've found on the web. There is a lot of information on this site that is interesting to read about. Reading there might not be so bad to do even for urban dwelling types. :-)

 I had been shown how to make the cloth squares ages ago, by one of my uncles who grew up in the Colorado mountains, but I had forgotten about them.  My uncle used a similar means to keep the cloth squares from going to full ignition.  Altoids cans are more handy now.  We have dozens of them!

Ooooo an UPDATE for all the would be backpackers or other people who find themselves stranded overnight without emergency provisions or a cell phone that works, so you can call the National Guard or Search and Rescue.  This is how to start a fire with a flashlight and steel wool, without which no one in their right MIND would go anywhere in Jeep country.

The Hardest Cup of Tea I've Ever Made! - Kelly Kettle Blues

Go ahead, Wilno. Laugh yourself sick over this one. heehee

Sorry the ads at the bottom can't be shut off, but just Double Click through to YouTube and then you can nail those suckers!

A Certain Elegance. 16th in series, Accidental Art

These very small plants go unnoticed and unappreciated, but they are beautiful little harbingers of Spring, very hardy throughout the Spring and Summer, and food for a lot of animals. Our tortoises eat them and so do a lot of seed gathering birds.

I love Nature. It's the "Art All Around Us" that sustains not just our bodies, in fact our bodies are made of all the same things, but also our Souls. Without the natural world well balanced, we are in deep Kimshi.

Euphorbia with a single pink clover flower growing through

If you make this photo bigger, you will see the tiny greenish white flowers on the Phorb. The clover to the left also has it's flowers on display. The photo will enlarge twice - once when you click it, and again when the target tool appears with a + inside of it. Enjoy! More to come if I can figure out true macros.

These are to be project bags from disc holders. I cut out most of the center holders of both of these bags and will stuff a small project and it's peripherals into it. What to do with those left overs though? What to do? *sigh*

We found the sweetest little Rose colored flowers on the Sedum, Donkey Tail, succulents yesterday in the shade patio. Some of the flowers are dried, some getting ready to bloom and all very tiny.
The feathery seeds are from a really prolific succulent that grows in Spanish Village courtyard, and which I took a tiny bit of one year.  It had fallen onto the ground and I never let something like that go to waste.

Belly Flowers: Second in the series

First of all a Birthday Greeting!

Happy Birthday Bee!

These form a tiny mat in the grass just as the daisies do.

I've seen these everywhere from time to time. I've never had a reason to try to find their name but they aren't an Euphorbia. I'll keep looking for them on the web. They have a blooming habit of dozens of buds at different stages of growth.


And... In the meantime, while searching, I've found  Tiny White Daisies the Blog.

This is a very interesting blog from the Netherlands.

Belly Flowers: Daisies. First in an occasional series.

These were with a bunch of little Euphorbias, all of which had their own tinier flowers, in that blank patch further on in the first photo.

I'll do one of those Euphorbias tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, Ell!

Yearly Maintenance: Moved all of my Blog links.

Just finished moving the last of them to the secondary site ( the Day Lilly Flower button).  All the categories are now on Some Favorite Blogs.  Tomorrow I will be checking them twice to find out who's been naughty... er.. to see what is still active.

Now it's time for a Nap!

EDIT to say, I put a new picture in to match the one on the other blog.  Blog Spring Cleaning continues into summer.

Sockyarns found..

The bowl on the left is what will become some interesting odd ball socks, like some in the Thrifty's at Ravelry. These will be sort of like Astrid's Minestroni socks , or The Sock Lady Spins , but surely not as beautiful being as I have ZERO patience for something that complicated.  Scroll down for the delicious socks at the Sock Lady site.

I'm planning on using the pink/rose colored yarn for the base color, and knitting in bands of color in the leg and maybe the foot. The bed is now covered with sock yarns but I did find what I wanted, almost.  

The Trekking XXL is what will be the first pair of socks. I need socks badly enough to start these in the summer but the library to which Sis and I are going has Air Conditioning!

Sorry for the grainy picture, I'm in sort of a hurry before I lose my mojo again, and fiddling around with pictures of would-be sock yarns is not conducive to keeping it.   I wish the other women in the world had such small concerns.  I really do.  Women and their children should have a peaceful planet.  Ya know?  I will be gracious and include all Peaceful humans, even those caught up in forces that they couldn't even DREAM they would be caught up in.  All of you.

Foodie sites and Coloring book site... corrected link

A little something for everyone.

A friend was telling me about Battenburg cake, so I found a couple of sites for the cakes HERE and HERE.  Lovely!  When winter rolls around, I want to make some of these cakes.  The only one I've ever seen was in the movie, "Cold Comfort Farm" and it wasn't very clear about whether the hunks of cake the two women were eating was a whole slice or not.   Anyway, you can bet I'm putting both Bron's and Jeena's Site in the Foodie List! 

And, here's a coloring book page for printing out some good looking villains.



Disney Villains coloring book pages

I'm tracking down the yarn for the regia paintbox sox.. I think there's one more place to look.  I wish I'd been smarter and used Ravelry's nifty spiffy box to put in where the yarns one listed were stored!  gah!

More good news about kittenry.. A little Persian kitten survived being washed and spun in a front loading machine.  If you would like to read about it, go HERE.

We will take all the good news we can get.  The world of Men seems to be reverting to a Fourth Reich or something.  Nuf said.

It was a quiet Sunday.  I attended an auction and bought a big rock, and some rubble logs but did miss out on the plucked chicken.  Last week I built a new house near to my favorite little fishing hole.

No, this is not the whimpy Sims.. this is the great land of Ultima (Thule) Online,  aka, the land of  Sosaria!  Huzzah!  Thee do not know what thou art missing, good folk of the nether worlds!   Travel Well!

I can SO relate to this, and I'm not even over 80 years old yet.

The Onion interviews an Exhausted Noam Chomsky

teehee.. thanks L.

And, while you are at it, read about Topsy the Elephant

Lions and Tigers and Circus Elephants!  Oh My!

The ever Changing side bar....

The order's all changed, for clarity.  Ha!  Me?  Clarity?  Well, you know people like me do try....

I'm starting a new pair of generic socks.  My left hand has been bothering me for some time now but now it's better.  The only thing to do is to start knitting something our I'll start eating too much!  I think I'll use the Regia color that is my favorite.  It's at Ravelry if you want to see it, in the section of stash.

My sister now has a brand, spanking new library card and more to smile about, and I got one, too, though it probably wasn't necessary.   She checked out a book on American Impressionists, since art history is one of her deep interests.  This will be good for us because now we can talk more about something that interests us both.  She got stuck in a rut with doing something to utmost perfection, and can describe every tiny detail of what is wrong with a picture frame, and I'm a political populist flame-spitting rabid dog.

If you have a city library card, here, it's in the Serra System which is a great way of making sure that anything, anywhere in the States will be available to you, as long as you are patient.  I don't know what I'd do without books, or music, for that matter.  Some people are crazy about Maths, thinking it to be the highest achievement of the human mind, but I just look at the way it's been misused.   That and Science has pushed us to levels of weaponry, Geo-engineering, and genetic interference that is deadly.  And we won't even talk about Religions.

No belly flowers yet.  But the same day that they jump into my view, I will "freeze frame" them and post their portraits.    Such tiny beauty should not go unsung.

Calling all Belly Flower Lovers!

At Ceramics I was walking across the lawn, and down under my feet where tiny deep rose colored flowers I've never seen.  I didn't have my camera and forgot that the phone takes marvelous pix.  Next week I'll get some snaps. We can call it the Belly Flower Photo Group.  Let's get started!  Yay! 

Also, I'm still looking all the time for Accidental Art.  Haven't seen much lately.

Tucking this in, NPR Tribute to Emily Dickinson

Ok, something hopeful, about food and the Appalachians..Updated

Forget the Clueless and the Useless and the horribly sad Misguided/Aggressive/Compulsives who "run" things in the world, let's talk about slow food movements and sustainable eating.

Here's something good, healthy and blogworthy.  The salad is made from, "spring greens", and the greens in the corn bread could include the little spring salad greens like dandelion, lamb's quarter if you like the taste, and miner's lettuce.  I like the traditional corn bread greens, spring onions, etc.  When I would play in the woods with my cousins and young aunts, we would gather wild celery and wild onions and make mud pies.  We never ate those but sometimes we took back with us, and ate in soups and salads, the little wild things that grew along the stream.

 Appalachian Cornbread Article from Grist. 

I also just read a "twenty something's" article on how she decided to cook and to eat nettles.  I want to warn people who may follow her in doing this, that they must be sure what they are eating has not been  sprayed with Roundup or some other neurotoxic new generation herbicide/pesticide.  Actually, be careful they are not sprayed with old motor oil, as is sometimes done.

Poor people, and people like me and Euell Gibbons, have been eating weeds-well, he's dead so maybe not a live source- since we were small.  It's a good thing to do with those little plants and gives them a place in the garden, too.

I'd rather be in my garden or my childrens' gardens than anywhere else on Earth.  Someday this might be possible.  In the article above, the Food Industry moved against the age old Appalachian diet with horrible results.  See, there is wisdom in some of the age old ways.