Tears of Lys

Hey, I remember the drawing of Randyll Tarly's van! I guess that must mean I'm officially an "old" boarder. I also recall seeing a picture of Zak during NHAW frying up some eggs or whatnot and wondering about the wisdom of doing such in that state of undress.

I forgot to mention chives. But you never have a little bit of chive. Once it blooms, it spreads its seed indiscriminately, and you end up with chive EVERYWHERE.

Do you just stick the bottoms, after you've cut the tops off and used them, in a glass of water? I've never tried that, but I can see how it would work. What a great idea! I like to say our yard is like a Disney movie run amok. Deer, raccoon, squirrels (three different colors: gray, black, and brownish.) And tons of rabbits! Oh, and a gorgeous turkey who struts his stuff for anyone who'll look at him. We keep our veggies in pots on our deck to protect them from the marauders. We still have to drape them with netting though, to keep the cardinals from eating the tomatoes. Sigh. As for herbs, lemon thyme is well worth growing. The scent is heavenly. And it's great in a lemon vinaigrette and stuffing, etc., etc. Pineapple sage is really cool too. It does smell exactly like pineapple. It gets quite tall, though, but is the last thing to bloom in the year - sometime around November - with red flowers that bees like. I love lilacs, but have had no luck growing them in our yard. Don't know whether the deer mow them down or what, but they just slowly disappear. And morel mushrooms?! What a find! I know you're supposed to leave parts of them in the ground or wherever when harvesting so they'll re-spore themselves. Couple of years ago I came across a deep orange, pumpkin-like growth that looked positively scary in this big wood I walk in. Googled it and come to find out it's an edible fungi called "Chicken of the Woods" and highly prized. When I returned for some, others had gotten to it first. They must not have left part of it because I haven't seen any since. I'll see if I can post a picture of it. It was really something to see. I forgot to mention we have a few apple trees, pears, and nectarines too. The birds usually get to the fruit before we do, which is okay. The Baltimore Orioles and Goldfinch are well worth it!

That's the . . .fluffiest looking plant of its kind I've ever seen! You must have a special strain. Hmmm . . .

"Fizzy pop"?? Fizzy Pop?! Sounds like something that would come out of a kid wearing a pinafore. "Daddy, can I have a fizzy pop, pleeze?"

So I've got the usual herbs - some even came back from last year. My tarragon, of which I use a lot, is a large-ish bush right now, while they're selling tiny, scrawny little sprouts for $3 or more in garden stores. My dill re-seeded itself and I've got a pot-load of it. Both Greek and Italian oregano, which I've really grown to appreciate the last few years. I plan on getting a couple of jalapenos. And I got four orange pepper plants!which we both dearly love. We've got the usual suspects as far as tomatoes - Romas, couple of heirlooms, a few Sun Sugars (a cherry variety that's yellow and about the sweetest tomato you've ever tasted,) a Sweet 100 cherry tomato bush - very few of these make it inside the house because they're generally picked and immediately eaten. I've got one full-size eggplant and a couple Littlefingers (heh.) My chocolate mint came back, and I'm keeping an eye on him so he doesn't climb out of his pot and take over my yard. Oh, and I've got yellow squash and zucchini squash. I may be leaving somebody out, but that's all I can recall now. I was too late to grab some Brandywine heirloom tomatoes - all sold out. If you can grow them, they are completely wonderful. But being heirlooms, they're not disease resistant at all. What do YOU have?

That reminds me that we used to have a gardening thread. DalThor and Mashiara over in Greece grew a bunch of things in pots on their patio, IIRC. Maybe I'll re-start it.

The selection sucks, but there's little "pocket" libraries all over where I live. It's basically a little cabinet on a pole where everyone and anyone can borrow a book, drop one off, etc. Some good Samaritan installs it at the street by their house for their neighbors to use freely. I don't know how germ-free they are, but it's easy to just wipe a book down with an alcohol wipe and enjoy! I've gotten some pretty good books from ours. Don't expect much, of course, but it's better than nothing or rereading your own books for the umpteenth time. I too feel really bad for the kids, especially high school age.

I didn't know who to call to get the results from my Covid 19 test, so I found an article with one of the doc's names who organized the testing procedure, looked her up and called her. She was really nice but quite overwhelmed by the fact that the task of calling everyone had been dumped in her lap! I offered to give her a hand, but she declined. Anyway, I'm negative. Yippee.

Say what you will of Bakker (and I know you will!) the man did have a way of capturing our imaginations like few others. I wonder if 500 years from now people will still be using Bakkerisms in their conversations.

Anything's possible. I ought to call the folks who conducted the testing. Just hasn't been at the top of my to-do list, weirdly enough.

I hope you get your results more quickly than I have. A month after testing (at least) and I still don't know.

That just ain't pretty. Have some pride, man!

I was originally going to say that men have to have an easier time with self-maintaining their hair than women do, but then I look at my husband's hair. His is naturally curly and thick, so when he looks to me to trim it, I'm like, "er . . ?" All I can do is blunt trim it and shave his neck. But then that leads to a thicker and thicker bush that's blunt cut. Of course, all this may be a moot point in a few months anyway. I offered to shave my head if the worst happens, but he said I didn't have to. Whew!

What's everyone else doing about haircuts? My hair has gone completely out of control, and so have I. I've been wielding the scissors like a madman, snipping here and there indiscriminately.