Eye Candy Friday

There I was, laying in bed snoozing away when I heard the tell tale ding of my phone...

Cody and Brennan have finally moved out of that horrible house they'd been renting for the last three years.  And I'm telling you, it was awful.  Chilly and damp, and the floors were rotten so bad in spots, I thought I was going to fall through a couple of times.  They've moved into an apartment, and Cody messaged me a couple of days ago asking if they could bring me a rocking chair.  

They didn't have room for it, and Brennan didn't want to get rid of it, so I'm getting a new to me rocking chair, at least until they find a bigger place.  And the ding I heard on my phone last night was my beloved son in whom I am not so well pleased at the moment texting me at 10:38 PM letting me know they were going to bring the chair next weekend. 

I said I was going to text him back at 3:30 when I got up for work, but I forgot to.  Lucky him.  

So, anyway, after that I couldn't get back to sleep, so naturally, I picked up my phone and scrolled through Facebook until I got to the end.  Seriously.  I got to the end of Facebook. 

It wouldn't let me scroll any more, and it wouldn't let me refresh, either.  I'm like, Dude, just show me stuff from six weeks ago, like you normally do.  I eventually fell back to sleep, but all of that made it a mighty short night. 

Then, we had a little excitement out at the plant.  I walked over to the computer to confirm an order and one of the parts stagers asked me who had gotten into a fight.  

"Fight?  This is the first I've heard about a fight."  She said that another employee had heard about it on her radio, so I tracked that employee down and asked her.  She told me two forklift drivers had gotten into a fight in the parking lot.  Wow.

One of the other sub brazer's husband drives a fork lift so I told her to ask him if he knew what was going on.  A bit later, she came over to my stand and told me that it was two new guys who were supposed to be going to second shift next week.  So new, her husband didn't even know their names. 

Then one of the brazing trainers came in and said that when the security guards called the police, one of the guys took off walking down the road and made it about 1/2 mile before the cops showed up.  That's all I know, except that the whole time, I had this image in my mind of them fighting with their forklifts like they were on bumper cars or something...

And finally, I remembered your Eye Candy Friday today!  

 Yay for me and for clover.  

What A Week

How did April go by so fast?  Seems like just yesterday, it was April Fool's Day,  and I still feel like it's March.   Yet, in a few hours it will be May.  But I'm not going to post that meme.  IYKYK

I meant to post yesterday, but I got home from work, turned on the TV to watch the latest episode of NCIS....and about halfway into the episode, the internet dropped.  Then it came back.  Then it dropped again.   It was out so long that time, I gave up and put in a DVD of Keeping Up Appearances.  

I watched one episode of that, and the internet came back up, so I turned NCIS back on...aaaand the electricity went out.  Only for a minute, but by that time, I was so fed up, I just went to bed.  

I needed that sleep, too, because Tuesday night, we had some pretty loud thunderstorms come through.  Those weren't so bad, but then the phone started ringing off the hook.  A while back, I'd signed up with the county EMA office to get weather alerts, and that was what I was getting....just not for MY county.  I was getting them for Hinds county, for Holmes county, for Attala county, Yalobusha county, Lafayette county, Humphreys county, Panola county, Oktibbeha county, Coahoma county, Tunica county, Calhoun county, Pontotoc county -- every county BUT Grenada county.  

I finally blocked that number just so it would stop ringing and I could get some sleep.  I think I'm going to sign up for local meterologist Matt Laubhan's Weather Call thingy.  It's only $15 per year.  I can spring for that, and delete a lot of the other weather alert apps I have. 

Well, turn them off at least.  I won't delete a weather app.  

Since it appears we're done with rain for a few days -- by the way, we got 1.4" over the last three days, but it's still not enough to alleviate the drought conditions -- I stepped out before work this morning and took the Walmart sacks off of my baby tomatoes so they can get full sun.  

They are all doing very well, even the tiniest baby tomato.  

This is the biggest one, and probably tomorrow, I'll snip off those bottom leaves, then give it a few days to heal and add more dirt to the cup. 

That's another one of those things I learned from YouTube -- to let the wound heal before putting it into dirt.  Maybe it's not necessary, but it doesn't seem like it would hurt, so I'm going to do it.

Good news!  I don't know if you can see it in this photo, but my baby rosemary is putting out new growth!  Maybe it's going to survive after all!

In other news, I went to the store today instead of tomorrow and decided to treat myself to some fancy soup. 

I had intended to make two meals out of this, but it was so good, I ate the whole thing.  

Look what else I found:  

Reduced sodium beans and rice!  I'd made some a few weeks ago, but it was just so salty I could hardly eat it.  I don't like salt.  Weird, I know, but that's just who I am.  It's supposed to get cold again this weekend, so this will be a perfect meal for a chilly day.  Oh, and I bought smoked sausage to put into it.  

After I'd eaten my soup, I finally got my new flag hung up. 

And I totally stole this AI generated image from social media, because it's awesome. 

 Finally, in memory of David Allen Coe:  

Dear Coworker

Dear Coworker,

If you knew the parts were wrong when you made them, then why on earth didn't you re-do them?  Why send them to the brazer anyway?  

Next time, do them over.  It'll take you all of two seconds. 

Thank you,

That is all

*Image courtesy of ChatGPT

Terrible News

I've got some terrible news today. Terrible. 

Group Leader Shark announced it at the morning meeting, and it's just terrible.  What is this terrible news?

Second shift starts next week!  You know what that means!  No more coming in to a neat and tidy work area where I can get straight to work.  Nope.  As of Monday, we'll have to spend the first 30-60 minutes of our day literally putting the department back together.  Tracking down my parts trays...tracking down my rolling table...playing my favorite game:  guess what the unlabeled order is...and hearing management crow over them about how much they're out-brazing us.  (Dear management:  it's because they skip down in the schedule and pick out all the easy orders to do!)  That's not just sour grapes.  They really do do that. 

You want to hear something funny?  When Demi-god first came to day shift, it didn't take him long at all to start complaining about second shift doing the same things he used to do when when he was on second shift.  I laughed and said, "Welcome to day shift!"  

All that said, I do have some good news.  I'd been wanting something for the 250th, but didn't really want a t-shirt, which would eventually fade and get worn out.  I'm still thinking about getting a hat, though.  And maybe a challenge coin or shot glass or something.  One thing I did already buy arrived today.  A garden flag: 

And if you look carefully, they gave me a free patriotic gift:  that little lapel pin on the left side of the flag.  This won't go in the garden, though.  Nobody will be able to see it back there, so after tonight's storms pass, I'll hang it up on hanger on the car port. 

More good news, I got another sailor hat cast on yesterday while I was watching TV.  

Yarn:  Red Heart Bitty Stripes

Colorway:  Rainbow

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8/ 5mm

I'm kind of surprised that I got that much done, because I kept wanting to be outside.  It was such a beautiful day, I couldn't stay in.  One thing I did do was to get some of my herbs cut and started drying.  So far, I've cut my tarragon, my spearmint, and my so called orange mint.  I say that because it said orange mint on the tag, but I don't smell much orangeness in it.   It may be plain mint for all I know.  

Maybe next weekend, I'll cut some lemon balm and rosemary, as well.  I probably ought to invest in some regular herb jars to put it all in, too.  

And one last bit of good news before I go.  LOOK AT THIS!  

I know it's hard to see in this picture, but it's there.  The last little seedling has finally arrived.  I have to confess, I cheated.  I dumped all the old soil out and started completely over.  You know what they say, the third time's the charm.  

At least it wasn't three strikes and you're out.  

Even though we are supposed to get some storms tonight -- nothing severe -- the three older plants were looking a bit droopy, so I took a chance and put them all back out into the garden spot.  Even the new little sprout.  I did cover them with Walmart sacks just in case the rain gets heavy, but at least they'll get pretty good light, and I can pull the sacks off as soon as I get home tomorrow.  

This is the last time I'm going to move them -- except for planting them when they've gotten big enough, I mean.  Severe weather season is almost over, so they should be OK from here on out.  Plus, I can always cover them again if needs be. 

And finally, I was watching an archeology series on Hulu with Dan Snow called Lost Treasures Of Ancient Civilizations, and one of the episodes was on Machu Picchu.  It was all very interesting, but every time he mentioned Pachacuti, all I could think of was the Horrible Histories song...

And now I want to go watch a few episodes of Horrible Histories, so I think I will

Laters...

Score!

There was a rumor going around the plant that we would be working this weekend, and honestly, I have mixed feelings about this.  As much as I love having weekends off, I also love those big, overtime checks.  That's where I get my fun money.  You know, for things like my garden...

But it turns out only a few departments are working.  Sometime back, they came up with a new line of products that use a different size of copper tubing for the adapter tubes, hairpins, and such.  We're finally starting to get some orders for those units, so they brought in a few departments to get ahead on the parts for them.  My department was not one of them.  

Since I didn't have to work, first thing I did was to lie in bed until....um...4:30.  Oh well...it's better than 3:30 at least.  I laid in bed until sometime after 5:00, when my bladder insisted that we get up.  

I somewhat reluctantly got out of bed, answered nature's call, and had a nice leisurely cup of coffee, before getting dressed and going into town to do my shopping that I didn't do yesterday.  

As is my custom, as soon as I arrived, I made a beeline to the garden center and scored big time!  I wanted to get some more marigolds for pest control, and look at what I found.  

A four pack of marigolds with different colors in it!  I really lucked out with that one, because it's usually one color per pack.   And they're all safely tucked into the garden.  They were in direct sunlight in the garden center, so I didn't really think they'd need hardening.  

We're expecting more storms early next week, so I haven't put the tomatoes back into the garden yet.  I've put them out onto the back porch for now, but I'll bring them back inside at night.  Even in the shade, they'll get better light than they will on the windowsill. 

I figured that I already had them disturbed by moving them, so I put a little more potting soil into the cups. 

A lot of the gardening channels say to do it this way, because tomatoes can develop roots all along their stems.  This helps them grow into stronger, healthier plants.  Some even suggest that when you plant them, you should lay the stem down for several inches, but I'm not going to do that.  I'll plant them pretty deeply and hope for the best. 

By the way, does anyone have any tips on how to keep fire ants out of your compost bag?  I was going to add more stuff to mine, only to discover it's slap full of fire ants.  I've dumped a good bit of diatomaceous earth into it, but so far, it hasn't seemed to help any.  The problem is that there are so many fire ants, I can't even get the top unzipped to open it up.  There is a little flap where you can add the stuff you want to compost, but even opening that got me rewarded with multiple bites. 

If you don't have to deal with these little spawns of Satan, consider yourself very fortunate.  

In other news, I started cleaning snake tanks today.  I usually do it in January and in July, and obviously, I'm pretty far behind on that chore.   On the bright side, I was able to get enough wood shavings from just two of the tanks that I was able to mulch three beds.  

By the way, I'm thrilled at how well my lemon balm is doing.  I really need to go ahead and cut some to start it drying.  On the other hand, I don't see how anyone can eat sage.  It smells like body odor to me. 

I think I'm also going to cut some of my tarragon, probably tomorrow morning.  

It seems to be struggling a bit, but then they only live 3-5 years, and this is year three.  Once it's gone, I don't think I'll buy another one.  

I almost had enough shavings to mulch this bed, too.  

I made sure to put it around the two plants, and will fill in the rest when I do the other two snake tanks.  I hope the mulch helps the little rosemary pick up a bit.  It's been struggling since I've transplanted it.  The mulch should keep the soil moisture more consistent, and maybe cooler, so it should help.  

Speaking of, we got 1.9" of rain last night -- so much so, they've lifted the burn ban!  It's still not going to be enough to relieve the drought conditions, but every little bit helps.  We're supposed to get more rain next week, too.  

The only downside to all that rain is that the yard needs to be mowed again.  Oh well, it ain't going to happen today.  Today, I'm going to watch TV and knit.

Later, peeps. 

Other Boring Stuff

Before I get into the other boring stuff, let me tell you some boring stuff.  

Back about a year or so ago, the plant took all of the vending machines out of the front break room and replaced it with what everyone now calls The Store.  Really, it looks a bit like a convenience store.  It's got shelves of products -- chips, candy, snacks, and a couple of coolers of drinks.  

You go in, choose what you want, then there is a little self check out thing where you pay for it.  It's on the honor system.  I think.  I've never used The Store myself.  I hear the stuff there is massively expensive, so I always bring my own snacks.  But that's not the point...

As I said, it's on the honor system.  Apparently, we have some other than honorable people that work out there.  I say that because for the last two weeks, Group Leader Shark has mentioned it several times in the morning meeting.  "Pay for the stuff you get from the store!"  

And I'm wondering, who didn't see that coming?  The same person that makes us walk through a metal detector to enter the building thinks people aren't going to steal a bag of chips? 

The irony is thick with this one...

OK, let's get to the other boring stuff.  Like my knitting. I know you all must be bored out of your minds seeing my knitting projects all the time, so here is another boring knitting project. 

Yarn:  Euphoria Knits

Colorway:  Illegible

Pattern:  Sockhead

Needles:  US 2.5 / 3mm

In boring weather news, we are getting some pretty heavy rain this evening -- so much so I didn't even go do my weekly shopping after work.  If I had, I'd have been leaving the store just as the storm arrived.  The first wave, I mean.  It's supposed to storm pretty much all night, but no severe weather for us.  

Not like that massive tornado that hit Enid, Oklahoma last night.  I saw that one on Ryan Hall's live stream, which I'm also watching tonight.  Speaking of, I've been in the local weather watchers group for a few years now, and it used to be a fun group.  Not so much any more, because about a year ago, some guy joined and boy is he obnoxious.  Very preachy, and such a know it all.  So much so, I've considered quietly leaving the group.  

Well, today he posted this:  

That was the last straw.  I didn't leave, but I did unfollow the group so I won't see its posts any more.  I mean, seriously.  Why not just watch the local meteorologists?  Matt Laubhan and Gabe Mahner always go live when there are storms.  They'll take care of us better than some guy in Kentucky.  

Don't get me wrong, I love Ryan Hall.  I'm watching him right now as I type this, but when there is weather in the area, local meteorologists are always the ones you need to watch.  

On a similar boring note, since we were expecting heavy rain, I brought the baby tomatoes inside for the duration.  

I've got them in the windowsill in my kitchen, but before I put them up there I decided it was time to thin them.  So I did. 

I always get a bit nervous doing that.  What if I picked the wrong seedling to save?  What if I should have kept the one I cut?   Well, it's too late now.  I hope I did right...

This one still hasn't shown any sign of life, so I put it on the heat mat, hoping a more consistent temperature might encourage the seeds to germinate. 

I'll be sure to bore you with updates. 

I guess I'm done boring you for today.  I think I'll run take a quick shower while there is a lul in the storms. 

Laters...

Mulching Day

At long last, Tuesday was mulching day for one of the beds.  I got out there after work, cut up a bunch of Amazon boxes, and laid them out around the little plants.  

I was going to come in and post about it, but realized I didn't really have that much to talk about, so I skipped blogging that day.   By the way, since we're expecting storms over the next few days, I went back out and put some of those landscape staples into the cardboard, so hopefully the pieces won't blow away.  

If I can find my box cutter, I want to cut some longer strips of cardboard and lay them down over the top of all of these little pieces.   I know it's not the most attractive, but long time gardeners swear by it.  

Speaking of YouTube, after thinking about it, I'm not doing so much wrong as I'd thought.  For example, they say that raised beds need to be 24" or deeper.  Mine aren't that deep, but I've got good native soil underneath all of that red clay the land scammer dumped into my garden spot.  The main reason I wanted to go with raised beds in the first place was so I wouldn't have to bend over so far.  

I do wish I'd thought to dig the clay out of the first three beds before I planted them, but once the zinnias and bachelor's buttons die back after the first frost, I can remove the soil from that bed, then dig the clay out.  

As for the perennials, I don't know what I'm going to do about those.  I don't want to dig them up if I don't have to.  I'll just keep an eye on them and see how they do.   Nothing is going to happen until fall anyway, so I can make a plan before then. 

Also, yes, I bought wooden beds, but I sprang for fir -- which is rot resistant, and I used water sealant on it.  There are mixed feelings on doing that, but I think it will be OK.  I really want to switch to metal garden beds as I expand and replace the wooden ones, but I'd always thought they were kinda ugly.  I found some on Amazon that are brown and look like wood, so I might give them a try.  

I've also seen that there are mixed feelings on how to fill deep beds cheaply.  Some say to use logs and such.  Others say not to.  I can tell you right now that I'm definitely not going to use logs.  If they're big enough to burn, they're going to the firewood pile.  I will use smaller branches and twigs and such -- like these I have left over from cutting that oak limb that fell the other day. 

I got the bigger limb cut up and stacked, but haven't done much with these yet.  I'll cut the twiggy stuff off and put it into the compost.  The rest can be used for kindling. 

Now for a bit of good news- bad news.  I noticed that this planter was sinking into the dirt on one side.  It was causing one of the legs to start splitting.  I went to pick it up and move it to higher ground, but as I lifted it, the other leg split.   The good news is, once I got it settled on more solid ground, I found that I still had some wood glue and managed to fix the legs up pretty quickly.  

The hardest part was finding where I'd put the clamps after the last time I used them.  I've got to get my tools more organized.  

I've got to get my life more organized...

But the basil is doing well, at least the ones I had up potted that is.  The ones I'd left in the tray are much much smaller and aren't seeming to grow. 

Maybe they'll catch up.  We'll just have to wait and see.  

Not that it matters.  I'm still going to have basil running out of my ears before it's all said and done. 

I guess that's about it for today.  I don't know what it is.  While I'm at work, I can mentally compost long, eloquent, interesting posts.  But the minute I get home and sit down at the computer, they vanish from my mind just as if they'd never existed.  

So you get stuck with garden talk...and other boring stuff. 

In fact, I should change the name of my blog to Other Boring Stuff.  What do you think? 

Earth Day 2026

(Photo by Artemis II crew)

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Winter Came Back

"It looks like winter came back!"  said the security guard as I walked into the plant this morning. 

"I know, right?" I replied.  "I had to go back inside my house to get my hat."  And I needed it, too.  It was a chilly 43° when I got up this morning, and that hat felt good on my head.   It didn't last long, though.  It was a balmy 75° when I got home from work, and that was most likely the last cold snap we will have this year.  

The first thing I did when I got home was to run out and pull the Walmart sacks off of my little tomato seedlings so they can get some sun.

Full sun, I mean.  Walmart sacks are pretty translucent, so they were getting decent light even covered up.  They all seem to be doing well, except for that one little cup that nothing has germinated in.  I'm hoping now that it's pretty much done with being cold, something will come up pretty soon.  If it hasn't grown anything by the time the others are big enough to plant, I'll just buy one.  Someone somewhere will probably still have some 'maters.  Maybe not Roma, but someone will have something. 

Once it had cooled off just a bit, I gave everything a good watering. 

Including the zinnias, which are really taking off.   

They say the best time to water is between 5:00 AM and 8:00 AM, but that's just not going to happen.  Maybe sometime in the future, I can set up a drip system on a timer, but for now, they get watered when I get home in the evenings. 

According to AdTube -- which is what I'm going to start calling YouTube because of all the ads you have to sit through -- I'm pretty much doing everything wrong anyway.  My beds aren't deep enough...I bought wooden ones...I filled them wrong...Oh, well.  It's a learning process.  

In other news, I was getting ready for work this morning in my kitchen when I heard something that sounded like rapid gunfire coming from the direction of town.  "Huh,"  I thought.  "The gangbangers are up late today"  Well, late for them, early for everyone else.  

It's kinda sad that this is where my mind went first, but this is the world we live in.  

Sometime later, I heard a car door close and someone driving away, and I thought, "What's going on?"  It was when I left for work that I found out exactly what had been going on.  It would seem a branch fell out of an oak tree -- which was the gunfire sound I heard-- and was blocking the road.  The car door was someone stopping to move it out of the way, because when I walked outside, it was in my front yard.  

After I got home, I grabbed it and dragged it to my back yard where it will be cut up to use for firewood.  The leaves will go into my newly re-started compost pile, and hey, it's free wood.  We don't turn down free.  And I'm hoping the cat will use the compost pile instead of my garden beds as her litterbox.  Getting the mulch down ought to help steer her in that direction...I'm planning on using cardboard for the tomato and pepper beds.  I have plenty because I've been saving boxes for like six months now.  

I don't know what I'm going to do in the zinnia bed.  I'm thinking wood chip or bark mulch, but I'm not sure if that will be enough to discourage the cat from digging.  Cardboard would be better, but not very pretty in a fairy garden bed.  Maybe I'll put down cardboard and put wood chips over it. 

Now for a bittersweet moment, it looks like bluebonnet season is about over.  But my plants are absolutely loaded with nice, fat seed pods. 

I'm hopeful that I'll get a stand going...wish me luck. 

In the midst of all of that gardening, there has also been knitting.  I finished the most recent sailor hat, but have not yet cast on a new one. 

Yarn:  Red Heart Supersaver Jumbo Stripes

Colorway:  Neon Stripe

Pattern:  Basic beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5 mm

On the bright side, I finally got all the tags attached to the hats I'm going to send off to the Seaman's Church Institute.  I still need to seal it up and go to my favorite place in the whole wide world -- the post office.   There really isn't any rush...but I do need to get them send.  Twenty nine hats -- for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.  

And finally, Salena, I found a t-shirt for you!  

 Perfect, huh?  

Patriot's Day

 

Stand your ground

Don't fire unless fired upon

But if they mean to have a war

Let it begin here. 

Concord Hymn 

 RALPH WALDO EMERSON

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

   Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,

Here once the embattled farmers stood

   And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;

   Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;

And Time the ruined bridge has swept

   Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,

   We set today a votive stone;

That memory may their deed redeem,

   When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare

   To die, and leave their children free,

Bid Time and Nature gently spare

   The shaft we raise to them and thee.

Gloomy Saturday Sky

Back in the day when blogging was a much bigger thing, one of the blogs I followed -- I can't even remember which one -- started a thing called Saturday Sky.  She said, "We all live under the same sky," and thought it would be fun for everyone in her blog circle to photograph and post what the sky looked like where we lived.  

As the blogosphere shrank, things like that fell out of favor, and eventually I stopped doing it.  Until today.  This is what my sky looked like all day long. 

We are expecting storms, but no severe weather -- at least not down here.  My friends who live in Michigan and Wisconsin are getting hit pretty hard, but we haven't had much at all this year.  I'm seriously considering de-safefying my safe room.  

Even with the looming sky, I was able to get the last of my plants safely tucked into their beds before the rain started. 

I measured where I want to put my tomato plants, and set them there, though I didn't plant them yet.  They're still too small.  Just to be on the safe side, I covered each one with a Walmart sack.  They're saying we could get some heavy rain, and I didn't want my little seedlings to get pounded into mush.  

Once I'd set those into place, I managed to fit six basil plants in this bed, and put a marigold at the foot of where those tomatoes will eventually go once they're big enough.   I had a few basil plants left over, so I fit them into the raised bed where I'd put the others. 

Two of the smaller ones seem to have died, so I pulled them out and replaced them with these bigger ones.  I ought to have plenty of basil, but I don't know what I'm going to do with it.  I have plenty of pesto from last year still in the freezer.  I keep forgetting that I have it, which I shouldn't do because it's delicious.  

Back to the garden, I had planned on putting a pineapple sage in the other half of this bed, but now that will have to wait until next year, because I had three more cayenne peppers that needed a home.  Two of them went here. 

and the other one went here -- where my second lemon balm was meant to go.  That will also have to wait until next year. 

Oh well, it's all part of the learning process.  Maybe by next year, I'll be more organized.  Maybe next year, I'll start my own pepper seeds, too.  Anyway, everything is now planted and my little garden is done for this year. 

I'd debated on whether to give everything a good watering before I came inside, because we are supposed to get some rain this evening.  In the end, I did water because I figured with my luck, the rain would go all around me and we wouldn't get but a trace.   It's still early as I type this, but so far we haven't gotten anything but sprinkles. 

While I was out there, I noticed that sure enough, the little peppers that looked almost dead yesterday have perked right up after a night without the harsh southern sun.  

The seed packet said 6+ hours of full sun, but the way they droop in the afternoons makes me wonder.  I'm hoping that once they grow a bit more and develop a stronger root structure, they'll be better able to handle it.  

It looks like my French Tarragon is ready for its first harvest.  

I might cut some in the morning and hang it to dry.    

You know what's sad?  I'd cut and hung some herbs last year, but got so depressed after what that land scammer did, they're still hanging.  Maybe when I'm done here, I'll take them down and put them into some ziplock bags.  That way, my hangers will be ready for this year's herbs.  

OK, moving right along.  I finished piddling in the garden, then came inside and between bits of housework, I knit on my newest sailor hat while watching The Great Pottery Throwdown Christmas special on Roku Channel. 

And in piano news, I decided to go ahead and pick the Faber course back up, even though I'm still learning the last three pieces in the Alfred's course. 

I'd thought I would go back to the beginning and start over, but when I pulled the book back out, I realized I was more than halfway through.  So, I scrapped that idea pretty quickly.  I've also decided I'm not going to watch Mr. Let's Play Piano Methods videos for this book any more.  I've noticed that for the most part, all he does is change the fingering, because he doesn't like the fingering the books use.  The really funny...or sad...part is that his fingering is usually more complicated than what the book uses.  

The Faber book has QR codes you can scan and it'll take you to a video of Mr. Faber playing the piece, so you can at least know what it's supposed to sound like, so I'll just go with that.  

And finally, I'd intended to post an Eye Candy Friday yesterday, but I completely forgot so I'm posting it today.  Here you go:

Now, if you'll excuse me, I just found Lark Rise To Candleford on Roku Channel, and I need to watch it.  

Laters.