Category: My Garden

Crankypantsing, My Garden, Photography

Echinacea

Shelly

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These came from another coworker. I was surprised that she dug up plants that were flowering, but it doesn’t seem to have bothered them. The flower heads were a little bent over, the first day, but on the second, the stalks had straightened up. They seem happy.

I also got some liatris from the same coworker. They look like they’re forming bloom spikes, so there should be some purple in that corner of the garden before too long.

In crankypantsing news:

1. Still no progress on the WordPress upgrade. Tech support was supposedly going to import a back-up of my live database into the test database. It’s over the do-it-yourself size limit, so they have to upload it on their end. That was two days ago.

2. Mr. Upstairs has been coming back in the middle of the night to clean. This means being wakened at 2am to thumpings and bumpings and carpet shampooers, oh my! I really hope he’ll be finished soon, because the lack of sleep is quickly losing its charm.

3. The gunshots last week? Remember the Stompy Girls? The woman living below them complained about the stomping and the late night fighting. One girl moved out, and the other moved into a ground floor unit at the other end of the building, with her abusive boyfriend. Well, apparently the gunshots came from her apartment. The theory is that she and her boyfriend were fighting and one of them pulled a gun and started shooting. Nice!

4. My kitchen sink is leaking. This is not completely unexpected, since the plumber told me to keep an eye out for leaks. Only, this was more like a flood than a leak. It looks like I’m going to be spending time at home again tomorrow, babysitting maintenance people.

5. Oh ich! Seriously. The little pleco I got, to clean my aquarium? He looked healthy enough, but he wasn’t. I should have quarantined him for a few days, but I didn’t have a good way to do so. I noticed last night that my goldfish were sprinkled with sparkly white spots. Not good!

I picked up some ich medication after work. Hopefully I caught it in time, because it’s deadly. Poor fish. I feel awful. It’s silly to get attached to goldfish, but what can I say? On the bright side, I’ve now done a lot of research and know how to preempt an ich infection.

6. In researching ich treatments, I ran across something called “hole in the head disease.” I am not making that up.

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Liatris (taken a couple of years ago in Ms. Lea’s garden)

My Garden, Photography

Inverted Lens Macro

Shelly

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Wild Columbine Seed Pod

This was my first try, and it’s a little breezy outside, so it’s not as sharp as it could be. All you do is invert the lens. The only hard part is manually holding it in place. Because it’s an older lens, it’s heavy, and my hands got a little tired and unsteady after awhile.

This was a few shots later, and I think it turned out better. Both were taken with a Tamron SP 28-80mm 1:3.5-4.2 lens.

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Ivy Roots on Brick Wall

Crankypantsing, My Garden, Photography

Coral Bells and Crankypantsing

Shelly

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These silly things are blooming furiously. They seem to like the shady spot they’re in.

And now for a new installment of Mr. Upstairs Theater! I don’t know what the hell’s gotten into him lately. He was pretty good (for him) over the last few months. Yesterday, I didn’t hear a peep out him until I was getting ready for bed, when he turned on some right-wing talking heads and watched TV for a couple of hours. Then he started vacuuming. At 11:30pm. Then he stomped around for awhile. I’m not passing judgment on his fashion sense, but I swear, he wears high heels when he cleans. The clomping noise is distinctive of heels and is very different from his normal thudding. At about midnight, he turned on the dishwasher. A few minutes later, he started playing the same damned song he’s been playing for the past two years on the keyboard. Or maybe it’s a harpsichord. At this point, nothing would surprise me. I finally fell asleep, only to wake up at about 2am to him playing really crappy classic rock and galloping on the treadmill.

And right now, he’s stomping around in the room above my computer room. I think someone would have to really work at walking that heavily. I mean, he’s a little chubby, but he’s not a big guy, so how the hell does he manage to make that much noise when he walks?

My Garden, Photography

Egyptian Walking Onion

Shelly

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These are growing in the bed with the pile of rusty tools. It’s garden art! My mom said she’s going to move the tools, but I like them where they are, with plants growing around them.

I couldn’t get a decent shot of it, but there’s an upside down flower pot in the same bed, with a plant growing up and out the hole in the bottom. I like wild gardens where things just kind of grow where they want to. My neighbor’s garden is tidy and mulched and very pretty, but not my sort of thing. I can’t wait until mine fills in and gets full and jumbled looking.

Speaking of, my primroses have bloomed! It’s pouring rain right now, though, so I can’t get a shot of them. Hopefully, it’ll clear up long enough to go look at everything. I also got some surprise lilies and some variety of day lily from another coworker. It’s not the right time of year to plant them, but I went ahead and did so, anyway.