I’m really looking forward to fried green tomatoes, so I hope nothing eats these guys before they get big enough to pick.
Tag: flora
Baby Pepper
Isn’t it cute? It’s about the size of a pencil eraser. (I’m still a little in shock that real, live food is actually growing in my garden.)
Coral Bells
This was a Lensbaby shot, with a +4 macro attachment.
Did I mention the big, horrible computer crash here? Well, Cracktop crashed. Or, rather, the start files for his OS were permanently corrupted, which meant I couldn’t boot into Windows, so I had to wipe everything and reinstall from scratch. Good times. It could be worse, though. I only lost eight music files (!), a couple of weeks’ worth of email, and my calendar.
It took a couple of days, but I think I’ve pretty much got everything back up and running. I’m sure there are some small, unitasker programs I’ve forgotten about, but printers/scanners aside (and that’s a topic I’m still mulling over) the bulk of the software and hardware I use is re-installed. It took me most of the day yesterday just to re-download the Adobe software I use, onna counta IU’s server is crazy slow. And since the’ve broken everything up into separate parts, I had to babysit the downloads. Have I mentioned that I’m not the princess of patience? Aieee!
As for my scanner, since I still don’t know whether or not that was at the root of the crash, I’m not going to reinstall it, period. I just don’t trust it, so I’m going to buy a new one this weekend. I’m thinking about getting another all-in-one combo, only this time, a Canon Pixma, since I’m super happy with how long Canon inks can sit dormant without drying out. That should do nicely for occasional color printing, for arting purposes.
For boring old document printing, though, I’m thinking about also getting a monochrome laser printer. They’re uber cheap these days, as is the toner. Seriously. Monochrome printers are comparable in price to decent inkjet printers. Cartridges for the one I’m looking at are around $50, which is cheaper than most inkjet ink, and laser toner lasts a lot longer. It just doesn’t make sense to use an inkjet printer for plain old document printing any more.
Columbine Seed Pod
These remind me of tiny jester hats.
Pepper Blossom
Tomatoes
They’re actually blooming!
Dew
All the flower seeds I planted, at least the ones that sprouted, were eaten one night by either bunnies or Mr. Groundhog. I’m going to have to replace them with mature plants or maybe with containers. So far, they’ve left the stuff in containers alone. The tomatoes are getting big, and so are the peppers I got from a coworker. The peppers I planted from seed are still really small, though, so I’m about to give up on them. Since the tomatoes still need to be thinned a bit, I may sacrifice the baby peppers to make more tomato space.
In other news, Harriet spent Friday at the vet. She was chewing her feet again and suddenly developed a sneeze and runny nose. I was afraid it was something contagious, but after spending the day observing her, the vet thinks it’s just allergies. He recommended putting her back on Benadryl, and if that doesn’t help, then Chlor-trimeton. If those don’t work, then we’ll try prescription antihistamines.
The Benadryl seems to be helping. She’s not chewing her feet and her sneezy, snotty nose has improved. But, now she’s developed what I think is a bad ear infection. One ear is super painful, and I can feel where it’s swollen, along her neck. Poor dog! She’s feeling too rotten to police the cats, so I know she has to be miserable. There’s not much to be done for it until I can call the vet tomorrow morning. In the meantime, we has sadcakes.
Speaking of the cats, they have finally decided that they’re in charge. They spent last night doing Indy 500 laps around the living room, chasing each other, while I was trying to watch TV. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they hadn’t kept cornering off the couch. Also, Henry has discovered the kitchen counter, and it doesn’t matter how many times I push her off, she bounces right back up. Ditto Polly with my computer desk. She jumps up, I push her off, and she bounces right back up again. They are nothing if not persistent. Alsoplustoo, cute. Very, very cute.
Flowers
Sweet William (Dianthus)
Primrose
I had no idea I had Sweet Williams in my garden. I didn’t plant any this year, and I don’t remember planting any last year. The only thing I can think is that they were with some of the stuff I got from Ms. Lea, and that they kept a low profile last year. I almost pulled them up, because I didn’t recognize the foliage and thought it might be a weed. I’m glad I didn’t!
Inconceivable
I regularly complain about how hot it is at work. My cube neighbor told me yesterday, “Just wait until you start having hot flashes.” Now, this is not the first time this comment has been made to me (nor the first time she’s made it). I’m the youngest person working in my section. Everyone else is in their late 50s/60s. They think they’re being funny, because it is obviously utterly inconceivable to them that someone my age could be starting menopause. They are not as funny as they think they are. Alsotoo, it really is hot here. I always look at the thermometer before complaining, so I have empirical evidence. Alsoplustoo and FYI, I’ve been having a year-long hot flash, you patronizing jackass.
And some random raspberry blossoms:
Raindrops
red paper boat 