Dancing Around the Four Sides

1) It is actually the last Sunday of July, so that's the way I'll look at it. Instead of just another day in an endless summer.

2) This is a terrifically cute little vid! Dog on the run with a GoPro. :D

3) In a gardening note, we seem to have a baby Tabasco plant volunteer growing in an old pot. Okay then.

Three things; post.

Repotted the two hibiscus yesterday into their new clay pots. These should retain moisture longer; they were getting dried out very quickly in the little plastic pots they came in. Only thing left to repot (at the moment) is the dwarf mulberry, but as far as the houseplants are concerned, I could also repot the baby papaya tree and the coffee tree, the latter just so it would look nicer in the bath. And the mixed pot of succulents in there that has some kind of kalanchoe with fuzzy green leaves -- it needs to be separated and repotted.

One of the new geraniums is blooming -- one very pretty rose-pink flower.

Listened to a lot of old music last night -- Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Joe Jackson, Yes (Owner of a Lonely Heart has got to be one of the most cringingly awful vids in the history of music vids, omg), Gordon Lightfoot, Talking Heads, Indigo Girls, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Al Stewart ... also listened to Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street, and thought, not for the first time, that it would make a great House-Wilson vid. (You can read the lyrics here.) To me they could fit either H and W in canon, or in an AU after one or the other has left.

So there's that.

Repotted the two lemongrass plants; Layla helped by nibbling on the long leaves. :D

Meanwhile, in Florida, it turns out that the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services stopped doing background checks for over a year on people who applied for a concealed-carry permit. Why?

Because the person who was in charge couldn't log into the system.

Previously, she had worked in the mailroom.

"I didn't understand why I was put in charge of it."

So far you're just like late May! :D

Watered all the deck plants this morning and refilled the bird dish with fresh water. The temperature was not too bad, but good lord the sun was BEATING DOWN. The new plants that I have are all doing well -- the salvia, the bush cherry, the dwarf mulberry, the lemongrass. Neither of the two geraniums have bloomed, but they look okay. I noticed that Calloway's has hibiscus on sale, so I thought I might get one of those next week to add a nice splash of color.

Started reading Jon Michael Varese's The Spirit Photographer last night and so far it is pretty good. It's historical fiction about a guy who runs a photography studio in Boston in 1870, and who cleverly fakes "spiritualist portraits," showing the person being photographed along with the ghost of a deceased loved one. He's making a good business of it too, until the day he takes a photo and a real ghost shows up. Needless to say, this is a surprise! *g* I should say I think the author is doing a great job in creating what comes across as a perfectly plausible situation. :D

Have actually gotten some needed things done this week -- dr. appointment on Tuesday, then a haircut (it's about one step away from a buzz cut, but that's what I like), then the annual state inspection for my car (which it passed). All in one day. I felt so accomplished! *g* Still need to get the tax/registration sticker for my car; I'll probably do that tomorrow.

Also I put together one of these mini-greenhouse stands for the deck. We've actually had one on the deck for years, but it is tired and weathered and literally ready to fall down. So, replacement. I do think, though, that I am going to buy a can of white spray paint and paint the new one white (the old one is green) because the new one is currently black and will get hot enough to burn during the Texas summer.

Also also we got a couple of baby trees in the mail! I bought a little coffee arabica tree (I doubt we will ever get beans from it, but it's a very pretty plant with dark green, glossy leaves), and Mister Nightdog got me a baby papaya tree as a late birthday present. For now, at least, they both look super-healthy and happy, and they will go in our master bath to keep my orchids company in the humidity. :D

SO ANYWAY. Life continues apace. President Potatohead McBumblefuck remains a walking disaster pit. The weather guys say we are supposed to have 100-degree days all next week. I used to love summer, but no more. The new plants do help. :-P

1) Got out today and did stuff. This week is early voting for our state's Democratic candidate runoff for governor, so I went and voted. As I suspected, turnout looks like it is going to be incredibly light. The two Democrats in the runoff, Andrew White and Lupe Valdez, have barely been campaigning as far as I can see. Maybe whoever gets the nom will be more visible in November.

2) Also went to Calloway's and bought two geraniums (a sort of purplish-blue?) and two salvia (blue). They had bright red salvia and blue salvia, and there were bees all over the blue salvia, so I went with blue. I want to try and fill our backyard with color this summer. If I can keep stuff alive in the heat. :-P

3) I finished Ben Aaronovitch's Whispers Under Ground and loved it; I've already ordered the next book in the series (Broken Homes). There was some confusion, I thought, between the actual story and the description on the back of my Ballantine Books paperback edition ...

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1) It is supposedly 88 degrees here today (31.1 degrees Celsius), but with a fair breeze out of the south it feels much warmer to me.

2) Once again, I have finished a book I really liked (Ian McEwan's The Child in Time), and then gone to Goodreads and been shocked by the almost visceral hatred antipathy towards it by some readers. Well, whatever. I am now reading Daniel Stone's The Food Explorer and so far it is very good.

3) I really need to move the two volunteer tomato plants. They are starting to dwarf the pepper they're growing next to, lol.

You weren't too bad. Was finally able to buy some periwinkles (Cora vinca) for the flowerpots on the front porch, which was a good thing. Had Champagne (French) with dinner, because today was my birthday. I am 60.

Also it seems two Housefics, not just one, have sprung to life. This is most astonishing.

Well, I didn't buy any tomatoes for this year's garden, but there are two little baby tomato plants coming up in one of the pepper pots. I ... have no idea what kind they are -- I don't remember which variety was in that pot last year. So I guess we'll see what happens! LOL

Finished Richard Powers' The Overstory and oh my god it is so good. If you like science and trees and soil and climate and history and the stories of people involved with all these things and those stories gradually weaving together ... this is your book. Honestly, I can't say enough good things about this novel.

Now reading Mark Mazower's What You Did Not Tell: A Russian Past and the Journey Home, which is just fascinating.

Planted the peppers and sweet basil today. Layla helped by dancing in and out of the hose stream as I watered those and everything else on the deck; she got pretty damp and reeked smelled strongly of Wet Dog. This morning she absolutely lost her mind when a hawk circled low over the backyard -- she ran from one end of the yard to the other, following its flight, barking. What a nincompoop. :D