12 Oakdale

We Have Squash   We have squash. Only 2 little yellow crook necks, but it is a start. The okra is still bearing, our first eggplant is ready to pick, and the southern peas are thriving. Bush beans have baby beans, pole beans have sprouted, English and sugar snap peas are starting to climb their trellises. Only the pumpkins are not setting. I may have to learn about female and male flowers so I can hand-pollinate them if the bugs don’t do the job. Clara is planning a pumpkin patch where people can come and take pictures.  First Eggplant   Two Bales Almost Ready to Plant  We are also trying gardening on straw bales, with 4 bales for our first go round. They have to be conditioned for a couple of weeks with daily watering and some applications of high nitrogen (N), fertilizer to get their composting started before we plant in them. I used Miloganite, (its NPK ratio is 40, 0, 0) when I repotted my ferns. (Ferns don’t flower or have much root systems, so they only need th...

Referral  After five months of no physical contact with anyone but Grant, I went to the dentist and had my teeth X-rayed, examined, and cleaned. Three sets of hands in my mouth, fortunately not all at the same time, but a lot of contact. Everyone wore gloves and masks. The hygienist also had a plastic shield. There was an air filter running in the exam room. Now all I can do is cross my fingers that we did enough to keep germs at bay. The bad news: the reason my tooth with the hellaciously expensive gold crown has stopped hurting is because the nerve has died. Now I need a root canal, in the best scenario, or an implant if everything does not work out. I'm ruing my decision to forgo dental insurance.  It also means I will have at least twp more dental appointments, this time at a specialist's office, because my new dentist says mine would be a tricky procedure. Sigh. And I still can't hug my children or go see my grandchildren. This pandemic is getting old.

My Women’s Suffrage Necklace It is the 100-year anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the US Constitution, recognizing women's suffrage. I refuse to say we were “given” the right to vote. That’s one of our inalienable rights, and just because some tin-horn dictator or group of male landed gentry prevented us from voting didn’t mean our right didn’t exist.  To add insult to injury, President Trump issued a pardon to Susan B. Anthony, who was convicted of illegal voting. As if, to quote a great sage. It is also the day of our Florida primary, and I believe a first for Grant and me: we conferred and discussed who we should vote for. Usually this is a don’t ask, don’t tell situation. At the top of the ticket, we are agreed; down-ballot, we often diverge. He pulled up the Orlando Sentinel’s recommendations on his iPad, and although it doesn’t seem to be as flaming liberal as our Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, still leaned pretty far left. My natural inclination is t...

Bee Balm Bill Frederick Park    We have developed/fallen into a routine that brings us pleasure. I am usually the first up, around 6:00 AM, so I do my RPM*, make coffee, and feed the cat. Annie would prefer the order reversed. Meanwhile, Grant often has arisen, but maybe not. When he does, he dresses in bike kit and goes off for his bike ride. I work in the yard with my phone nearby, just in case he needs a pick up. So far only once, when he got a flat tire. When he returns, we swim, eat breakfast, and decide on our day’s project. Sometimes house maintenance for him, paperwork for me. Other times working in the garden for us both. Maybe a nap if we feel the need. Annie always votes for that.  Thursday’s, after my EarlyBird Toastmasters meeting ends at 8:30 AM, we rush to Costco to make old people’s hour which begins at 9:00. We’ve also supported Total Wine’s over-60 time from 8:00-9:00 when we can’t get something in an online/pick up order, like margarita salt. So far the...

Hurricane Isaias’ Projected Path   Hurricane Isaias (ees-ah-EE-ahs) blew over Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, then calmed to a tropical storm and skirted the Florida coast. Our big preparation was to move Magic, the giant inflatable unicorn toy I bought Clara for her birthday, from the pool deck to the living room, just in case we got a little bit of wind. (Yes, that was easier than deflating, then re-inflating Magic.) Magic, the Unicorn   I considered putting the straps around our porch umbrellas, but decided to wait for the wind, which never came. Grant put William in a box in the garage. He was concerned we might get lots of rain, and William’s pen would flood. The rain was almost a no-show too, certainly less than some of the downpours we’ve had last month. This certainly beats all the worry and work we did for hurricanes in Fort Lauderdale. I do not miss putting up shutters. But when it rains, it pours, or at least drips a leak in our garage. I’ve had three roofers out ...

Sourdough and Mango Jam Made By Me  Three and half months into this sequestering, I’ve succumbed to the sourdough bread making craze. It is amazing that an idea that I think started on Instagram has gotten to me, and yet, I only read the newspaper. No social media, no TV news, no friends sending me pictures of their latest loaves. Is the need to bake floating through the air like the virus? I dutifully mixed up my starter and waited for it to bubble. I’ve done this before, once even buying 50 pounds of organic, stoneground speciality flour that I used to make a special warm-brew bread. I’d forgotten what a commitment (pain in the ass) sourdough is. Always wanting attention, threatening  to go pouty if not fed right, just like a new puppy. Fun but a lot of work. One day, before it was active enough to make good bread, I used extra starter for some sourdough pancakes. As I struggled with our stove to get the perfect pancake cooking temperature, I realized I’d never used ...

My Pumpkin Plant   I wanted to show you my plant that I grew from a seed. After this meeting*, I am going to plant it in my garden. That’s what I am doing while I wait out this pandemic. I am not watching TV or being on social media. I get my news by reading 3 newspapers. One liberal, one conservative and one local. Even with that, I almost missed the most important statement made last week by one of our government officials. On Tuesday, July 15 th , Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, “If we could get everybody to wear a mask right now, I really do think over the next four, six, eight weeks, we could bring this epidemic under control.”  Think about that. “If we could get everybody to wear a mask right now, I really do think over the next four, six, eight weeks, we could bring this epidemic under control.”  Let’s use the longest time: eight weeks, that’s about 2 months. If we started today, just t...