magid

The lavender is finally picking up after being transplanted weeks ago: lots of new green leaves along previously bare branches.

The chive plant has a flower bud on it! (The ones at home are at the end of their flowering, but I didn't expect the one at work to flower at all.)

A butterfly went by my window.

The trees (or some other plant) are having wild t imes: there's lots of fluffy white pollen floating around. If it weren't summer, I'd think of light snow showers.... The fluffy stuff gathers along people's yards, also in the underground parking garage under the office, looking like huge whitish dust bun nies.

On a walk at lunchtime, I saw a tree with a leaf shape I've not noticed before, rather rounded in a very pleasing sort of way.

And the trees I can see from my window always amaze me with how different shapes give the trees a different visual textu re, not to mention all the subtle color variations in green.

n

It's pouring, and looks like it'll continue for a while. We need the rain, after a pretty dry winter, but this is a less than wonderful day for it: This evening is the reception for the Windows Art Project, preceded by lots of chalk drawing all over Davis Square; not so doable in the rain.

(Oh, and all those Harvard graduating types being drenched in good clothes, too.)

I should just try to think of my happy tomato plant, and be satisfied, I suppose.
Feh.

(likely insipidy (is that a word?) ahead...)

Irises are blooming everywhere, and they're beautiful. I most like the purple ones (for a variety of purples), also the white ones are ok, but the yellow ones seem wrong to me. I was at an iris show years ago in Shelburne Falls, and the sheer number of varieties amazed me. Not only colors and size, but shape as well. Though they were all easily identifiable as irises (such a graceful shape), some were ruffled, some not, some had different sorts of arches of petals... I wish I had a better command of the language, to describe their beauty more fully.

And the lilies of the valley are out. Whenever I see them, I think of my mom. They're her favorite flower; she wanted them for her wedding bouquet. However, x decades ago (x > 3), this was not a trivial thing for a December wedding... the florist handed her plastic ones :-(. She's managed to grow lilies wherever she lives; they're relatively easy plants, doing fine in the shade. And the line of white bells on a green stalk is pretty, too, in a totally different way than the showy iris. (so glad I'm not in charge of designing flowers; I'd not be nearly so creative...)

And I'm lucky enough to have a yellow rose to look at when I go home, too. :-)
t

It so often feels that the errandy things to do in my life could eat up all my time. There is so much laundry (and it never stays clean :-), dishes, papers that breed in the corners, I swear, plus the more intermittent stuff, the monthly bills, the trip to the post office, the things that break and need fixing, for some value of break.

I think I tend to ignore this stuff more than I should, in favor of the fun things - who wants to straighten up when Lost Cities could be played, after all? Perhaps that is why it feels like such an accomplishment to get things done.

In the last few days, I've managed to do some laundry, stake the tomato plant, recycle some of the paper in one corner of one room, and send in medical receipts for reimbursement (finally using the medical savings account). I'm glad I got those done, and I know I'll feel better once I do more, but there's a huge mental barrier to starting, even when I do have time available. I so wish it were otherwise. w

I still need to refinish the porch, but the plants seem to be thriving anyway, despite the chilly overnight temps (30s in May is *not normal*).

The mints are exuberant, and seem to have gotten larger than the cherry tomato plant, which has a few flowers on it already (!). I really need to stake the tomato soon. (Hm. "Stake the Tomato" sounds like a good name for a band...)
The rosemary continues to bloom beautifully, and the buds on the chives are opening as well.
The basil seems to have adjusted to out door life, as does the lavender (which is doing much better than the one I have in the office).
The lemon balm has taken off, as has the oregano, but I'm still waiting for visible signs from the ginger to let me know it's made the transition from ingredient-in-bowl-on-my-kitchen-table to actual-plant-in-dirt. I suppose it's focussing on generating roots, now that it's in dirt, though, so I may have to wait awhile.
r

I was transplanting the greenery I got earlier, and noticed that the rosemary I'd put out last year & never took in & it didn't freeze after all.... has flowers on it! They're just barely touched with violet, really pretty. And when I looked closer, I found lots more flower buds. :-)

Current Mood: undeserved gardener joy

Tonight I:
bought herbs and dirt for transplanting them (2 basil, 2 kinds of mint, lemon balm, some lavender; also a cherry tomato plant).
made an infant smile.
did a load of laundry.
bought groceries.
cooked: made a cake and truffle guts, also cooked artichokes, and now a veggie curry is simmering on the stove.

I didn't get to all the food I'd planned to make tonight, but everything I most wanted to do did get done, so I suppose all is good.

Current Mood: artichoke

(No, this is not an update about my new green silly putty and all the hand stuff. But thanks for asking.)

( growing herbs, the long version )

Current Mood: lightly green thumbed

i had my first chametz mid-morning: a bowl of grape nuts with vanilla spy milk (thanks, queue!)... strange how it didn't feel very different than (from? why can i not keep this in my head?) what i've been eating this week. tonight i'll have actual bread, though. i wonder if it'll taste particularly good?

wildlife notes from the office: a bunch of watched a groundhog from the windows today (i'm glad i don't overlook the parking lot). it was just hanging out for a long while, not far from the hole a skunk apparently lives/lived in. (i haven't seen it.).
the ducks are gone from the tiny pond by muzi ford.

one of the pots of scallions that died in my office & i hadn't gotten around to throwing out yet is making a comeback, with green shoots a couple of inches tall already (this without water in months.)

quiet day in the office. a day of getting small things done, but no one thing i can point to & say it's done. atleast i can bring work home to do over the weekend/do monday from home, so i don't have to take a day off for the pin removal/start of therapy. already one of the boss-people asked when she can move me onto another (typing-heavier) project. feh. therapy will be weeks...
(really, typing one-handed is getting faster. the skills i wish i didn't have to improve...)

happy pi day (though queue beat me to it).

a silver lining to my accident: working on a different project, w/ a different boss, at work (since my typing speed is now snail-like).

the sun is finally high enough in the sky that i don't have to wear a hat to keep the sun out of my eyes in my office. and the rosemary is growing with wild abandon now, despite my not having transplanted it yet. the lavender isn't quite as happy, though. i hope it perks up w/o more dirt - it won't be getting any for a while.

yesterday managed to tie a shoe (hooray!), and the day before figured out how to use a can opener. small steps, but they feel good. hopefully the surgery tomorow will go smoothly, and i'll be able to work on bigger finger steps...

it was good to make it to opn last night, though i probably shouldn't have stayed up as late as i did: i've been needing more sleep (which i assume is good, healing time). still, i wouln't have skipped dinner w/ cthulhia to get there earlier.

glad that things seem to be moving in a positive job direction for many of my currently unemployed friends, hoping the rest will catch the same wave.

i can't believe how soon pesach is, & how unprepared i am. must work on this.

...most of the other thoughts drifting through are even less formed flotsam & jetsam...

one of the things that has finally made it on the to-do-this-week-or-next list is getting potting soil. i have far too many things that need dirt: a couple of spider plants that are sick of a water-only fast (anyone want a spider plant once they're potted? i already have 2.). and some rosemary and lavender that would love larger pots (they're actually overwintering in my office; so far, so good). and the 2 rosemary plants on my porch that i pretty much abandoned to the frost this year but have been hanging on despite everything (maybe that's why the weather has been so temperate? (though this is just nuts. it's january, for heaven's sake!)) which would like a new start, too. and the ginger sitting in a covered bowl on my kitchen table, managing to grow on nothing at all, apparently. not only have they all started to bud, those new bits seem to be getting ready to put up shoots, and there are cool punk-looking roots starting as well. i assume they'd be even more enthusiastic about having something to grow in, and some water every once in a while...

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magid

January 2026

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Page generated Jan. 4th, 2026 06:00 pm

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