Garden, April 4, 2014

Garden, , , , , , ,

DSC02178 After a bit over a week nursing this cold, I was happy to see the progress in the garden.  Several items have continued their bolting.  The cabbage flowers are blooming on two plants.   There seem to be small heads on a couple of plants, and I suspect that these will not bolt, because they may have been too undeveloped when the cold snap hit about a month ago.   The broccoli flowers look great.    One of the mesclun mix is blooming a nice white flower.  The cilantro is blooming white. Some lettuce flowers will open within a week.  The taller dill is budded in a green Queen Ann’s lace pattern.

It seems that there are several kinds of new plants that are growing together very well, providing each other with shelter from the warm afternoon sun.  It is a balmy 76 degrees on the shaded front porch, so one can imagine that the backyard plants may relish a bit of each other’s shade as they grow.

The plantains have started to grow again, though the dead parts look worse than ever.  I can probably cut them down, and separate off the stems for chipping more easily now!  It is time for me to get weeding in order to keep ahead of it.

 

 

 

A Common Cold

Health, Uncategorized, ,

DSC02177 At first, on a Wednesday there was a sore throat, accompanied by  increasing sneezes.  I drank tea at night.  I still had energy.  On day two I vacuumed, and we went shopping.   There was not too much coughing yet.  But it was soon to start, together with a laryngitis.  From Saturday through the next Wednesday, I made my daytime spot on the couch, and slept frequently during the day, marveling that in my younger days, I would work when so afflicted.  Over the next five days I went through at least 1200 tissues isolating coughed up phlegm.  My appetite was going down.  Sunday evening I had a fever of about 100 degrees, and I coughed literally all night incorporating it into a dream story about how good it was that I had this illness, so I could warn a little someone that they needed to watch out for such things.  We determined that I should go to the doctor to get something to relieve the cough.

DSC02176 On day five, we went over to see the medical group.  There was an opening in the resident clinic, and the doctor prescribed these benzonatate pearls, and an over-the counter decongestant, as well as
Amoxicilllin for a little ear inflammation.  Armed with this we went home and I began my regimen of three Amoxicillns per day and four of each of the cough suppressant and decongestant per day.

DSC02175 My coughing has gradually eased up, my throat is no longer sore on day seven.   My wonderful husband took over cooking breakfast, all the meals, and otherwise helped.  I think this is quite a bad cold, though a common one, because it is still lingering.  They told me it would take a while to get rid of the cough.  Tomorrow I will pick up where I left off with the laundry!

Visiting Our Compost Pile

Garden, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

DSC02160 Mr. Possum came to eat from our

compost pile.

DSC02162 Sometimes he did not look  friendly, and I thought about what he could be carrying in the way of noxious microbes and parasites, so I decided to discourage him.

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I remembered a safe formula for discouraging cats and dogs from entering a garden in this book, and thought it would work for possums, so I looked it up.

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Here it is!  DSC02171  I made a quart of this by blending up a whole head of garlic instead of using the garlic powder.  I added the 1/4 cup of Tabasco sauce, a 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil, and  shook it up in the one quart spray bottle.  The spray mechanism did not get plugged with the garlic at any time.  A very small residue on my hands did not hurt my eyes when I rubbed them.

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I squirted a couple of squirts of this into the compost, and lifted the sides off of the compost.  Mr. Possum went scampering down the alley.  I hope he will not return.  I sprayed by far the most of it around and into the garden to discourage cats and dogs from entering our garden.  We’ll see how long the spray effects will last.