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[sticky post] Other ways to contact me [Apr. 4th, 2017|12:06 pm]
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If i quit posting here, feel free to look for me at http://elainegrey.dreamwidth.org/ .

I receive email via google's mail service at the user name elaineforexample.

Confidantes may find more information at http://elainegrey.livejournal.com/654579.html
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Watercolor (6.create) [Nov. 3rd, 2024|07:29 am]
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Looking out window with a candle to see a distant house with candle lit windows and distant wildfire

I have been playing with colored pencils  for a few years, having given up on the iPad and given in to letting myself buy papers and various media. I remember making the decision... when i turned 45 maybe?... to focus one skill instead of so many, and maybe i'd develop some proficiency. Going through my flickr albums recently (to rescue private images from the purge as i no longer pay for the account) reminded me of those choices: such a variety of efforts and creations, then a rapid switch to photography of California landscapes then more and more botany focus.

And then we moved here and the yard became my canvas.

Learning about ADHD put some of my desires in context as color tickles my sense of delight. Trying to find the line between preventing more accumulation of supplies and unfinished objects while actually feeding my creative impulse remains a challenge.  I can observe how i want to start a new notebook for shiny new thing -- new year, new season, new project -- and i don't come close to finishing the pages but i am Done with the thing and the notebook becomes a burden. I'm working on the framing to not say it's a Past Failure, but the notebook no longer embodies hope or aspiration. So that impulse i've addressed by buying thinner, smaller notebooks. This has definitely been a win.  I bought some prismacolor colored pencils in warm and cool primaries and secondaries plus magenta for the CMY primaries, and then some used water color pencils (and sorted out those warm and cool primaries).  For a long time, i've just been sketching to experiment with those colors or doing zentangle inspired sketches. I've had a brush that has its own water reservoir for ages: i've bought more after demonstrating to myself that yes, i'll use them.

This week i actually had something i wanted to illustrate, and i've done a fine job for my skills and the time i took. I know from Christine's viewing that the red glow on the horizon doesn't necessarily read as a fire line, and the scale of the house doesn't give it the distance away i wanted to communicate.

Things continue to weigh heavily. Plus using so much focus at work and having little left over. When i took the quarterly Alzheimer screening test today it seemed harder. Of course, every time it seems hard (they test short term memory by showing cards and you indicate whether you have seen them before), so i will probably continue to have no change. [Note on Sunday when i am actually posting: forgot my med in the morning that helps with depression/ADHD. Hopefully today will go much better with it!]

The prep we did for the first arrival of the fiber technician was valued -- figuring out installation patterns and mapping the property to identify barriers to the trenching --  hopefully we'll continue to manage the project well enough. The trenching isn't scheduled which is maddening, but fortunately we work at home and can keep an eye out for when they just show up. The technician found other things that were supposed to have been done hadn't -- the fiber connection is multiple poles down the road and hasn't been strung all the way to our nearest post.


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(sky, morning watch) [Oct. 24th, 2024|04:21 am]
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I had the last antibiotic yesterday, so if that's been a drag on my system, it will stop. Might just be the waning of the light.  This morning was 51°F on the back deck, essentially balmy, and i sit on the lounge listening to the chorus of insects and frogs under the brilliant last quarter moon. The Moon is near Mars, which in turn is in line with the twins of Gemini. Jupiter is still brilliant in the sky. I've seem one bit of space junk predicted from Heavens Above website, one that wasn't (maybe starlink? maybe brighter than predicted?), and a streak of a meteor.

 https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/features/understanding-the-misunderstood-kessler-syndrome/

I sit out in the morning and see the space craft and space junk, listen to cars and trucks and planes, and set an opening of a novel in my mind -- some alien planet supporting human explorers and settlers -- what transit sounds? What movement in the sky? Other mornings i wonder about space junk and marvel so few space operas have touched on what battle residue over a planet might become -- partly because the clean up would be interesting to read about.

It's interesting how abrupt civil twilight can be. Suddenly light on the trees facing the east and birdsong. Sunrise is still a bit off.

We had the local telecom come down the road this summer stringing something i suspected was fiber. They left terrible ruts in the road verge near our driveway. I poked and it looks like they got a grant to string the fiber and then a few weeks ago we began being pelted with adverts to switch. I dread the process but look forward to the completion. The trenching is the most annoying piece as there are MANY barriers. And of course the process sort of skims past that in documentation. I don't trust the company at all, so the last thing i want is for them to be able to say we are connected (satisfying some grant requirements)  but the trenching not be complete. I'm also out lining worst cases, such as trenching cuts the copper wire and we're left offline (well, dependent on cell service) for a painful amount of time. Then someone shared how the process cut their power line and, bleep. I wish i could expect competence but this company has shown a passion for cost cutting that astounds.I swear half the people in this county spit at the name of the telecom.

post-tags: sky, morning watch
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(sky, night watch, weather, health, f&f, cats) [Oct. 18th, 2024|04:37 am]
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I saw the comet -- barely -- last night. I think looking before the end of nautical twilight is probably too challenging at this point. It's coming down in brightness, so  not as dramatic as a week ago. Also, most photos are timed exposures.  As the moon rose, i could see how the contrast with the night sky changed. The moon rises later tonight, so i hope Christine and i can find a quiet place together. Last night i bumped into lots of retirees at Fearrington including a guy who spent the time announcing all his deductions about where it might be, as i used a star field app on my phone to point right at it.

https://www.cloudynights.com/uploads/monthly_10_2024/post-99-0-76622900-1728841562.jpg shows how

It's been a special year with a total eclipse, a comet, an unexpected fireball, and two nights with low latitude aurora (the second was last week!) -- plus plenty of satellite passes and a few quick meteors, as well.

https://pulse.climate.copernicus.eu/ shows another way the year has been remarkable, and the plot line weighs on me.  And then there's the news.

Meanwhile:

I'm doing better than last week but picked up a course of antibiotics because of continued sinus pressure.

Christine's brother in law is still in the ICU. She's gone to be the family member at hand twice this week to give her sister and B's daughter L a rest. B's cousin-like-a-brother (who has not insignificant issues of his own) is apparently driving in from the west coast again. It's been such a hard year for B's heart: i sure hope the pain and challenge of right now translates to some more years of joy. I worry a little that the trauma - -and whit i hear about sure sounds traumatic -- will be hard to shake.

It makes me appreciate how well  my dissociate-while-reading (or listening to a novel) coping "strategy" has been honed.

Elderly and literally pissy cats continue to make messes where it's easy to clean up, although last night's choice to pee on the scale -- a modern thing that is a clear piece of glass on top -- boggles my mind. How did he pee just there, on top, and not spill it any where? The surface tension was still keeping all the liquid on the top of the scale when i found it.  I remain thankful they are both still with us, and generally they don't seem to be at a point where quality of life has tipped. Marlowe, the much younger girl cat, is attacking Luigi more often though, which i take as a sign of awareness of his weakness. I wish she would stop. It doesn't help that Edward knows he can start picking on Luigi, and Luigi will scream bloody murder, and the monkeys will get moving and get the next meal in the bowl.

Marlow picking on Luigi woke me up too early this morning.

The weather has changed and i've gotten chilled.  Looks like it hit freezing in the front yard at 4 am this morning: today begins frost observation season! I hope the cover on the poblano pepper did its job: temperatures go back up so i didn't pick everything hoping to let it all keep ripening. Maybe the sheltered basil will make it too. I did pick the basil that was more likely to be frosted.

post-tags: sky, night watch, weather, health, f&f, cats
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(f&f, cats, critter watch, sky, morning watch, night watch) [Oct. 11th, 2024|04:10 am]
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B's surgery was sort of OK except the new pump "was drawing a lot of volume," so his sternum was left open and he's been left under anesthesia. Christine's sister seems as OK as possible from Christine's report. She went to yoga which, seems a wise way of handling things, and she and B's daughter been able to visit with B. B's sister and son had been radio silent at last report.

Aurora last night! Barely naked eye visible but they screamed red on the camera, between long exposure and sensitivity, i guess. This morning i took a photo of the northern sky and it was dark, proving to me that it wasn't the camera just making stuff up. I am sitting out side now, despite the crisp air, apologizing to thje plants i haven't brought in yet. Huh, a whiff of musk just floated through

I continued to use the internet to spy on family in Florida, with the happiest discovery Volusia county's road closures. Found J & P's address well clear of any mess. Heard from J & J who hadn't lost power. Heard from J & P's daughter T who would tell us if there was any issue. B looks pretty clear of power outages. My dad's step sister remains a worry, but we aren't close. I only met her when going down to take care of my grandmother. (Moments of bitterness with my mother and how she monopolized family, and no guilt for all the times i swatted my dad's head. The man needs a clue.)

I'm  tolerating all the symptom management, although there's still some morning nausea -- probably because i am not taking sudafed or the inhaled decongestant over night. I don't know why the medical notes say that we discussed what would happen if i stopped the inhaled decongestant. The instructions warn against stopping without discussing with your doctor, the prescription says, "as needed". I'm trying not to consult Dr Google or some random AI about this.

I also have mixed feelings about Duck Duck Go's AI integration: it did find an answer for me ... it might have led me to the Volusia county map, even. But how can we really afford this? Were we willing to pay reference librarians?

The animal rescue hasn't posted any news about the Red Breasted Grosbeak we sent them. I am hoping it's because when they finally took a look at the bird it was fine and flew off. I didn't give it a personal going over after scooping it up from the hall where it was chirping like some squeeky toy.


post-tags: f&f, cats, critter watch, sky, morning watch, night watch
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(health, f&f) [Oct. 9th, 2024|07:11 pm]
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My regrets for not making clear the PayPal notice was for US residents in the 47 states that don't have decent privacy laws. And it's probably a specific type of account -- reading the privacy policy in detail is no fun.

I didn't go out to enjoy the lovely weather for some reason over the weekend, which, in retrospect, might have been the onset of an sinus infection. I've missed some work including all day Tuesday. I am thankful for access to telehealth and being able to get an appointment at a convenient time.  I hate missing work for sickness and getting further out of sync with things, particularly when i want to also be taking time off to work outside.

Christine's brother in law has open heart surgery tomorrow. "They will cut through his sternum to implant the device (open heart surgery), which is run forever more on 4-5 pound batteries that he will wear outside his body by way of high fashion accessories." (Christine clarifies it will be two batteries that are drained in parallel for a total of eight to ten pounds worn.)

I'm also holding friends and family in the path of Milton in my heart. I'm glad not to have my grandmother's safety as a weight.

post-tags: health, f&f
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PayPal sharing data to personalize your experience [Oct. 6th, 2024|02:10 pm]
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"To opt-out of disclosures or Personal Information to Partners and Merchants for personalized shopping experiences, log into your PayPal account and edit your preferences in the Data and Privacy setting."

As of today, using a browser:

1. click gear in upper right
2. in the white bar choose "Data & Privacy"
3. Under "Managed shared info" select "Personalized shopping"
4. Click the on-off button slider

BLEEP surveillance capitalism.

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More Helene gnashing (morning writing) [Oct. 4th, 2024|04:32 am]
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Taking today off for yard work. Have someone coming out to help at 8:30.

I sat outside one morning this week on the glider on the back porch. It seems all the freeking itchy bug (mite?) bites i got correlated with that sitting. They have been itching all week, worse in the evening as the daily antihistamine draws down. The lounge, where i sat outside this summer, got caught in a deluge and then i keep forgetting it before dew fall. Hopefully it can dry all the way out this weekend. I don't know how best to fumigate the cushions or if replacement is the better choice. Maybe more sitting the cushions in the sun and applying diatomaceous earth.

I've been reading the  Department of Environmental Quality's website about Helene impacts. Sooner or later someone will sit down and calculate how much sewage spilled. The sanitary impact of the places without functional waste water treatment plants.....

In Sherwood, near Cove Creek Elementary school, "No power, full of mud. Electric box and blower box are displaced. Fence is destroyed. Influent is full of mud. Not salvageable."

Near Three Top Mountain on Buffalo Creek (West Jefferson?) "WWTP has been washed out & is completely gone."

Balfour/Henderson, south of Asheville (built up area) "Plant is currently not discharging because there is no influent, He believes from Friday around 8-10am, to Saturday to 8-10am the plant was at constant overflow until the influent line broke somewhere. Approx 10 mil (probably overestimated) spill due to overflow at plant. From collections he's expecting about 2.8MGD is spilling somewhere since there is no flow to the plant." MGD -- mega gallons? I dunno. Sounds like way more crap going into the French Broad River watershed than one wants.

The way rivers wind through the Appalachian mountains and Cumberland plateau on their way to the Mississippi is torturous. Someone asked in Asheville once how long it would take the water to flow to the gulf of Mexico, with back-of-napkin estimate of the roughly 2000 miles of river to be 41 days. There are dams, so the reported propane tanks and coffins floating away will stop much earlier. (Yes, i listened to a press conference from a Tennessee county which included acknowledgement of the challenge in  gas and propane restoration, and the thought of propane tanks in big piles of woody debris ... well, that's just great. Also, look at those leaves, a-changing. Might need heat soon.)

All the infrastructure wins in Appalachia were hard won, and not really enough, and ....

In personally selfish news, my watershed seems spared. We have enough issues with the city water getting PFAS and a 1,4-dioxane  spills from Burlington.
Yadkin and Catawba watersheds have a mess coming downstream.

post-tags: morning writing
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Western NC Helene donation options (heath, recommended) [Sep. 30th, 2024|04:21 am]
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No spots and bruising, no storm damage here.

I watched (skimmed) some press conferences Sunday evening  - one from a hard hit Tennessee county, one from the NC governor. I now have the cheerful thought of propane tanks floating down the French Broad River.

While the Red Cross is probably a good place to donate, i've run across a few others:

This org https://mountainprojects.org/ was suggested by Blue Ridge Public radio. They have an unrestricted emergency fund that they use for responding to individual needs in normal times. The run some really good projects, it appears. I feel like a smaller monthly donation to the emergency fund might be one way i can address what i suspect with be years long recovery. I keep thinking of drives in the Blue Ridge, and all i see in my mind's eye are the little valleys, flat bottom flood plains, filled with barns and farms, crossroad stores, and lovely little babbling brooks. And there's a reason those flood plains are flat.

The WNC Regional Livestock Center facebook page has folks asking for help. One place that caught my eye is https://www.misfitmountainnc.org/ : "Misfit Mountain is a foster-based animal rescue in the Greater Asheville area helping dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, and small animals find their forever home."  They point to another shelter in need: https://www.bwar.org/

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(morning writing) [Sep. 21st, 2024|04:44 am]
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The dehydrator is humming behind me, competing in volume for the cricket and other insect serenade. While the sun has come up over the horizon, the  clearing is still in a shady twilight. The moon illuminated the deck as i set up this morning, and if i stood in just the right place, i could see Orion in an Orion shaped gap in the trees. I'm not sure where i am used to seeing Orion: the three stars of the belt were a sharp surprise for me.

Yesterday i took some very old "baby" carrots and chopped them up with my food processor, then blanched them for three minutes, preparing to dehydrate them. I also had a bowl of ripe Matt's wild cherry tomatoes (which self seeds), so i poured the boiling water off the carrots over the tomatoes (and caught it for broth). The carrots dehydrated so very quickly and were packed up within hours. The cherry tomatoes are taking their good time. I really wonder if its worth it, but the flavor in these tiny tomatoes is so intense already - i look forward to the punch this winter.

I made a yummy soup yesterday: the Maine kombu, some of the carrot, some of the carrot water, white miso, rice noodles. There's some shiso beside the orchard (which is an invasive plant that grows up and down the road to the creek). I need to collect at least the plants near the orchard and wonder whether it's worth trying to preserve. I spent some time reading about various ferments; some of the ferments sound barely fermented. Roughly: leave the leaves whole, salt and season between each leaf, roll up, and refrigerate? I'm leaning towards weighing the leaves, calculating the 2.5% ratio of salt, chiffonading the leaves and leaving that to ferment. I am thinking about doing that to basil, too.

I looked at fermenting the cherry tomatoes, but the ripe ones apparently go to alcohol very quickly. While the reference to tomato wine seemed uninteresting (as intended), tomato vinegar sounds interesting. I'm just not sure how much home produced vinegar i will use up. I haven't gotten in the habit of using it yet, and as it is of uncertain acidity, leaving it out on the counter doesn't seem wise.

Now to encourage myself to snack on the fresh bag of baby carrots instead of other sweets.

Also got new glasses lenses yesterday. Where it was hard before to use the progressives for distance, now they seem hard to use while sitting with my laptop. Fie. Maybe i will go back to straight bifocals.

post-tags: morning writing
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(perpetual calendar, cats) [Sep. 19th, 2024|04:20 am]
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Edward went to the vet yesterday for a skin issue we had been treating with skin meds left over from a previous case. The areas are tender and he reacts  in an unusual way: he starts grooming his front paw with such aggression i worry he will hurt himself.  Or he goes rigid and whips his head around to groom-bight anything he can contact with. Once this included my kneecap, which doesn't seem like i thing that would be easy to bite. We are waiting to hear if its some sort of fungal thing -- as a diabetic cat, skin issues are apparently more possible. But he's had a large swath of fur shaved off. Luigi had his belly shaved for the sonogram. They both remind me of how Greybeard, years ago, was shaved to treat a cat bite (if i recall correctly), and the fur never really grew back before he died (which was a year or so later). I hope these elder orange boyos have their coats return to dignified fullness.

Mornings are dark on the deck now. I can barely see -- civil twilight begins at 6:38 AM and i'm out before that --  and there was a dark blob on the door. If it was a big wood roach or water bug or similar i didn't want slipping into the house as i did. I tapped with our snake grabber pole near it and it lept towards me: a green tree frog. I hope my startlement shriek wasn't too widely heard.

Bu the time i should be wrapping up the sun has risen above a horizon i can't see for the trees even in the winter.  The dogwood has lost some leaves but still has red green leaves and now bright red berries. It arches towards the deck, a remnant of a time when it was in a thicket and the stretch was to the light. A Carolina wren flew to it a while ago and sat there fussing. Was Marlowe, sitting all tucked up on the rail in sleepy loaf cat pose, the target of it's fuss? No hummingbirds this morning, but the scent of overripe figs is in the very wet air. I think the hummers have fed on the ripe figs after the wasps open the ripe fruit. Oh! Maybe that's a wren in the fig tree now. Just like for the green  tree fogs i've found in the fig tree (more shrieks of startlement as hand brushes against unexpected creature), i suspect the wasps and fruitflies can be a feast for critters with different appetites than mine.

post-tags: perpetual calendar, cats
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(cats, health) [Sep. 17th, 2024|07:02 pm]
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Luigi's vet visit brought no news.

My Wednesday blood work last week revealed low platelets but otherwise normal blood cells. This points to a condition  more rare than the more concerning causes like leukemia. The proposed diagnosis is  an immune system issue known as Immune thrombocytopenia. I go back tomorrow for more  blood tests including  test to  exclude micro-nutrient deficits and HIV. Next week i have a hematology appointment.

Meanwhile, rainy long weekend. Rainy Monday. Monday night was internet and power outages and lots o disrupted sleep. I think we had at least three inches of rain, but i didn't hit record as i called out the measurements as i made them. I do have a recording of my cussing as i realize i hadn't recorded.

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2024-09-04 perpetual calendar [Sep. 15th, 2024|11:09 am]
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This morning on the deck, a brief moment when the clouds reflected the long red rays and everything was suffused with a rosy glow. A deer snorted in the woods. The rattling call of a woodpecker. Crows -- they circle in the vicinity of where the snag used to be. I imagine they are looking for it. Still plenty of tall pines. I look at the tip of the sweet gum that shielded the septic field from a fall. I want to cut that tree down so the native persimmon - female! with fruit on it!  So i am confident now! --  has light and the American plane tree deeper in the woods have light. I wonder how much that will set me back. I think i can schedule for when the leaves are off an i have time to chip the branches so nothing needs to be carted away.

I'm investing in my almost 20 year old bike to have special tires put on it for just using it as a stationary bike on a trainer. That was the after work task for yesterday: taking it to the shop. I was home while it was still light - -and cool autumnal air -- but did not have any spoons for work in the yard, So Christine encouraged me to sit on the deck and enjoy it.

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(perpetual calendar, observe, f&f, yard, cats, health) [Sep. 11th, 2024|04:30 am]
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Feeling appreciative of the weather change that made for getting things done in the yard Sunday and Monday evening pleasant.  Leaves are changing in hints here and there, mostly on the early trees of elm, tulip poplar, and cherry. The black cherry and elm just drop their leaves -- the tree still seems green but underneath is brown leaf fall. Tulip poplar leaves -- which have just barely started -- do spot the tree yellow, but in exchange they are almost black under the tree. Driving through the area i can see the shift in the green, hinting at colors underneath.

Mornings are darker and darker. This morning i observed a sparkling of stars against the sky, mistook Aldebaran (+0.85) for Mars (+0.6) near shining Jupiter (–2.3). Bright Capella (+0.08) stood out as well.

Stellar brightness is on an counter-intuitive scale where a smaller (negative) number is brighter.

Saturday we observed my Mom's birthday and i ran errands. i was surprisingly exhausted at the end, but the wheeled string trimmer will now start.

My bicycle is now home, with a new tire and tube on the back that will presumably be quieter and more efficient on the trainer, and a solid foam tube replacement on the front, to minimize having to pump it up. Also new grips, as the others had degraded rubber.

I made spiced apple fig jam on Sunday, steam canned it, and all the lids took! I wiped the edges this time instead of just trusting i had kept them clean, so that helped. I actually have a nice stash of canned foods for gifts this year. Did i cook the jam too long and it's going to be a solid gummy lump? I'll open our jar before i give it all away.

Work is overwhelming with context switching and never any time to follow up. Last night i worked late to prepare for an interview for a peer role today. I'm feeling very insecure about pressures on me to carry a software engineer's knowledge -- what i was cramming last night -- but that's not where my focus has been. I don't think i need to worry about not being appreciated, but yeah, i worry about expectations from our new exec directory & director management layers. They haven't shown themselves well in some other contexts.

Luigi, one of our two older ex-Tom cats, is peeing in the bedroom bathroom very frequently, matching his drinking. He's arthritic and i suspect he knows he can make it to the shower stall. This morning he didn't quite. It's a tile floor, a hard surface. Not the bed! And he is the sweetest, most companionable soul. We'll clean up pee forever if he is otherwise willing to stay with us.He joins me on the lounge in the morning, and sits between Christine and i on the couch at lunch and in the evening. Christine says he's calling her to sit outside with him now during the day. He's getting multiple treatments for the arthritis and Christine will continue pursuit of the borderline... thyroid thingy? It's the one where the cat gets radiology and then has to stay in isolation for a few weeks. Christine is indignant that he was turned down for treatment, but i don't think she's thought through the isolation that comes with the treatment.

We have a fencing contractor who has shown up to look at the work now, and seems likely to provide an estimate - -two, in fact. One might be with cheaper galvanized wire which -- sure! As long as the mesh size is small enough, we are game. If we hate it, there's [a very limited number of latex acrylic] spray paint.

For the petechiae and bruising, I go for more blood tests today, and i think my doctor will be referring me to a hematologist or dermatologist. I'm hoping for hematology because the optometrist noticed a blood vessel that had broken (nothing to worry about, you probably lifted something) so the capillary breaking isn't just the skin. On the other hand, WTF Buttercup with the waves of petechiae and bruises? Rhetorical question that. I am minimizing non direct doctor reading about this ... ah, fiddlesticks, went and did more reading. "The clinical approach to these disorders rests upon an astute clinician considering the diagnosis and identifying the specific patterns of clinical, radiologic, laboratory, and pathologic abnormalities." Stop reading!

post-tags: perpetual calendar, observe, f&f, yard, cats, health
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Entropy (morning writing) [Sep. 3rd, 2024|04:27 am]
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Long weekend was a battle with entropy and chaos. No attention to the fig tree which is covered with tatters of rotten and moldy and wasp eaten figs.  (Slight exaggeration. But i have some suspicion that removing ripening figs stimulates more production?)

Despite heavy weed and cutleaf coneflower pressure the Lycoris radiata (Red Spider Lily aka Huricane lily) are blooming.

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(perpetual calendar, garden, work, geek, health) [Aug. 29th, 2024|04:16 am]
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The owl cried in the distance as the first light from the sun turned the top of the pine snag red. It was one long hoot, but the end of the crickets evening chorus and the dehumidifier running to finish off three sheets of fig leather made it hard to capture as a recording. The crows, too, were hard to catch on Merlins, but then the Arcadian flycatcher set off and traffic picked up. There was no way Merlins was going to isolate those single haunting calla.

When i came out this morning to just cricket song, Jupiter shimmered in the top of the black cherry tree -- it's loosing its leaves already, as it does. (Which is why i hope it will be OK for solar if they stayed.) [At this point, search and read about black cherry log values.]

The tulip poplars to the west of the orchard have a few yellow leaves. I think the dogwood next to the deck is putting on such a vibrant show this year because we thinned the trees around it, and it gets much more sun. I ponder the tulip polar at the north east corner of the house. It does a good job shading the vegetable garden in the summer. I like that for working in the garden, but that might be why okra and tomatoes started dropping off. This summer, i've grown nothing but the native perennials and the strawberries and some dahlias. The dahlias either haven't bloomed yet (two new heirloom types that i suspect might have good tasting tubers) or have been swallowed up by the native kidney bean (which appears to have also overpowered the sunchokes).

I get a whiff of the overripe figs.

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( perpetual calendar) [Aug. 26th, 2024|07:35 pm]
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8( Just used our snake grabber to haul a copperhead out from the garage. Also found a use for my hyper-local bitters from my own extracts, mint extract, green walnut extract, rose extract. The alcohol convinced it to move out of it's hidey corner and then -- once i had removed it, i splashed alcohol all across the garage door entry. Snakes.  Adrenaline plus here tonight.

Christine finds snakes extremely distressing but we both held it together. I'm not *excited* about a copperhead in the garage at all.  I want to get cinnamon oil and suffuse the house with it.

post-tags: perpetual calendar
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Fig mustard (recipe, f&f, health, garden) [Aug. 20th, 2024|04:25 am]
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A hawk cried across the sky, screamed from the western pine snag, and has moved along. The crow calls have stopped as well, so i suppose they were threatening to harass it.

It is in the mid 60s (°F) outside and the nearest dogwood is fluorescing red as the green fades. It arches over the yellow of the cutleaf coneflower. I can't smell the figs this morning, but there are so many and I am so behind. The hornets cut through some of the organza bags, so i used the bags less, a bit. I can see, though, that the bags helped with fruit flies. It's just so slow to put on the bags, and so many figs to pick.

I made and had a 5 jar out of 9 success in canning the following sauce recipe on Saturday, and have a couple more quart jars of the dried figs. (More raisin-tender than the rocks I made when i was terrified of moisture.) I fermented some puree that i used to replace water in my buckwheat bread recipe after seeing recipes for fermented fig butter. Those recipes called for adding kvass, which sounds like essentially lightly fermented fruit jusice. Since the figs are fermenting fine, i didn't bother. I wonder though what the bright ruby juice that separates from the solids tastes like. I wonder lots of things but i also wonder if i have the time to experiment.

A reliable fig apple jam recipe for canning is surprisingly hard to come by. I shall wing it this week.

I had some self critical spirals that may be entwined with worrying about how i am bruising and developing petechiae. (From falling down and scraping up my arm and legs? No bruises from that. Tapping my chin on the ladder? A big black bruise on my chin.) I'm feeling a little better We had a short notice gathering with my sister and her family last night to celebrate their eldest who moves into his dorms at NYU on Saturday. He is such a great kid, er, young man. I love listening to him and Christine talk.

I've bought some seaweed foraged in Maine: Irish Moss, "Kombu" (given as Laminaria digitata so an Atlantic species), and a Soup Mix - "Wakame" (Alaria esculenta), Sugar Kelp (Saccharina latissima), "Kombu" (Laminaria digitata). Saccharina latissima ios also known as Kombu

--== ∞ ==--

My idiosyncratic recipe development where i am trying to figure out how much of each recipe quality is needed so i can substitute and riff away, and also guestimate the quantity.

*Aromatics & Spices (~ 0.5 cup)*

*

1/4 cup olive oil

*

1/2 - 1/3 cup fresh alliums (onions, garlic) Using *my walking onion
tops* and bottoms

*

1 tbsp peeled and chopped ginger

*

/HEAT 7 tsp/

o

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

o

1 tbsp (1 dried pepper) ancho/poblano (/If using whole peppers,
bloom with  onions)/

o

/2024-08-17: used two of my 2022 cayenne peppers during the
onion stage. Noticeable heat!/

o

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper /2024-08-17 used up the
last of the white pepper. Meh. Had to add black pepper later./

*

Ground spices

o

2 teaspoons ground **my *coriander
*

o

1 teaspoon ground cumin

o

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice /2024-08-17  used clove/

*

Umami

o

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

*

/2024-08-17: two eights of a preserved lime - So! Much! Salt!/

1.

Grind coriander seed.

2.

Measure spices into bowl

3.

Prep onions and ginger

4.

Heat oil in pan, add alliums, soften

5.

Bloom spices

6.

Add umami (and preserved lime)

*FIGS*

Two quart jars of very ripe figs ~ 3 - 4 cups as fig puree. Used 2.25 cooked ripe figs and pureed another quart jar with very ripe figs

*ACID*

2 3/4 cups of spiced and sweetened apple cider vinegar. /2024-08-17 left over from making spiced pickled apples. Had a 1:3 or 1:4 ratio with brown sugar.
/

*Mustard (or 1 cup Dijon)*

*

2/3 c water in bowl

*

1/3 c yellow mustard powder

*

1/3 c distilled vinegar

1.

Assemble 15 min timer, whisk, measured water in vessel > 1 cup,
distilled vinegar, mustard powder, 1/3 c measure.

2.

Add powder, set timer for 5 - 15 min, measure vinegar /2024-08-17 10
minutes was not too much of a kick/

3.

At timer, add vinegar to stop heat development

7. Add fig puree and vinegar

*Final adjustments*
//

/Added black pepper , 2024-08-18/

*

1 tablespoon kosher salt

*

additional vinegar

* Processing *

Simmer until thick enough, well over 30 min, dropping a noticeable amount in the pot.

15 min water/steam processing of 8 4 oz jars and one pint, plus about 8 oz un-canned.  (~56 fluid oz)


post-tags: recipe, f&f, health, garden
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(perpetual calendar, health) [Aug. 16th, 2024|12:07 pm]
E.G.
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Spider season is here and a freaking large Argiope aurantia is on the north orchard fence which i weed whacked yesterday. I could see the spider from the bathroom at dusk as it hung suspended at the height of the garage eve , at least twenty ft away from me (but more like 25 ft). Spiders give me the heebie jeebies. These heebie jeebies are big.

Wednesday night we came home from the grocery and the bit of night was suspended in  space above the path to the neglected and overgrown garden plot. It turned out to be a black morph tiger swallowtail that broke loose of the web when Christine went to check.

The survivor dogwood in the orchard and the one just to the south east of the orchard are turning red.

I saw one firefly high in the pines last night after weeks of no sighting. //

Between carrying the weed whacker and wearing a posture monitor, my right shoulder area is a painful mess this morning.I have also progressed from petechiae to tiny random bleeds. (I know mosquito bites and these are not mosquito bites.) Dear skin, please hold everything together so i can have a retirement of gardening. Dear muscles, i am sorry i didn't use you for ages. Please have some plasticity and learn to be used. Thank you!

post-tags:  perpetual calendar, health
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(morning writing, cats) [Aug. 14th, 2024|04:16 am]
E.G.
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As i tuck my legs under my nightgown's skirt, to hide from the mosquitoes and -- glorious! -- the 61°F temp*, i see whole snapper and imagine trying my hand at fish head stews. Later, in the fall. A sheet pan of tiny baked perch fillets will do nicely in the freezer as lunch time taco filling.

Marlowe is attacking Luigi more now. He's clearly less stable on his legs and has moved into some new stage of aging. Is she attacking because she senses something else wrong? We will so miss this sweet old man of a cat when he passes. He's so delighted to be between us on the couch at lunch and during the evening. He used to sleep with us at night, but i think adjusting to tossing humans is hard on him now.

Well, i've made little progress on morning to-dos, there are too many -- but i want to bag some figs before the wasps are out. I'm hoping the cooler morning has held them back.

* Dew point 60°F: it's dripping wet and there's a light fog between me and the clear sky and the sun lit pine tops.

post-tags: morning writing, cats
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My week off, part 1 (f&f, dad, observe, garden, preservation, road trip) [Aug. 12th, 2024|03:39 am]
E.G.
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3 -11 August my week off by the numbers:

Reread five novels and two novellas from the Miles Vorkosigan series from Lois McMaster Bujold.

We had three power outages, but i was away for the Thursday morning one.

* 2024-08-03 Sat 16:44 - 19:14 "caused by fallen trees or limbs damaging our equipment."
* 2024-08-08 Thur 06:55 - 09:04 (During Debby) "was caused by fallen trees or limbs damaging our equipment."
* 2024-08-09 Fri  06:50 - 08:38 (During Debby) "was caused by fallen trees or limbs damaging our equipment."

6.01 inches of rain (recorded 9:45 am Sat .97+.68+.99+.86+1.0+.77+.74 mostly clear, sun just coming over the trees)

15.58 ft height of Haw River at Bynum 2024-08-09 09:45

Gathering of twelve family members to inurn my mother at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday

Dinner on Wednesday and a visit to the National Cathedral  on Thursday with ten family members

Lunch at a Richmond deli with six family members.

Around ten hours of I95 and I85 travel.

Eleven pounds of apples, at least two pounds of figs, 20 plus figs in organza bags on the tree, and lots of fruitfly and wasp infested figs to deal with.  (Yay, the green organza bags don't stand out. Um, oops, i am now hiding the figs from me, too.)

Three 12 oz jars sealed of spiced apples in syrup, two failed seals, one quart i didn't even try to seal.

One sealed quart spiced pickled apples.  Around three cups leftover sweet spiced vinegar brine.

One quart fermenting mixed fruit for vinegar. One quart apple cores with champagne yeast fermenting for vinegar. Third quart jar collecting apples cores and really ripe figs, with champagne yeast, to make more vinegar.

Four spice packs, a gift for Christine, two floor mats, a steam canner, and an electronic posture monitor ordered.

--== ∞ ==--
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(morning writing) [Aug. 1st, 2024|04:53 am]
E.G.
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In good news, Dad's sweetie is home with mega antibiotics for lung infection -- but not TB. Which also means her dog Jenny is home with her, and Christine and i can quit strategizing about how Christine could take care of Jenny while Dad and I join other family in Arlington to "inurn" mom's ashes on Wednesday.

Wah, i took a major spill and scraped up both knees (blood dripping down my leg, hem of dress) and my left forearm. I did something to my right wrist, my back is complaining, and all together feel whimpery. ... And the mower battery failed to charge so i guess that's the universe telling me to stay in. This will join the flush of bruises and petechiae that splashed across me last weekend. At least i know where these marks came from.

Turns out the hydrogen peroxide expired in 2017. It stung a little -- although maybe water would have stung.

Also, it turns out bleach isn't reliable for disinfecting after 4 (or 6 ) months. The county hurricane preparedness guide notes to only use bleach less than 4 months old. I look at the barely used gallon of bleach that i do not know when i bought. Sigh.

The Frankfurt school of philosophy looks interesting. Christine is probably right that i am not up to reading philosophy right now. Maybe when i retire.

I've been meaning to dump some plant trays with water but now they are swarming with tadpoles. We'll transfer them to the small wading pool i have submerged as a test pond (test passed; don't have time or energy to go the next steps) sooner or later --  before they become interesting prey.

post-tags: morning writing
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Re TB (recommended) [Jul. 31st, 2024|04:14 am]
E.G.
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This is a fascinating paper:

Merrill, Ray M., Spencer S. Davis, Gordon B. Lindsay, and Elena Khomitch. “Explanations for 20th Century Tuberculosis Decline: How the Public Gets It Wrong.” /Journal of Tuberculosis Research/ 4, no. 3 (August 9, 2016): 111–21. https://doi.org/10.4236/jtr.2016.43014.

I found it looking for a graph of the rate to TB in the US in the 20th century. This graph shows deaths. You have to take the authors' word for it that "The decline of tuberculosis in the United States is similar to that in England and Wales." They note, " Even with the use of the BCG vaccine in England and Wales, and the use of streptomycin in the United States, there was not a significant change in the rate of decline of tuberculosis deaths"

They put much of the decrease in TB deaths on improved living conditions, hygiene, and nutrition which reduced the transmission and strengthened people's immune system. Apparently there was lots of spitting in public.

I'm pretty sure this last round of public health training failed to get me washing my hands for twenty seconds, but i did get the elbow message.


post-tags: recommended
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UPDATE - It's a precaution [Jul. 30th, 2024|05:42 am]
E.G.
Dad's sweetie is in isolation just in case she has tuberculosis.

>_
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(morning writing) [Jul. 30th, 2024|04:34 am]
E.G.
[Tags|]

Weekend with weather that supported getting yard work done. Back to wet.

Dad's sweetie in in the hospital with an active case of ... tuberculosis. Reading how that bacterial infection behaves -- it can be latent for decades -- activating when your immune system finally can't hold it off any more -- makes me so thankful for modern medicine, so angry at the  forces that  have rebelled against caring for the community of all of us because "i don wanna". There are lots of things modern medicine cannot do, and there are Issues, but still.

Anyhow, i am clear that if the state health system doesn't, i'll nag dad to get a TB test in eight to ten weeks. I am intellectually aware that it will be fine to be in a car and hotel room with him next week to go to DC and "inurn" Mom in Arlington National Cemetery. (Other things, like his persistent procrastination and his desire to bail from seeing the family who are gathering for the event, make me irritated, but i also assume it's both grief and  the edge of recognizing his own mortality.)

post-tags: morning writing
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(morning writing, depression) [Jul. 26th, 2024|04:15 am]
E.G.
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I know i was moody and depressed yesterday. I'd not sat out on the deck for morning light and haven't gone out for even a short walk for days. Christine is in a migraine flare and was also depressed. We both tried hard not to feedback on each other. I ended up taking Carrie for a nice walk and hope that that and sitting out this morning with birds singing in the fog that has settled down in the pines will help put me back on track. Both of our sisters have remarked on the gloom for the past week: it's not just us.  Mushrooms were everywhere in Fearrington's central park, but the drought status for the state  still has some sections in severe drought and much of the state abnormally dry. One town in the agriculture heavy coastal plain, Williamston, had it's 2nd driest June on record and is not on track to have it's second wettest July on record -- and no hurricane help for that.

post-tags: morning writing, depression
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(ADHD) [Jul. 25th, 2024|09:46 am]
E.G.
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( Tiny Habits and ruminationCollapse )
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(morning writing, reading notes) [Jul. 18th, 2024|04:45 am]
E.G.
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I currently have an opportunity to investigate my negative thoughts. Certainly Christine's week of migraines and then deep distress on Sunday was hard, and i wasn't doing the best job shielding myself from her feelings. I'll frame that as showing a general good in our life though. She continues to have more capacity for wobbles and more positive energy day to day. I am not as practiced at the emotional boundary. And, indeed it goes both ways, as my current dip is something she was noticing and having to hold off yesterday.

I did want to visit with my sister for cheer on Tuesday, but the walk along her shady but hilly roads did not facilitate as much of a heart to heart once we were on the return, drenched with sweat. At her home, there was something about her husband T's conversational topic (shopping estate sales) that poked me. I am judgemental about my shopping patterns (too much stuff) and think of my mother's closets of very very similar slacks, and stacks of projects, and huge stash of stale but very expensive spices and seasonings. I am very aware of the positive anticipatory energy of picking out project stuff or outfits or ingredients -- i spent time yesterday going through on sale pens and papers at Amazon Prime but did not pull the trigger, partly because somewhere in the house is a box of beautiful washi tape from a previous Prime sale, and there are boxes of papers, and since moving i have carefully curated pens and pen refills. And it's not like i've used them up yet! Anyhow, there's a tension with messages of indulgence and the self knowledge that certain things aren't *really* an indulgence. A bunch of pens  seems innocuous, but when they arrive: where do i put them? How do i feel in four months when i see them and haven't used them? Indulgence woudl be remembering to play with the watercolor pencils that i bought a few weeks ago instead of the distraction of looking at pens.

I had tried escaping into a book, but Tuesday night's book was Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear and -- yay! I've imagined  stories about the something triggering some of our latent, ancient genes into expressing proteins that have fascinating outcomes -- the main woman character's life situation, the CDC's political maneuverings, the context of discovery -- all bleeping depressing. Don't need that.

Last night i read a Nathan Lowell book which is somewhat cozy science fiction, and it was all about the incredibly successful crew of the cargo hauling and trading spaceship being asked to take on a new ship and train cadets -- what were the dynamics of trying to bring on a second set of officers? Who pays for outfitting the new ship? Why is one of the new crew so resentful? What's going on with the instructional designer? What will the results of trying to develop a new curriculum be? Will the main character get past his grief at his great love's murder? Will the two pairs of two friends ever develop any romantic relationships? Or will captain pair up with captain? Tune in to the next book to find out, i suppose, except they did solve who was going to pay for the ship outfitting in the last chapter where the actual negotiations of how to create the educational foundation occurred "off screen" as it were, and the book ends with the CEO making sure the primary stockholder (narrator, ship captain,  and best friend) isn't upset that the CEO completed the negotiation without consult.

I dunno, i think a little editing could have slimmed down the book OR made more vivid the thrashing over whether one gets top of the line mattresses or midrange.

post-tags: morning writing, reading notes
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(morning writing) [Jul. 16th, 2024|04:38 am]
E.G.
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Last week was busy, with Wednesday a doctor's visit to have all the blood drawn and verify that my breaking out in spots was not for any serious concern. A luxury of walking in the air conditioned mall and a lunch out for a avocado mango crab salad at the Nordstrom cafe. Then hours assisting my dad with tech support calls, setting him up with a new email account at my provider, and changing default email addresses. (I repeat the notes from below)

Thursday i stopped work early, started working in the yard at 3 and worked almost to 8.

Friday i worked late, during a lovely rainy day.

Saturday i woke late, and remembered at the last minute our nephew was invited over in the evening. We did the usual last minute cleaning and had a lovely visit. I actually won at Scrabble, which was a byproduct of having the valid two letter words out, getting both blanks, and pulled the Q and U at the same time. Best racks ever. Meanwhile, there was an assassination attempt on the former president and the level of "what next" just punched me in the gut.

Sunday was hard. My nephew's choice of conservatory triggered deep painful memories for Christine, compounded by her discovery that a metric she was using to indicate success with her radio station was inflated by stream rippers. Her melancholia is deep and i've had a hard time pushing it from me and saying, "not my feelings." The concern i felt about reactions to the shooting didn't help. As the limited facts have come out, it seems less like a tipping point and more like Moar Drama. The conspiracy mills will continue and the Secret Service will be pilloried (and maybe they should be?).

I am pondering all the heat warning in the news and wonder. I think i have screen grabs of "feels like 106°F" from the second summer we were here and i was out all day every weekend cleaning up the property. I'm not sure i need to hide inside as much as i want to. But the warnings from the weather service and the  "i'm worried about the heat" from Christine makes it so much easier to demotivate. I'm very glad i was out on Thursday, when it was still a sauna, but not oppressively so. I wish i could have taken even more time off while it was nice.

Mulberries are done. I need to figure out how to tell if apples are ripe: the color on the front tree seems to be moving from a green to gold. ...video... Hmm, the seed color seems a good check. I feel the front apple may hold it's fruit more tightly than average.....

From Thurs July 11:

This morning is remarkably *not* oppressive outside. Thank you weather that came through overnight. I drove through a rainstorm coming home yesterday evening to find it turned off at the east end of our road.

Why does the humming bird visit the fig tree? It hovers like an Imperial droid surveying the planet.

There is some creature to the south east that sound like a chicken, the long drawn out first vocalization before the clucks: braaaaaa. A little raspy.  I think it's too quiet for the Merlins app to pick it up, and it might be an amphibian.

Yesterday was draining with a doctors appointment surrounded by meetings in the parking lot or at the nearby mall, then a long afternoon of tech support for my Dad. I stood in for him with tech support for his 20+ year old email then set up a new domain for him and added an email onto my rackspace subscription. I was so delighted his first choice of domain was available!

post-tags: morning writing
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(health, household) [Jul. 9th, 2024|04:38 am]
E.G.
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This morning, after sneezing so many times and my eyes are watering ...

i'm sneezing like, like.... what sneezes so much? A woman with allergies and three cats and a dog and a dusty house? And, ah-ha! Who forgot her antihistamine last night.

We've  ordered three new air purifiers. I think it's overkill but Christine was in a mood to throw technology at issues, i guess. We have one that's well over ten years old running in the room with the litter box: Christine plans to keep that going, although i wonder if it's worth doing so. (Whether the effectiveness and energy efficiency i far superior now) We'll add one that will be near the main air exchange intake, reasonably close to room with the litter box and where it can address the main living area. Then a smaller one for the bedroom (where Carrie and i both sleep) and the front room (where Carrie and i both spend much of the day).

The reviews stressed how energy efficient all these are. I thought briefly about wondering whether we should just get a whole house purifier to go with a whole house dehumidifier, but i'm not really clear on how a whole house purifier differs from the filters on the HVAC as it is. Presumably more power to cycle the air and more frequency?   The whole house dehumidifier would benefit from sharing some logic with the heat pump in the summer: cooling pulls out a good bit of the humidity. When it's really hot we don't need to run the dehumidifier because the cooling takes care of it. When it's not, all of us breathing increases the humidity

I know we need to get a good shop vac to clean out our vents someday. The initial shop vac purchase turned out to be a bust.  Hmm, [researches shop vacs, makes two to-dos]. [...And then the  third to actually do the vents]

post-tags: health, household
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