One of us here checks out the articles almost every day and we know one another's favorite writers and particular interest. Whoever does the reading that day will make sure to tell the others what to check out in the weekly newsletter. (I read that anyway. Got to have my botanical word of the week. ) Don't hesitate to bring it to our attention if you think there is something special or timely. That was an article best enjoyed TODAY and an article by you is always special to us.
I gravitate toward the older articles. They are usually good and I haven't been around DG so long that I've read them all before. And, I could see how some, like "T'was the Night Before Sowing" and your latest could become like yearly DG traditions.
Nadine and I have been roasting marshmallow Peeps over candles. (Too wet for a fire outside tonight.) . (Marshmallow Christmas trees, actually, but they are still called Peeps.) Jim says he's a little worried about us, but they are good. We've decided to christen it Peeps Brulee. Kay*
Compassion For Physically Challanged Gardeners #13
Back again!!! Still so depressed. Am trying to clean,rearrainge the whole house. Slow work.Knees giving me problems. Will also try to get some nitro glycern tablets to help non serious chest and back pains.
Snow in forcast for Sunday.Looks like Debra may get it first.
Katie, pick a fresh orange for all of us and eat and injoy it for us.Glad you now have another friend you can injoy next door.
Carrie, Will go and look for your article. I do injoy those articles.
If i can find my bag of marshmellows, I'll roast one over a candle too.
My bare Christmas tree is still up cause I've been cleaning the front bedroom.Tomorrow it will come down. But i've said that before. Guess i could hang plastic Easter eggs on it and call it a big Easter tree.
Are we all still hanging in there?!!!
Vickie
Vickie, glad you are posting. I have serious depression issues and sometimes there is just nothing to do but hang in. Please don't hide, though. I used to do that more and am still inclined that way, especially after things like what happened with my neighbor. I now force myself to post even when I want to hide.I find it really does help.
I think most of us here have problems with depression as it usually comes along with pain, especially chronic pain. It sucks. My new medication seems to be helping some but I often have to just get through it. If I can distract myself with a funny DVD or a good book I do that. Or play with the dogs. Sometimes I think of my father who was a depressed alchoholic judge and I can hear in DRONING, "I only want you to be happy." That usually get me to laughing. Wish you could here me imitate him. Think tof he most miserable person you know saying "I only want you to be happy" and you'll have an idea.
My neighbor went me a cheery email yesterday. "Haven't seen you in weeks. How was Christmas" etc. I swear I had smoke coming out my ears I was so mad. I knew it was best not to respond to her so I wrote to a couple of friends. One person wrote back - the neighbor is "goading you." It is the perfect description. It's funny how sometimes putting the right description to a situation can be so much help.. My neighbor thinks I'm not to bright and she needles me a lot. I didn't let myself see how much or how much it was hurting until the party thing came up. My blinders are off now. I will continue to stay away from her and if (when, I'd guess) she comes over her, she will see really dumb. "OH, we've just been busy." etc.
Tony's new word for today is "goad." He got it immediately. He's very bright and I think most people don't realize or appreciate that.
We've had cloud cover the last couple of days so it's a little warmer. Lots of birds around. Don't know if the are passing through on their way north but they're her in great numbers and making lots of noise.
I have a large stack of dirty dishes calling my name. I want to do them before I'm fully awake.
hugs, katie
Katie, You have the right idea about when to do the dirty dishes.LOL I'll have to try that.
As for your neighbor.....I now have a mental picture of her as a toad goading.That made me laugh. A big ugly toad goad!!!
You're gonna get thru this girl! Don't give her more importance than she deserves.
I love it - a goad toad.
My ankle is almost all better. I woke up at 5:30, feeling good and was down working with a pick and shovel in the arroyo when Tony arrived. We haven't worked together for a long time and it was fun. I only worked for a couple of hours. It's been months since I felt well enough to do some real physical work and I don't want to be too sore tomorrow.
I think things will work out with the neighbor. We won't be real good friends but there won't be any open hostilities. Right now I'm kind of enjoying knowing that she's got to be sweating my avoiding her. The good news is that it's no longer a big deal. At least as far as I'm concerned.
hugs, katie
Nadine, these pieces are tatting. My great-grandmother made the doily, a friend made the collar. Have them framed and hanging in my hallway.
Debra
Excellent examples of tatting, Debra, and very beautiful. I'm still wondering whether it's possibly true it could be just 19th and 20th centuries! I thought it was a way older custom than that.
It may have been given the name "tatting" and formalized craft that recently, but it is an ancient art. Bored seaman have been making knotted pretties for their wives, daughters and girlfriends as long as there have been bored and lonely seamen. And, those ladies have been picking apart how it was done and refining the process. I've never tatted, but I bet I already have the skills from netting. It is all done with the same knots I would wager.
My father couldn't walk for several years after an accident. He made fishing nets and little ornamental things sold to tourist on the beach to help my mother keep us afloat financially. He traded a pile of fish nets for several old outboard boat engines and that was the beginning of Sorensen Marine. A few years later, he was limping down the aisle at a convention of Chrysler Marine dealers to accept an award from Lee Iaccoca. Sorensen Marine had become the largest Chreysler Marine dealership in the SE. (Largest in volume of sales, that is. Physically, it was never more than a modest brick building in one corner of our property.) Tatting is not just a frivolous art practiced by elderly women in my mind. Knotting has always run the gammet from utilitarian to beautiful works of art.
Kay*
That is neat looking, Debra. I may try something like that to keep my small motor skills. I've been making jewelry to do that. That can get a little expensive though, if you want to make stuff ladies will actually wear. I could start with netting and work my way down to smaller more elaborate stuff, if Kay is right about it being the same basic skills.
I had to get my nephew to solder some small electronic components because I was too shaky. Don't know yet if it is the meds or because the DDD has leapfrogged up the spinal column to the vertebrae that control arm movements. If it is part of the disease, I'm going to fight it tooth and nail. Whatever works. According to that Wiki article, netting has a long history of being used as a rehabilitation skill.
Neither Kay nor Nadi are much on jewelry, but ornamental nets are still classic home decor along the coast. Our living room and back porch both have a nautical theme. You see them used in gardens as well to give vines something to climb on. Thanks for the idea. (Jim)
I used to enjoy Macrame. after obtaining a book on the subject, I proceeded to make what would best be called a 'sampler'. That was some 30+ years ago. It hangs on the wall in my hall. Unfinished to this day, a plastic bag at the bottom still holds the many strands of hemp or whatever type of twine I was using.
Sheri
That's just what I was going to say, Sheri, MACRAME! Very useful for hanging pots of plants in windows.
I made one! I made one! Way back when.Can't beleive i still don't have it.
Now i want to make a dream catcher, out of stuff i gather up myself in the woods.
Good morning everyone. I've been to town and done what errands I can. Got my American car insureance payment handled. Am feeling a little less overwhelmed.
My ankle is sore again. I dont think I reripped the tendon but it hurts so I've got a brace on it and I'm going to lie down.
Wish all of you who are dealing with snow could be here. It is chlly but clear and beautiful. Lots of birds. I have two hawks nests visible from the west side of my house. They nest on telephone poles. We're working on the arroyo on the west side so I get to watch them. Had a fledgling hawk trapped in my back yard a few months ago. Fortunately it figured out how to get out. I was not looking forward to trying to work on or around a hawk.
My ear still hurts. My hands hurt. Various other aches and pains. I did a physical inventory this morning. Yuk. Doing what I can and letting the rest be.
hugs all around, katie
Physical inventories are overrated. DH does one every night.
OK, I'll stick with saying I feel like crap.
katie
a nice comprehensive term, katie. :-)
i envy you the hawks. love to watch them, they just stay too far up to get a good view. LOL
Good news today. When I did errands yesterday I visited the pharmacist Ruben and asked him about something for my ear. He gave me some drops. I used them yesterday afternoon. Didn't notice much change this morning when I got up but now (four hours later) my ear seems to be clear and there is hardly any pain left in my jaw. What a relief.
Tony and I worked on the arroyo Tomorrow we'll probably go to the dump to look for more discarded tires. The work is coming along relly well. Yesterday I also checked out a dump that is not far from my house. No tires but lots of palm logs if we ever get the energy to hook the trailer up. Maybe next week, I said to Tony. I seem to do well with the manyana idea.
For now, more ears drops and a George Carlin DVD.
hugs, kb
Hi All,
Plenty of palm trees down here but they are shivering from the frosty nights that we have been having. Not good for my shoulders with rheumatoid arthritis as they can become very painful and my rheumatoligist told me not to do any lifting or high reaching so I hired a cleaning service to clean my quarters as I live with my son and DIL. Very happy I did because my bathroom, hallway and bedroom are immaculate just like it used to be when I was in better health and much younger. I'll have her come in every month to keep it that way. As for my tomato garden --- the cold snaps has taken its toll as I explained on the self contained thread as I do all in earthboxes (EB's) and they make my gardening much easier.
Hi, Tplant! Welcome back to the forum. Sounds like I need to re-think my plans for escaping this cold by heading down to St. Pete or Crystal River. I haven't got my Honeybell orange fix yet this year. Hope this cold didn't damage the harvest. Haven't been watching the news. I didn't realize the cold had crept down that far. Kay*
Today, the bossy-lady had us burning the front embankment to get rid of the stubble from the seacane (arundo donax, elephant grass, wild cane, whatever you want to call it.) Most of the names we use around here can't be repeated. The plan is that once we get rid of the stubble, we will be able to keep the embankment mowed down with pushmowers. (It is too steep for a riding mower. MK says any plant will die when it has used up the energy stored in its roots and it is not allowed topgrowth to replenish its stores. Hope she's right. That stuff grows and spreads unbelievably fast when it has access to even a little water. I can see why they hate it so in CA. It is incredibly flamable. Definitely not something anyone would want in a region that experiences periodic wildfires.
It barely got into the 40's today so it was a good time for that job. (Man, I got spoiled fast. In CT, I would have considered this a mild day.) ~Nadine~
The 40s sounds like the tropics from here, Nadine and other Southerners.
We almost made the 40,s today.Think they did in town. Glad we don't have seacane.
Have you got snow over your windows yet Carrie?
Is Honeybell orange as good as it sounds? Up here we will die and steal for small Texas oranges which are always hard to find.
Would you believe we will be in the low 80's today? My poor tomatos don't know what to do? At least my arthritis is much better today as my shoulders don't like the cold. Funny thing, it doesn;t matter even if I'm indoors they still get painful. Crazy weather! I've been here about 35 years or so and don't recall weather like this. Oh well I'd rather be here than up north. BRRRRrrrr.
I know what you mean, Tplant. The back pain I experience always seems worse in the winter. I’ve even started carrying a back pad to church. The pew seats are padded, but the backs of the pews aren’t. The wood feels cold on my back and makes the pain worse. High in the mid-50’s today. Supposedly, it will be back up in the 60’s by Tuesday.
All the wild cane on the embankment is cut down. We still have some burning to do though to get rid of the stubble. They manage sugar cane fields by burning them off. I see no reason it won’t work for wild cane. Once we are sure we have it under control, we’ll plant fragrant tea olives and other small fragrant ornamental trees there with shade-loving ground covers.
Vickie, people call Honeybells oranges because they taste like oranges. They are in reality a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit. People who love citrus claim nothing can compare to a Honeybell in a good year. They are the sweetest citrus I know of and so juicy they are messy to eat. You don’t see them much in stores because so many growers sell them direct, shipping them to Honeybell addicts like Kay. They seem to be more weather sensitive than most citrus. I’ve never had a bad Honeybell, but they are dramatically better in some years than others. Citrus aficionados talk about “the 2009 Honeybells, the way wine connoisseurs talk about a 1992 Leonetti Merlot. lol. They are good, but I also think someone in FL came up with a very good marketing strategy for them. (Jim)
80s!! Oh my! It's warmer today here today, above freezing and all the icicles are having a drip fest. There was a HUGE one right outside the bedroom window, like at least 1 foot across and 2 ft long, that fell. DH said he could have been killed if he had been out doing garden tasks for me. A.It's not an area that need any "garden tasks" right under the gutter and B.He hasn't done a 'garden task" in I can't remember when. Very funny.
Garden tasks with as much snow as MA has had.?.
I remember as a kid wtching those big icicles fall off into the snow. We lived in Ithaca, NY for 2 1/2 years. I was almost 7 to 9 years old.
That first winter was a real shocker for this girl from San Diego & Coranado, CA!!
Sheri, he doesn't even do garden tasks when the weather is great!
Sounds like my SIL. He is pure helpless outside.
I tried roasting a bite of hotdog over a candle. Did'nt work so good. Was drippy and smelly. Guess only marshmellows work.Cheese is out. Know that'd make a BIG mess.
I hear you about the arthritis hurting indoors. It gives me fits in the winter. Knees and hips are the worst.And now my right wrist.
Those Honeybells sound like something special. I've never been a grapefruit lover.Tho if someone offers me one i accept it.
Vickie
Meanwhile my rheumotoligist gives me a shot in my shoulders seperated by two weeks apart and injects the other shoulder. I also take an anti-inflamatory called diconflex or something to that name but now he has to change me to celebrex as there are some side effects. It has worked very well for me all these years. I hope celebrex does the same? I buy all the medication that my insurance pays very little, from Canada. Thirty capsules here costs $160 while 100 from Canada costs $58. The same holds true for my plavix, lexpro and nexium. Hope this helps some of you. They are all generic with my doctors approval as he buys some of his meds from Canada also!
We have a fireplace that we never use - I wonder if the damper is closed? DH has come down with sciatica - well, with sharp pain all down one leg radiating from the hip. I told him it was called sciatica and he said thank you Dr. Lamont. Hey, it's a description of pain radiating down your leg. I don't know WHY he has it?
Tplant, are you getting cymbalta for pain or mood? I got it for a while as an antidepressant that would ALSO take my pain away. Didn't do that, but I think MS pain is different. It's all nerve pain and no real pain from injury or damage.
Btw, Tplant, welcome, if I didn't say so before, and do you want to be on the screen names = real names thread that's stickied at the top of the forum?
Vickie, looks like we'll have to scratch the "Secrets of Candle Cuisine" book. Darn! Well, at least we still have our marshmallows to get us by until we can return to our fires outside. I'm lobbying for an outside fireplace nearer to the house. One of those terra cotta looking ceramic "chimineas" would be good and they are affordable. (If I can come up with a plan that will fit it into the area where the garden sink is , I might be able to sell the idea to MK. That's in the corner of the Cando container garden! How appropriate. lol. Everyone keeps telling me how good grapefruit is when you're trying to lose weight, but (YUK!!!) they are so bitter. . I WILL eat Honeybells IF I can talk MK into sharing her stash. :-)
Lexapro seems to be the doctor's choice when Depression manifest mostly as energy and sleep problems. (MK and I are both on Lexapro.) If you have neuropathy and you need an antidepressent, it might be worth your time to ask your doctor about Cymbalta, Tplant. If you can tolerate it and it doesn't clash with any of your other meds, you would have one medication doing double duty. Papa Jim takes it to control Depression and the shooting pain in his legs. He does still have sleep issues, but that might just be from back pain. Does the Celebrex really help? The arthritis in MK's knees appears to be getting worse. I hope that is just the cold. ~Nadine~
Thank you, Dr. Nadine. LOL. (Jim)
I'm afraid DH is getting DDD too. He's been limping (ha ha) along on Tylenol, Tramadol and Aleve. And whimpering what if the pain is this bad for the rest of his life? I keep telling him, he's only begun to scratch the surface of pain meds. (I know because I'm taking a lot of them.) Yesterday I gave him 200 mg of my gabapentin [never share prescription medications folks!] and he did get relief - and sleepiness, but at least he knows that there is such a thing as a pain med that might work.
I'm not a real doctor; I just play one online!
ROFL!!!
Hey! Don't knock it! Sometimes we're the best doctor there is for our health problems.Having said that, Please do go and see your doctor. But also know your alternatives.
I take generic prozac for depression. I can't afford the real thing. I take generic everything. I was getting my meds from Freds but they've gone up in price so I'll probably switch over to Walmarts.
I had visitors at midnight tonight. Two deputy sherrifs. They were looking for my grandson. I told them He would'nt come here as he had forged some of my checks. Found out later that was what they were looking for him for.
Guess they did'nt have anything else to do.I was not impressed.
Midnight! That was melodramatic of them. I bet you had a hard time getting to sleep after being rattled like that and sleep is a valuable comodity when you have depression. My eldest has given me more than a few sleepless nights. The winter blues have finally got their claws into me. It has hit me much later this year. That is good. Optimisticly, there is only a month of real winter left. (Carrie, are you serious about that article "If the World is Getting Warmer, Why Is It So Cold?" I would be interested in reading that.)
Some of the spring bulbs and the red clover will put in their appearance late next month. I've been searching out more plants for winter interest and finding more fragrant ones. There are fragrant types of camellias and azaleas, but they tend to bloom later, than their non-fragrant kin. For the earliest blooms, I've been focusing on things associated a little more wit the north like witchhazels and spicebush. Finding out which cultivars have the best chance of surviving our summer heat and then locating them should keep me busy for these last few weeks of winter.
Jim is painting birdhouses and Nadine is drawing. Entertaining themselves by giving each other a hard time. A normal day, in other words. :-) Kay* . .
last year was dramatic for me and family. my niece died, my brother died, my BIL lost his job, and my gentleman companion of six + years decided we should 'just be friends.' guess the effects waited until now to sneak up and clobber me. :-) feeling pretty depressed, too, at the moment. but all of you are right. keep moving, and keep busy, and i will be better a bit at a time. so i am happy that was able to make myself crawl out from under the covers last week to cover the annuals and containers right before that bad-for-here cold came down. most survived because of it and that helps motivate me to do a little more. got a garden catalog gift certificate for birthday. been considering a viburnum carlesii and/or a cytisus 'hollandia' (pink broom). the broom is supposed to be fairly drought tolerant, which is great for here, but the snowball bush reminds me of my great uncle albert and great aunt minnie's house. they always had mini hershey bars waiting for us when we visited. and we got to run around out front in and through the half dozen or so huuuuge snowball bushes while we ate them. for the memories of that one, i might be persuaded to water. :-)
here is the single pansy bloom on plant right now (have buds developing, though) tis a cheery color, even though it seems to have been lunch for something.
The brave little pansy.Nadene needs to draw a picture of a brave lil pansy with a sweet face. LOL
I did get a little perturbed and no i did'nt sleep. I had to invite them in since it was cool and rainy. Life is still intresting. LOL
Kay and Debra, This is a bad time of the year. But Spring is just around the corner.I can almost feel a warm breeze and smell my wild violets.Hang in there.Gentle hugs for Debra and Kay and anyone else who needs them.
I sorted out some of my drawers and fixed my small desk with cloth organizers and clear plastic
covers.Now everything is at hand. When i sorted my silk flowers i did'nt know i had so many. I got them on sale at Hoppy Lobby one year. I need to get some more out in the living room.
I realized i mispelled Hobby Lobby, Thought it'd make you smile.
Kay, I really WOULD like to write "if the world is getting warmer, why is it so bloody cold?" but I was advised against it for the second time. I wanted to write it back in 2007 when climate change was a loony theory. Now even the Bush Gov't announced that global climate change was occurring. I guess I can write about "weather" or "snow" but not use the words global, climate, trend, warming, change or anything else "controversial." After all, I have a reputation as a garden humorist to maintain - this might not be all that funny. Seriously, though, snow on the ground in every state except Hawaii? People who think everything is fine and dandy think the snow is evidence AGAINST global warming (ssshh I said it) when in fact it's evidence in favor of at least, global climate change. But I just really like the title!
I've never thought much about the typecasting among writers. But, a romance novel written by Issac Asimov would be a bit disconcerting. :-)
I'm probably desensitized to the "controversy" of global warming. There is, at minimum a letter to the editor on the topic every month in the science magazine I read. It feels like the debate has been going on in the pages of the magazine for years. Perhaps, that is what DG is trying to avoid. Even with the cool, academic code of behavior expected of people writing in a science magazine the debates get heated at times...and mired in dense, technical jargon.
It was a beautiful mild and sunny afternoon. I found tiny, adorable little blossoms on the tea olives and planted some unidentified evergreen ferns by the front door. With those, some stonecrop and some juniper the bed doesn't look so dreary. Kay*