A Few Gardening Notes

1. Completely stealing from Anne at Preventing Grace and having no desire to consider the events of the last week in any clear focus, especially since everything is blurry anyway as I went to the eye doctor this morning for my regular checkup and still feel like my eyeballs are trying to crawl out of my head. I am definitely reminded of this scene from "A Clockwork Nebari" from Farscape:

Season 2, Episode 18, but I had to look it up. I really thought it was a Season 1 episode. I guess I'm losing some trivial details.

But I'm supposed to be writing about gardening.

2. For the past couple of years, each of the children are allowed to pick some flowers for themselves to love, even if they never actually water them. Alex has chosen marigolds the past few years but when I asked him what he wanted this year he said Purple Daisies. No idea where he saw them or why he changed his mind but I found a pot of them at our local hardware store a week ago when I was having a key made and instantly snatched them up. They are in a very handsome pot on the back patio.

Of course the pot is turquoise, but it was the last one Aldi had.

3. Miranda wanted sunflowers last year but I put her off because of the hassle then regretted it later in the season. So, this year, Grandma gave us the seeds and we (well, she helped a little) seeded them in good potting soil in Chinese food containers for a few weeks and then I dug a trench on the side of the house so that when they are taller, they will have somewhere to lean.

4. My irises are in bloom.

5. Last year my neighbor suggested an iris exchange program, She took some of my bulbs and gave me these:

In fact, there are so many varieties of iris in my neighborhood that I am currently collecting photos of all the different colors and sizes. So pretty.

6. So I really want to see Godzilla. There's a great article about what the monster means in The American Interest. I started thinking about this when I was out driving earlier, about how a society copes with the aftermath of a bad war, or when your side loses. I was reminded about America's sojourn in Vietnam and how horribly it went for everyone there, on all sides. It's apparently important to examine such disasters in the open because if you don't, they turn into giant monsters who decimate your city. Still, it's an interesting concept to consider. Your sins will always return to haunt you.

7. Carl Kasell retired from Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on Saturday. And everyone was sad. But as I keep telling Alex, no one lives forever.

We actually won when I played the show in December of 2005, but we couldn't decide on a script and then I got pregnant and then Alex was diagnosed and we forgot. They might still let me redeem my prize, though. At least, I think it was then. I would have to look it up in the archives.

And here's Jen.