this and that

For someone that decided he didn't need any plants this year, I sure bought a lot of them.  I'm putting in a few veggies and herbs, hoping for a little more success than last year.  And a few flowers.  Mostly things in pots.  Yesterday,  I bought a bonsai.  Of course, I didn't think to take any pics, but I have a pic of these Amaryllis that went nuts this year.  

And, this very early iris.  I've had several things bloom really early this year.  None of the other iris or daylilies have put up a scape except Stella D'oro, which will likely bloom at the end of this week.  

The mock oranges are in bloom.  This is one of my favorite shrubs, but sadly it only blooms a couple weeks a year, so I spend 50 weeks a year looking forward to it.  

The Japanese emperor maple is having a great year.  We saw these in a nursery yesterday and plants this size were more than $300.  Mine was smaller and a lot less expensive, but it's grown into a beauty.  It came with a common pest that damaged the leaves.  I read about the pest and how to get rid of it and treated it last year, and this year, no damaged leaves.  It was the first time I'd used a pesticide other than a little Sevin dust in the 25 years I've gardened here.  

I also spent a lot of time sewing, but nothing got to a point for a photo.  That's definitely because I'm working on three quilts at one time.  On the anniversary quilt, I'm making the last 12 blocks.  Because of the haphazard way I've gone at the quilt, assembling in the order I wanted to so I could see results sooner, I got to the end and had to go back to the beginning and piece two arcs that were damaged early in the process and had to cut out those last two centers (which turned out to be 3 for some reason).  Things I knew I'd eventually have to go back and do, but they slowed progress.  And, there's all that pinning.  And, because my head is so into the precision of that quilt, I'm even pinning the leader/ender I'm working on too.  I'm pinning everything.  I even pinned a block to my shirt the other day.  

That might have been because I was pinning during a meeting.  

I got really frustrated last night.  I'd felt frustrated all day.  Everything I tried to do, I had to do something else first.  Something I should have done a while ago and knew I was going to have to do, but put off until I had to.  That is a familiar frustration and it means something I don't fully understand.  It's something related to clutter, probably clutter in my mind that I can't separate from the clutter in my life.  The anniversary of my Mom's death was last Friday.  I didn't know what to expect and took the day off.  I called my Dad.  I worked in the yard.  I sewed.  I sailed through it.  And, I'm pretty sure that yesterday was the reckoning of that.  It's my pattern.  Being aware yesterday meant I could make sure I wan't accidentally aiming that at my husband.  

I read an article the other day about trump's popularity and why he still has loyal supporters.  People love to watch the destruction of things they feel excluded from.  So, if they can't afford the Kennedy Center, burn it down.  If they're not on medicaid, burn it down.  If they're not collecting social security and have no hope of collecting it when they retire, burn it down.  If they can't afford to take vacations, then get rid of public spaces.  And, trump is doing that for them.  Burning everything down to create a nation of people that enjoy wrestling and racing and wife beating.  The bro lifestyle.  Beer and showing off.  Bellies and making fun of the handicapped. 

We're watching the end of law.  What trump likes is legal.  What he doesn't illegal.  If the federal govt won't prosecute you, one of these law firms that's toadying up to him will.  They don't need to win, just destroy people they take a dislike to.  There's plenty of ways to legally destroy someone's life without winning in court or deporting them to a gulag.  

I didn't mean to say last week that people that are carrying on don't hear the klaxon.  Just that I don't understand how they're carrying on.  I feel stuck.  Unable to move.  And yet, I carry on.  I am surprised by that every day.

Carry on.  That's all the encouragement I have for this week.  Carry on and survive and find joy in every day.  Because every day that we survive means there's a possibility for a better day in the future.  It's only when we give up that we're defeated.

Lane