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Bright Idea: LED bulbs

Christine

I think these are really cool. But, they are also a little too expensive for me just yet. Hopefully, they will soon come down in price.

http://www.ecoleds.com/Products.html

I don’t use the compact fluorescent bulbs because the flicker can cause migraines for me. So you’ll only find halogen or traditional incandescent lighting in my house. I know they aren’t very green, that is why I’m so very interested in the LED bulbs.

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No, I didn’t see the bear…

Christine
…but Oliver might have.

This is big news in our small town. On Monday someone spotted a bear. The news reported that it was seen somewhere in the township that surrounds our borough, but in fact it had actually been right in town.

Monday around 10 a.m. someone spotted the bear and reported it to the local police. They searched for it, then called in the local game officer, who also searched for the bear. No one encountered the bear.

Later Monday evening around 9 p.m. my backyard neighbor’s wife saw the bear right out her front door, digging through their trash.

Oliver and I got home around 9:50 that night, and I put him outside soon after we got home, because I figured he might need to go after the long car ride. He was quiet outside for a few minutes, then he started barking and growling. Now, Oli barks at everything, but this was different than his usual bark. I called him in immediately, only thinking that it is late and I’d hate for Oli to wake the babies next door. His hackles were up when he came in, so this was more than a bunny. I really didn’t think anything more of it until the 11 o’clock news gave their brief report, just saying that a bear had been reported by residents.

Then I’m thinking, “ooh, a bear. I’d better watch Oli when I put him out for his last time out tonight. Hmm, maybe that’s what he was barking at earlier. Nah. That bear wouldn’t have been anywhere near here. That’s a big township, with plenty of wooded areas. What would a bear want with town?”

So we went to bed. I had a bit of a sinus headache, which woke me up in the wee hours, so after I was able to fall asleep again, I decided to sleep in.

It was my late Tuesday at work, so I didn’t get up until around 10. I put Oliver out, checked on the laundry, and he started barking up a storm. So, again, I call him in, and he makes a beeline for the front door, still barking. Oh. There are two ladies on the front porch. With cameras. Well this is odd. What are they doing? I hope they don’t want to take pictures of the house or something dumb like that. The place is a mess. So I get the locks undone, and I ask them “can I help you?” Like I’m at work. They tell me that they heard there was a bear sighting. I said, “Yeah, I heard that too. On the news last night.” So we talked for a few minutes, they asked me if I saw it, I said no, but Oli went kind of nuts barking at something last night. And they asked me if I was afraid, and I told them, not for me, but for Oli yes. Actually, my exact words were “well, sure.” And that, my friends, it the quote that made it into our local paper. Wow. Do I sound like a bumkin, or what? So they took my name, and asked Oli’s name. I actually forgot to ask what paper they were with at the time, the whole thing kind of caught me off guard. Not to mention that we had this whole conversation while I’m hanging on to Oli’s collar and standing there in my bathrobe. Nice.

So, on Wednesday evening mom and I are out front giving the forsythia its annual trim, and she tells me that she heard the bear was spotted at the intersection of my street and the side street a half a block away. Wow. That’s close. Now I am starting to think maybe Oliver did see something.

We never did get the trimming done because we were interrupted twice. First, by random people driving down the street, looking for the bear. They wanted to know if we saw it. And second, by our neighbors across the street when they came home. I have a feeling if I try to do any yard work this weekend, it will be more of the same.

Then on Thursday, when our local weekly paper comes out, I finally learned just how close the bear had been. Our back yard neighbor told the newspaper that her dog must have scared it off, and that it was last seen running across our street. Which means it had only two avenues: between my house and the neighbor with the babies, or between the house with the babies and the next house. Either way, that bear was practically in our back yard.

This is the photo from the newspaper. It was taken from my back yard neighbor’s house, and you can see the side of our bungalow between the porch posts. Very, very close.

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World’s Largest Dandelion

Christine

Some weeding of the flower beds occured on Monday.

That is when we found this: the biggest dandelion I’ve ever seen. Compare to the size of my gardening glove.Oli was interested in it as well.Too bad I didn’t know then about the market for organic dandelions.
After he tore the dandelion to shreds, he became more interested in my glove. He refused to return my gardening glove until I gave into the ransom he demanded: one doggie biscuit.

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Organic Dandelion

Christine

I almost fell over when I saw this in the produce department at the Giant grocery store last night. Clearly, I’m not taking full advantage of my resources.
Lewis said “tell them to come to my back yard and I’ll only charge them $50 to clean me out.”

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Yard Work and Bed Planning

Christine

Boy, have I got my work cut out for me. I really thought I would be out in the yard earlier this spring. And I was. Several weeks ago, then I got sick, and I have been trying to take it easy. I’m not allowed to take any allergy medication until the doctor figures out what is causing my heart rate to go all wonky, so I’ve been hesitant to get out there in all that pollen.

Anyway, the plan for the yard goes like this:

I need to patch and repair the grass in the front here. It is spotty for three reasons: one, Oliver (need I say more?), two, the new grass seed is coming in patchy where we pulled the shrubs out, and three, we kind of got heavy clay mud all over the place the day we planted the purple-leaf plum tree, and it has smothered the grass in those patches.

The other thing I want to do here is make a circle of bricks around the new tree, so we don’t get too close when we mow. I have a small stack of bricks for just this purpose. I think I want to plant some kind of ground cover inside the brick circle, at the base of the tree. Maybe vinca or alyssum? I’m not sure if that would be okay for the tree though? Any thoughts? I don’t really want to put tan bark down because diggy-dog seems to think this is an invitation, and he chews on big pieces, and a lot of that stuff is treated. Ew. Stones are also out, for much the same reason. And I don’t need Oliver breaking his teeth on stones and needing to see the doggie dentist.
I had my marigold bed in this crescent last year, but this year I have something different in mind. I have several packets of seeds of flowers in dark purples, whites, and yellows. I can’t remember all of them off the top of my head but I know I have johnny jump-ups, violets, and white cosmos. Tallest stuff at the back, shorter to the front. That mess of tarps, empty pots, pavers, bricks and mats it trying to kill all the weeds coming up, but so far it looks like the weeds are winning. The last two years I had cucumbers growing on the L-shaped lattice, and it really thrived, but I’m not sure if I should keep planting the same thing there year after year. Maybe I should give it a break, just plant flowers, or maybe plant a different climbing or vining vegetable?

I’ll probably dig up the rest of those hyacinth and tulip bulbs (I thought I had gotten them all last year) and relocate them. Also, Lewis’ frog-belly plant is doing very well under the drain spout. We had nearly killed it while all the major construction was going on, but it has come back almost to the size it was five years ago. I have no idea what the real name of this plant is, so we call it the frog belly plant because Lewis says if you break a leaf off and blow air into the pocket (it is a double-sided leaf) it feels like a frog’s belly. I wouldn’t know.
Again, we are trying to kill weeds here, under the plastic tarp, bags of topsoil, and various containers. We seem to be having better luck in this spot. I would like to plant blanket flower and gazanias here.This bed has already seen some work. The hostas you see here are the last two survivors of my digging last year. Oops. Oh well. I tried to get another started by the door, so they would be evenly spaced, but the bagged bare-root thing I bought from Home Depot didn’t look good from the start. I really need to stick to my rule. No plant purchases from HD. Nothing ever lives. So, I think I’ll go to a local green house (with a photo) and get a matching hosta that is already growing to about the same size. Then, in the spaces between the hostas, I have seeds for liatris. It is a tall perennial with big white plumes. Any space remaining will be filled with nasturtium. The first year I planted them, nothing came up. Not one spindly plant. Gardener’s favourite, indeed. So last year, when I found a leftover packet, I just threw the seeds in this bed, and to my surprise, they really took off.
My garden bed needs so much weeding, I’m dreading it. Maybe I’ll do the others first, then try the tarp trick. Maybe it is too late. Much of the stuff growing in this bed is grass, not weeds, though, so, it could be worse. (It could be raining.) Last year I had tomatoes, and I think zucchini here. I had a net suspended from the kitchen window’s knee braces for the zucchini to climb, and once it got going it looked really good. Again, I’m wondering about crop rotation, but this is really a terrific spot for veggies.Mom, this is for you: I don’t want to overdo it with the vegetables this year. Again. Too much to keep after.

1 Sweet Millions tomato plant
1 Big Boy tomato plant
1 cucumber plant
1 zucchini plant