Blink

Just like that, and ten (plus) days pass.  I've been happy, busy, stunned, and horrified.


I want to read more about the men of color who were killed in Orlando.  I think we need to see the intersectionality of the gay community, to recognize it purposefully.


And I think we need to end male violence.


Meanwhile, in more peaceful pursuits, unless you're a weed in my garden, I've been weeding and weedwhacking.  It felt like there was the end of the semester business, then other business, then a week of rain, and my garden was just buried in weeds.  So I weedwhacked and weeded. 


I whacked the back greenspace so that I have a path by the fence, and also can get to each of the trees I planted there (and cleared around them so they have more light and less root competition).


I weeded a small 6'x6' area I've come to think of as the "weedy area" and found a surviving asparagus plant.  I left that, but weeded the area, then got myself a couple of hostas, a couple of astilbes, and some cedar mulch, and planted.  In fall, I'll put in some bulbs, probably.  It will still grow weeds, but there's a big improvement.


I also cleaned up generally in that area, weeded another weedy area (smaller, much smaller) and found that my lavender plant is still alive.  So that was rewarding. 


I put in some little concrete ornamental sort of barrier things to keep the soil off the cement paved area.  And weeded that, poured vinegar on the weed parts that looked likely to come back fast.


Right now, there's a pile of weeds on the cement area (I like to let them dry a bit in hopes that they'll actually die for real before I toss them out to fertilize the green space).  But after I toss them, and sweep again, that whole area will look a lot better than it has in ages. 


I'm so out of shape that all the weeding and such (paddling, weedwhacking) has my arms feeling like lead, sore lead.  Ugh.




I need to get off the couch now and get some stuff done.


Goals for the week:


Vinegar on the weeds surrounding my garden raised beds.  I can't physically get to them well because of the fence and retaining wall, but I'm going to try vinegar and them a big load of mulch down.  And hope.


Weed one more over weedy area.  That would pretty much clean up the back.  Then back to the front, where there's a bunch of dead heading and such to do.  Because it really does never end in summer here in the garden.  That's okay, on one level, because it sure is nice to be outside!


Practice violin.  I missed a day, and boy can I tell.  But I'm very slowly improving, memorizing my new pieces, and working on the hard parts.


Work on a talk I'm giving at the end of the month.


Reread a student paper, write comments, and send it to them (because they asked, and of course, I'm happy to do it.)


Ride my bike, paddle my kayak.  Good stuff!  Maybe head out camping if the rain stops for a couple days in the middle of the week.  (Weekends seem way busier at the state parks.)


Stretch every day.  I should start with this.


Work on a paper for SAA.  I have an idea, I think.