mrs_sweetpeach | Project 52

I'm still troubled by Trump's win and worried for everyone who is a minority. And the rest of the world since we have nukes and a President I don't trust not to use them.

I've been grumpy and having a horrible time with commercials and store displays exhorting me to buy, buy, buy stuff for my home and/or the holidays. I'm offended by the commercial that tells me to look for signs I need new furniture, and even store displays of beautiful holiday tableware are pissing me off. Who needs plates decorated with reindeer or other seasonal designs when we have a new president who doesn't believe in climate change and when individuals and families are being harassed because of where they were born, their religion, or some other metric.

I'm trying to take care of myself and, when I can concentrate (which isn't often), trying to decide how to best spend my limited funds in a way that will support the causes I feel are most endangered by the current administration. The ACLU, the EFF, and the Southern Poverty Law Center have made my short list but there are other organizations I respect and want to support: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the FCB, the Human Rights Campaign, and probably one or two others I can't put my finger on at the moment.

I didn't mean to start ranting, what I'd meant to do was tell you about my week. Which was a normal week if you don't pay any attention to the election or reports of bad behavior by the folks who think Trump's win means it is open season on minorities.

(deep breath)

So, work was work, Ingress was played, my exercise bike was used six of the previous seven days, and I spent both Sunday and Monday afternoons working in my yard. I wanted to cover the remains of the herb garden (remains because the lumber framing the sides started to fail a year and a half ago) and when I started digging in the bed last spring my shovel bit in as easily as a hot knife slices into butter. Since then the weeds and weed trees took root. I tore out the weeds and cut the trees, and then covered the bed with sheets of plywood left over from building the new garage. I think the builders had used them while pouring the new concrete but whatever the case, they are now laid over the herb garden. My first thought was that I'd come up with a plan for what I want to do with the herb garden over the Winter and let everything under the plywood decompose and be ready for me in the Spring. The next day I realized that reason the dirt was so nice was that the herb garden had laid under a cover for over a year as it had been covered up when we emptied the garage and construction took far longer than we anticipated. This being the case, I think perhaps we'd best concentrate on what to do about repairing or replacing our pond and waterfall next. And filling in the trench beside the garage that the builders dug and didn't bother to refill. We were supposed to do that over the summer but we never got around to it. And to be truthful I forgot it needed doing for most of that time.

On Monday morning I asked my boss if I could take the afternoon off, he said yes, and I came home and went to work on emptying one of my compost bins. I sieved the compost and put the finished stuff (about three wheelbarrow's worth) on top of the rhubarb patch. Rhubarb is a heavy feeder and I hadn't fed it for about two years so I hope it survives the winter and goes wild in the Spring. I have plans for the crop -- Rhubarb chutney, pie, and ice cream, not to mention it sharing it with the friends who have expressed interest in getting some for themselves.

While I was digging out the compost I heard rustling behind me and thought I might have heard a rabbit. I looked around and didn't spot one but the sound continued and eventually I located the source, a Downy Woodpecker feeding from one of the plants that came up over the summer. I didn't want to get close enough to identify what it was pecking as I didn't want to scare it off. It was a delightful little bird and far smaller than my imagination's stereotypical woodpecker. I had to look up the type when I returned to work the next day, which is how I know what I was saw was a Downy.

Scrapbook papers & elements from the kit The Best Is Yet To Come.
For more information about the designers and their work, see

http://mrs-sweetpeach.dreamwidth.org/766331.html.