t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


i went out for a morning run today. it's been 9 days since my last run. i also have an appointment with my gastroenterologist tomorrow morning. last time i went he asked me to lose 10 pounds. i haven't lost any weight and not like a run today was going to make any difference. i actually did pretty well, the heat (68° when i left) made it a struggle, and i tied up my hair, but still had a lot of endurance and afterwards i think i could gone a few more miles easily. but really, it's all about the flowers, and i took snapshots whenever i could.

after the run i went to the community garden. it's been nearly a week since my last visit, there's been so much rain i didn't need to go. i was there to meet up with ann, who asked for my help designing her squash trellis. my sedum carpet is coming out nicely. most of my nigellas have finished blooming, replaced by round seed pods. i do see some more nigella seedlings emerging, so i expect to see them flower again in a few more weeks.

i was there for over half an hour but ann was a no show. i was ready to leave and texted her a courtesy message before she replied and said she'd be there in 5 minutes. she showed me her purple pea pods and the mantis egg case. i finally left by 11:40am.

after a shower, i had some leftover risotto for lunch. i watched breaking news come in that the conservative supreme court had gutted affirmative action. it was weird though that they made an exception for the military, causing justice jackson to write in her dissent that the court was saying minorities are worthy of success "in the bunker, not the boardroom."

i took the motorcycle to run errands. first to market basket, to pick up some cleaning supplies. the bottle of scrubbing bubbles i use to clean the bathroom tile has a broken spray head. it's actually a replacement head from another bottle of cleaner, but this one seemed clog. i basically got another bottle just so i could have a working spray head. i came back to the house and cleaned the bathroom a little bit before heading to the cafe.

i add 1/2 scoop of oxiclean powder to my found enamel cast iron pot along with some hot water. i'm going to let it sit overnight and see if it gets any cleaner tomorrow. the pot is already so stained, anything would be an improvement. i also brought some chicken wires from my own garden for the back deck plants, to protect them from further rabbit damage.

i made to to belmont around 1:15pm. i repotted the pennywort i got from the flushing chinatown. i had a round glass bowl which i filled with wet sphagnum moss before putting in the pennywort. that didn't seem like a good idea because i wouldn't be able to remove the plants after they've grown, so i put the pennywort in a larger plastic pot instead stuffed with sphagnum moss. the difficulty is i still don't know what kind of pennywort i got (most likely it's marsh pennywort; a chinatown sign i saw called them "coin grass" which could be anything). there are semi-aquatic varieties and fully aquatic ones. i think because this one seems to be growing in some moist peat material, it's the semi-aquatic type, but regardless, it still needs a lot of water, think marsh or bog environment.

after weeding the back and front lawn, i mowed the grass. i'm still using the mulch setting, but i think next time i'm going to bag the clippings so i can have some material for the compost bin. by now the crabgrass preventer i applied back in april has worn off, and the grass is safe for composting.

i did one final tour of the garden. i untied some squash ties because they were getting tight, choking the vines. i spotted at least 3 vine borer eggs, it didn't take them long to find our squashes. i also found some cucumber beetles, but since we're not growing any cucumbers this year, i'm not worried about them spreading bacterial wilt. the grapes are getting bigger, might have to think about getting some cheap netting to prevent birds from eating them when they ripen.

i left belmont around 3:30pm.

lauryn came home at exactly 6pm today. she didn't make dinner, which meant they had a pizza party at work. close to 9pm i heated up the last of my leftover risotto for dinner. i then had some coconut-pineapple häagen-dazs ice cream. i actually have several containers which i bought last year but never got around to eating. i'm surprised they're still good after all these months, but probably not as good as fresh ice cream. i need to finish them to make more room in the freezer (not a bad problem to have).