Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Very new generation


I say to Laura, “We must leave at quarter after.” Her digital mind stops to recalc, and she says “OK, three fifteen.”

“People glow at night,” I was recently informed. “It’s faint, but that’s when it can be seen.”
“Their aura?” I asked.
“No! That’s spiritual! This is scientific!”
“And its scientific name is?”
“I don’t know, but it’s not ‘aura’!”



I teased her one night this week about the weeds she won’t pull because they may be milkweed. “People think we know what we’re doing,” I was shortly informed, “so what difference does it make.”



“Well let’s at least get several more purple flowers to plant along the skirting, so we really look like we know what we’re doing.”



The flower out front I now think is loosestrife. After supper Laura said we could have gone today, and she might have driven. The nursery is two hundred feet down the road. A deprived teenager. I put the keys in her hands and we went across the street. Her first trip outside the seven “safe roads” here in the park. I could only have criticized coming to a full stop on a two lane highway, in the face of no visible traffic, before turning left into the nursery.



We took a cart and looked for tall purple stuff. We put Perovskia atriplicifolia Peek-A-Blue (I’m not kidding), Hybrid Delphinium, Purple Loosestrife, and larkspur on the shelves, checked out, together with a bag of dirt. No one was there who cared to tell us it is soil! The queen of the road made a right and a left and got us home.




Home in time to plant the above, plus move the cranky sedum to a more shady spot, before it might begin to rain. Then a run to Richfield for ice cream from Country Maid, and we called it a wrap.






Neighborhood. The neighborhood cat.

26 comments:

  1. Hari OM
    Yes it could be... similar habit to willowherb. Is it not an invasive plant and all those seed pods will give you enough for the remainder of all years??? Delphiniums are gorgeous... had to look up perovskia - looks lush.

    As for the driving practice - jolly good. Night glow ... emanation??? YAM xx

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  2. Bioluminescence - see here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2009/jul/17/human-bioluminescence

    Tell Laura thanks for the interesting lead!!

    And yay for driving practice, no matter how short the drive!

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  3. You're a brave soul, neither of my parents were ride with me, my older sister had to ride with me.

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  4. Oh good lord Joanne. Teaching a teen to drive? You really are Wonder Woman. The garden looks good and I can't believe you can still plant larkspur. I love larkspur.

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  5. The garden is looking good and Laura gets more practice behind the wheel. A good day!

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  6. Great photos! My husband taught our kids to drive; he dealt with the profanity better than I would have.

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  7. Yay for you. And Laura. And driving practise and purple perfection. Icecream sounds a suitable reward and I love your black neighbourhood moggie.

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  8. Hooray for more plants and for Laura driving. Much easier to get a bag of dirt home that way. Lovely neighbourhood cat.

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  9. I guess we do emit light, but nothing we can see.
    https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2009/jul/17/human-bioluminescence
    Your garden is such a joy to read about. You might like Baptisia.......

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  10. I like the Neighborhood Cat :) I still can't get over that Laura is old enough to be learning how to drive!

    betty

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  11. Next summer you are going to be very colourful.

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  12. Your garden-work - it looks fine! - reminds me to put some newly bought plants into bigger pots on my balcony, Joanne.

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  13. Good conversation with a teenager, driving lesson that went right, choosing and planting flowers together - that sounds like a perfect summer evening. You are both so fortunate to have each other.

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  14. Your garden looks very nice, but keep an eye on the loosestrife-if some places it turns into a noxious weed.

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  15. The flower border is looking lovely. You are lucky to have a young chauffeur. Definitely a short distance to drive; but maybe too far to carry plants and soil. I just used the "s" word; but nobody here calls it dirt!

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  16. Oooh, flowers. Love them. Also love the black neighbor cat. I have 3 black neighbor cats who come for breakfast every morning.

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  17. The new flowers will fill out your yard nicely. It is hard to see Laura old enough to drive.

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  18. you may or may not know what you are doing but the results are pleasing. besides, that's what all gardeners do. buy stuff we like, plant it where we want, and hope it does well.

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  19. You have a new chauffeur. When my son learned to drive, he would ask me, Can I drive you to the sto', Miss Daisy? Those were the days. When we got inside the grocery store, if the aisle we were on was empty, we'd play catch with our groceries before we put them in the cart (unbreakable items only). I miss those kids I had.

    Love,
    Janie

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  20. The garden beds are starting to come together! Once again, hard work pays off.

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  21. I love your style of writing Joanne! You are a true storyteller!

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  22. Congratulate Laura on her driving ... I've never learnt and don't think now's the time to start !
    It sounds like a lovely afternoon ... flowers and ice cream . Perfect .

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