Poppy Z. Brite's Blog, page 88

Gideon

Gideon died in our arms at our vet's office about 8:15 last night. Most likely he was suffering from heart failure -- probably a pre-existing, nonsymptomatic condition, and the dental surgery pushed him over the edge. Thanks for all the love & good wishes. This leaves a huge hole in our family and we are heartbroken.

I wanted to post a picture of Gideon curled up comfortingly with William when William was sick, because that was the kind of maw-maw cat he was, but both Flickr and LJ Scrapbook a...

(Not As) Extreme Gardening

OH GOD TIRED. I had a lot of gardening to catch up on today due to ending up in the ER for the second time this week -- the cat version this time, with our 14-year-old Gideon, who had dental surgery a couple of weeks ago, passed his recheck on Tuesday, and was doing well until Friday, when he developed a sniffle and a runny eye. By yesterday afternoon he was dehydrated, not eating, hiding, and looking generally awful. Of course our vet was closed, so I took him to the 24-hour emergency clinic...

Random Internet Shit

Lately, it seems as if wherever I go on the Internet, Madame Lalaurie is there. I'm sick of her. (Google this local fiend if you don't know about her, but be warned it's a horrifying story.)

Does EVERYBODY have to be able to rate EVERYTHING these days? I do not understand the logic of allowing people to "like" or "dislike" comments.

I could have happily lived my whole life without learning the phrase "Beatles mpreg fic."

Addendum: Strawberries

I can't remember if it was here, on Twitter, or both that I talked about transferring my strawberry plants from a bed into one of those goofy hangy things because they were getting a lot of slug damage and I needed the bed for (bloodthirsty) cucumbers. Tentative verdict: The plants are producing well and have shown no further damage, but the strawberries themselves are much smaller and less flavorful than the ones I grew in the ground. The plants could just be stressed out from transplanting,...

Various

Finally caught up on sleep, I think. The older I get, the more crippling I find insomnia. It also kills my appetite. Chris pointed out that I had pretty much been living on smoothies and Ensure, and took me out to lunch two days in a row: La Pupuseria del Divino Corazon yesterday (best chile relleno ever), Fat Harry's (Cajunburger) today. I feel rested and nourished. Today I got the cucumber seedlings that have been nourished with my blood and fat* into the ground and put their deadly little ...

Addendum

I've been up for about 28 hours now despite a stinky dose of valerian. (Some say dirty socks or even shit. I say ass; definitely ass.) I don't know why. I thought I might have napped, because surely I must have dreamed reading half of this weird-ass story by Rudyard Kipling about renegade Freemasons in India. It's the kind of thing I would dream. But no, when I checked, the Kipling book was on my nightstand and the story is in there. It's called "The Man Who Would Be King." Speaking of which,...

Extreme Gardening

Some of you had the unique and wonderful experience of following this moment-to-moment on Twitter yesterday, but ...

I'm growing three varieties of exotic cucumbers for the Green Goddess, and the seedlings are about ready to go into the bed (which has been cleared of all accidental broccoli and generously manured). As other gardeners may know, cucumber seedlings are the caviar and champagne of the slug world. I decided to be thrifty and make some protective cloches out of old Mardi Gras cups b...

Another Reason Facebook Sucks

Dear people who still bother with Facebook:

This is not me.

Love,

PZB

Wibbling

What needs doing:

Pulling/chopping up broccoli plants, harvesting overcrowded lettuce seedlings, and spreading manure to prep bed for cucumbers.

What I've done so far today:

Planted six tiny celosias and pulled a few weeds. And, honest to God, I could use a nap.

Gardening is the closest thing I have right now to a job. I started doing it for enjoyment when we moved into this house three years ago (I made a few attempts in my old yard on Napoleon, but it had been tended by an expert gardener for 5...

Mockingbird Nest

I don't have a bustle in my hedgerow, but I do have a mockingbird nest in my ginger grove, which may be the subtropical equivalent.

I was cutting back the huge dead ginger grove yesterday (it'll grow back from the roots, but the dead foliage looks awful) when I found this:



I tried not to disturb the nest and replaced a little of the dead foliage back to keep the sun off. Thought from googling various pictures of eggs and nests that it might belong to a Northern Mockingbird. This morning I lear...