C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 18

Going to need to take some pix tomorrow…

The tulips are coming into bloom, weeping cherry in bloom, quince and peonies about to go, and the pond has reached the magical 58 degrees at which one can feed fish safely—if we had fish. But that’s getting closer. It means the nights are getting warmer, while the days are staying chilly.

One of the hardier water lilies has broken the pond surface with 2 leaves, and other lilies are on the way up.

Lotus won’t report in for a while yet. But it should be fine.

Raven paid us his annual visit. The rascal nipped a major branch off our weeping cherry 2 or 3 years ago, so the whole growth pattern was affected, but we still enjoy him. He’s one of our annual residents.

The pond is staying clear. I’ll be interested to see how clear now that this warming trend has set in, but so far so good.

The garden and a new tree…

The ‘contorted birch’ demised a season ago, and did not come back. It was the centerpiece tree of our front yard.

Now, meanwhile, we decided to use a licensed spraying company for our gravel paths rather than kill ourselves trying to weed it all.

This means we had to scramble to get all the accumulated junk of winter AND the pond disaster picked up and the paths raked, the front likewise picked up and waked, dandelions removed in all the flower beds to which we are adding pre-emergent on our own—and having done all that in a few hours, aching in every bone, we plunked ourselves down in the living room while the spray guys were doing the work…

At which point I thought: two healthy guys who do outdoor work and may want to do some tree work for extra…So Jane asked if they could pull the dead birch and plant a tree. Oh, indeed. They recommended where to go to buy same (biggest supplier in the PNW [pacific northwest] and a good lot, too. And they’ll pick it up and plant it. So we decided to change species, birch having not liked the variable water levels next the water feature (seasonal). We went for a full-sized Japanese Maple, Emperor One. They don’t like sun that much, but our other Japanese maples are doing well, and we do have some shade during part of the day, thanks to the Fat Albert blue spruce and the towering firs or hemlocks or whatever they are. So we decided to risk it. The new tree is already an inch and a half thick, pushing two, and about 8 feet tall, though willowy. It’ll shade the water feature. And its thin leaves won’t cause much cleanup.

And we don’t have to pull the birch or plant this one.

Dandelions. Not as wine.

The spring bloom has happened, and in our rock garden, they are alien invaders. I was feeling better today—still not real great with leaning over, but we have to get them. I think I contributed a bushel basket to the Green can and they will become city compost.

Without shedding seed.

It’s continuing to warm. I’m trying a new allergy pill and it’s solved the ear problem, mostly, but contributes its own over-medicated fog. It’s xyzal, and it’s potent. I took a full pill the first time at 3pm, and didn’t recover for 24 hours. But the ear was better. I took a half pill last night, it’s 4pm and I’m just about to come out from under the fog.

I’m going to try no-pill tonight and see if I can get both the ear and the fuzziness solved at once, eh?

It looked as if we had a basement leak…but…

instead of us having to move a ton of stuff and Dri-Loc the basement wall—

Jane discovered a tiny leak in a ‘winter shutoff valve’ that has a tiny drain-tap in the overhead near the wall in question.

Jane has applied plumber’s tape to the threads and screwed it back on…and we are hoping that solves our problem.

Happy Easter!

Temperatures are sliding up into the 60’s—still a frost a night, but we’re getting there.

The star magnolia is in full flower, as are the pasque flowers.

The lilies in the pond are sending up shoots, but have another half foot to go before breaking the surface.

We went out and brought a little order to the garden. Got the canopy back on the patio, and I swept and scrubbed down two of the four chairs: two to go. Jane did the lion’s share, getting the lotus pond back in operation, and transplanting some of our border plants that seem to want to grow on the gravel paths instead of the perfectly good flowerbeds.

Juniper has my number, I fear

It’s everywhere and it’s pollinating. We are not the worst city in the nation, but we’re competitive. And we’ve got a few days of this to go through. Despite an allergy pill, my eyes are watering and sounds and the rest of the world are at the bottom of a well.

Glug.

The dizziness has receded. I get a twinge now and again, but much better. First time it hit, I couldn’t even lock my vision on a point—everything was rotating, and if I hadn’t been sitting up in bed, I might have fallen over. The fact I fell back to stare at a ceiling fan just did not help at all.

On the other front, the reformation of our diet—I’ve found a real nice source for low-carb, high vitamin/mineral/veggie diet that also tastes good. It relies on making cabbage and cauliflower change their taste—which can be done. They can be conned into tasting like a whole range of things, with butter, garlic (which we can have!) and a few spices. So if you’re cooking for somebody that hates cabbage, just don’t tell them what they’re eating. Yes, it CAN taste like bacon or sausage.

I won’t give the recipes here, because, copyright! but I can tell you where to find the woman’s site and a batch of free recipes, besides adverts for her cookbooks. The name is Peace, Love, and Low Carb recipes and we have tried the peanut chicken (to die for); the no-wrapper pork spring roll dish, and are soon to try the cheeseburger in a dish and the smoked sausage casserole. I never follow recipes, but I am following these, because they’re different, and I’m trusting her sense of spices in transforming the tastes. I’ll say also, do not stray off out of the kitchen and leave these dishes cooking, particularly the peanut chicken: on that one, the difference between ‘swimming in fluid’ and ‘just-right gravy-thickness’ is about a couple of seconds, because the peanut butter (we use crunchy) serves as a thickening agent. And it goes fast. IE, these actually require some cooking skillz, like—standing there with a spoon ready to stir or having the plates ready when it needs to leave the hot skillet quickly, etc. I appreciate that degree of finesse. But it’s not rocket science, just having hot pads in reach, dishes ready, and proper utensils for getting it out of the pan. If you have to turn and search, possibly too late! Of such tiny details is a ‘skill’ composed.

Time to welcome our several new members. You know who you are.

Feel free to introduce yourselves or just to wave hello. I may have to stamp another approval on your first post (we’re in a software change, so I’m not sure) but wait if it doesn’t show up. I’ll fix it.

We’re kind of in transition, and some of us have met face to face, but we’re all nice folk, and polite. Post away if the mood takes you.

Alas, Mr. Testosteroneforcheap.com didn’t make the cut. He and a number of others did not get approved.

If you are WAITING for approval, it can’t happen until you write to me (addy is up there ^) and ask…this is our way of keeping such wonderful offers at bay.

Snowing this morning

This isn’t supposed to happen after St. Paddy’s Day.

It didn’t last long, however.

Supposed to get up to 50 today, but snow is not helping us get the pond warm!

I’m much better today. Yesterday evening the left ear decided to come online. Now, you would think this would improve the situation by half.

Nay. Having both inner ears reporting the same thing means that at least you can look at a horizon line like, say, the bottom of the wall, and keep both your wings on level…as t’were. But when one ear works and the other is still reporting freefall conditions, you tend to rather well pitch over. So it actually was worse.

However, I at least did not wake up totally floating in space, and I’ve had a few twinges, but I am no longer having to devote half my waking brain to keeping level and upright. So we are better

My big bag of baking soda ought to arrive today. I’ll be correcting pond chemistry forthwith, even if it’s chilly.

13 pounds of baking soda…

Doing better since the allergy meds. I was able to get out and test the pond chemistry, and we should be at a ph of 6.8 to 8.2; we’re at 8.3. A Kh (or alkalinity) of 100-200 ppm, and we’re at 80—this affects the function of bacteria who are supposed to break down waste. It’s related to ph, but is the reading you want to adjust. Our gh (general hardness) is 60, which is excellent. Our nitrate, nitrite and ammonia are all near 0, no ammonia, which is good: ammonia is lethal. And a temperature of 50: we want 60-65.

Hence the order with Amazon for 13 pounds of baking soda. 5 cups a day until we reach an optimum 150 kh reading.

I do this routinely for the marine tank. We’re getting the pond in shape. And the kh rise will help keep the algae down.

We have a pretty high evaporation rate in the summer, and I’ll be tracking the kh particularly on this set-up. We’ve also got our new winter aerator device, which a koi website does say works well.

And we’ll be looking for baby fishes soon.

Fish place is open…

We’re going to take a drive.

That is—Jane’s going to drive. Yesterday the dizziness was practically gone, and today—not so good.

Drat it.

On the other hand, the pond store has opened for the season, and we’re going to go talk to them. I don’t know that we’ll come back with fishes. But we can place orders. Get some baby-food. And if the weather holds off and if the dizziness abates, we can get the pond netting on.

I’m staying off the stairs. Yesterday however, I was able to walk downstairs safely, when Jane alerted me to the skimmer in the sump in the basement overflowing—no huge deal: but it’s a device that removes amino acids from the water. It’s called ‘foam fractionation,’ aka the process that creates that romantic sea foam poets write about. Well, if you know what skimmate is, and how it smells in its concentrated form, not so romantic. And sometimes skimmers run amok, due to something in the tank water, but I can’t figure out what. I fed normally. BUT, I did see the gray air tube was a little mis-set, which can cause it to inject too much water (skim wet) and overflow. Fortunately the skimmer sits IN the sump, so the overflow simply goes back into the sump. If you want to see what one looks like, google ‘protein skimmer.’

That seafoam stuff? Occasionaly you’ll see in the news where foam has piled up on some beach twice head-high, and lovers are running through it and laughing, and people are letting their small children play in it—

I’m thinking—oook. Dead whale somewhere nearby, maybe, some big source of protein in the water.

But that’s how our equipment replicates what the ocean does.