♥ 26 March 2009 , Tags : garden, life , Comments Off
Well, I decided to try my hand at growing some winter vegetables. I chose spinach, because you can grow it in a pot reasonably well and because I quite like spinach. So we got a couple of big pots (I’m going to stagger the planting so we don’t have a big harvest of spinach all at once) and some seeds suitable for winter planting and, well, planted them. No sign of any spinach yet, and I don’t expect to see any for a few weeks.
The other thing we planted, again in a big pot, is spring onions, also known as green onions or scallions. We don’t use them a lot at the moment because the bunches you buy in the supermarket are always too big and we end up wasting them, and they don’t keep very well in the fridge, so it’s a big pain in the neck. I’m hoping that we can get some in the pot and when they’re harvested, just plant a few new seeds and thus keep a constant supply of spring onions. It’s worth a try, anyway. And, hey, if we have them, we’ll eat them.
As for my alstromeria lilies, I’m happy to say they have pretty much recovered from their bout with the extremely hot weather which killed so many leaves and stems, though I had to prune them back quite severely to get rid of all the dead bits. They’re green again, now, and have buds and flowers, although they’re a lot smaller than they were due to the rather extreme pruning.
As for my herbs, the catnip is astounding. I harvested it not long ago and took the steps to dry the stuff, and before the previous harvest is even fully dry, the plant is huge again already. I did read that mints (and catnip is a kind of mint) tend to take over your garden, and I can definitely see how that could happen! Good thing it’s in a pot.
I’m not impressed with coriander. It’s quite fiddly to grow. It doesn’t help that I planted it at the wrong time of year, of course, when it galloped to seed in a matter of weeks. We did get some usable herb from it, but not much. It’s out there flowering like crazy right now. I’m going to just let it go and see what it does in the spring. If I’m not happy with whatever it does, I’m going to dig it up and put something more useful there.
Parsley is also quite a grower. We harvested it completely, right down to little nubs, and it just grew right back. So I think we’ll keep the parsley, as well as the rosemary, which seems to grow somewhat slowly, but it’s extremely hardy and I don’t use rosemary all that often, anyway, so it’s okay if it grows slowly. Saves me from having to harvest it all the time.
I enjoyed having fresh basil all summer, and we had a lot of tomato and basil pasta, yum. The basil is looking a bit yellowish now, I think it’s a seasonal thing, but it’s still growing, if a bit slowly. Oregano is gorgeous stuff. It’s really pretty, and it grows out over the ground area. When I have a proper flower garden with the plants actually in the ground, I’m thinking of planting oregano as filler.
Next year, I might plant a couple more herbs. Haven’t decided yet just what. Maybe mint (I like mint tea) or thyme or sage (or both, so that I can do that Simon and Garfunkel song with the refrain). For now, I’m waiting for some spring onions and spinach…
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd explains the latest Economic Stimulus Package in Q&A format:
Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.
Q. Where will the government get this money?
A. From taxpayers.
Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. Only a little.
Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.
Q. But isn’t that stimulating the economy of China?
A. Shut up.
I have a Gmail account that I don’t use any more, although it’s still there. The email to it gets forwarded to my everyday email account after passing through Spamcop’s filters. I keep the account open because it’s got stuff in it that I want to keep, and I still sometimes get legitimate mail through that account.
I think I’ve probably mentioned maybe once or twice on this blog that I really despise spam, and I think spammers are the absolute scum of the planet. What’s that? I have a whole blog category dedicated to spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, and spam (baked beans are off, do you want spam, instead?)? Oh, yeah, that’s right. I guess I have mentioned it.
Well, proving once again that they are, indeed, the absolute scum of the planet, spammers managed somehow to get into the Gmail account that I no longer really use and sent spam to every person in my address book. That includes friends, family, business associates, and so forth.
Happily, no one has emailed me in a rage demanding to know why I spammed them. Two of my friends have emailed me to let me know they got spam from my account, but both of them knew I wouldn’t spam anyone deliberately and assumed correctly that my account had been compromised.
I’ve taken all appropriate precautions with that account. Changed the password, deleted EVERY entry in the address book (since I don’t use the account to mail from, I don’t need them there), changed the secret question, and, since a couple of my own addresses were in that address book, I reported the spam I received, so the crappy spamvertised website will hopefully get kicked off their server by their host for spamming.
The thing that bugs me the most is the thought that people got spam from MY account. I mean, I was on the net before spam was really a problem (yes, there was a time when that was the case). I’ve been a vigilant spam fighter and spam reporter since the sleazy spammers figured out how to abuse the network with their filth. The idea of MY account spewing forth this crap into cyberspace is quite horrifying. It’s kind of like knowing someone went through your underwear drawer and actually wore your underpants: gross and disturbing.
So, well, if you got spam from me, it wasn’t from me, although I apologise, anyway. I’m still investigating, though I don’t know how much I can actually find out, given that the spewing of spam took place on someone else’s server and not my own, and I’ve got exactly zero access to any of the logs, etcetera.
I have a few friends who practice various sorts of magic(k). Perhaps I might enlist their assistance in putting a hex on the person or persons who did this… Hmmmm…… *evil laughter*
She says if she’s not elected this weekend it will be the finish of her political career.
Let’s hope so! The woman will not take “no, we’re not putting you into office again” for an answer. How many times has she run for office now? Oh, and how much time did she do in jail for election fraud?
I hope she finally gets the hint: Most Australians and, indeed, even international folks who know about Pauline Hanson and what she’s said and done think she’s unfit for public office. I can’t figure out why she thinks people love her and want her to represent them in government. History has shown clearly that this is not the case. Wake up and smell the fish and chips, Pauline, and then, if you can’t go away quietly, will you please just go away?
♥ 19 March 2009 , Tags : stupid, unicorns , Comments Off
I’m not going to publish the email because it’s short and fairly boring, but I got a note tonight from someone at Sister Lakes, which is apparently in Michigan, complaining about one of my web pages. Which page, you might wonder? My highly opinionated rant site? Somewhere in this blog where I voiced political opinions? The sometimes unkind reviews I give to various perfumes I try out? Maybe my writings on surviving parental abuse and family dysfunction? No?
Unicorns. It’s a page about unicorns, a collection of information I’ve gathered over a period of about fifteen years and published because I found the topic interesting. That page generates more hostility and controversy than anything else I’ve ever published. Why? I don’t get it. It’s even got a three paragraph disclaimer at the beginning, do people just not read that part?
Anyway, this person insists that I got something or other wrong (they weren’t very clear on what) and demanded that I read read “julius caesers gallic wars,book 6,chapter28″ [sic] and also that I look up something that I was already familiar with (though, of course, they wouldn’t know that I’m already well and truly familiar with the thing they wanted me to look up on the net).
Do these people think I have nothing to do with my time and my life than sit around researching each and every possible tidbit of a morsel of a fact about unicorns? Am I not allowed to have a life that doesn’t include constant unicorn research? Apparently, not! Apparently, if you put up a lighthearted web page on the topic, even if you include a disclaimer stating that you just made the page because it was interesting to you, you’re somehow required to have a PhD in unicornology and know every reference to every one horned beast in existence and be prepared to write an impromptu essay on the subject whenever someone emails you about it.
What I want to know is why the hell don’t these people who appear to know so much more than I do get their own website which is so much better than mine and tell the actual facts as they know them to be and leave me out of it? Surely if they’re so damned clever they have enough material to at least throw a page up on Google Sites or something, right?
We went out yesterday to do some shopping and on the way home I saw a yellow-tailed black cockatoo. “Big deal,” you might be thinking, but I’ve never seen one in the wild before. Andrew has on several occasions, and I wanted to see one as well. It’s been months since I set my intentions on seeing a black cockatoo. And today, I finally saw one! I know it’s a little thing, but what’s the point if you’re not going to take real pleasure in little things?
Then I noticed that the Dandenong Mountains were completely veiled in clouds and I suggested we go have a look (i.e., drive up into the mountains, something we do pretty regularly for a nice ride). I wanted to show the kids what it’s like “inside” a cloud, which they were interested in. They seemed to think that clouds were really like cotton or something, judging by their questions, so I wanted them to see that it’s more like fog.
As it happens, it rained quite a bit this morning (allow me to just insert another, “Yay!” here; we really, really need the rain!), and the forest was wet and just beautiful. There were places where the sunlight was shining through the canopy of the rainforest and hitting the wet tree trunks and leaves and it was just gorgeous. And then we came around a corner and the sun was shining through the trees onto the road in what is often called “God beams”. Just beautiful! (God beams are beams of sunlight that shine through dust, water droplets, etc., often through a hole in the clouds or through trees, and form visible rays of light. They’re called God beams because so many artists have used them in paintings to signify the power of God shining through the clouds or down from heaven, etc. Personally, I love God beams.)
Other beautiful sights were places where the light raked through the forest and through the foggy air in brilliant shafts of light. A few of the scenes we saw were almost like dream images, with twinkling light on the wet trees and glittering leaves and these incredibly pretty shafts and beams of light cutting through the silvery, shimmery air.
So, yes, I take pleasure in little things like rain and cockatoos and light playing in the trees, and I’m so glad that I do. I highly recommend learning to do this, if you don’t already. There are so many wonderful things to see and smell and experience, and if you can get joy from them, the world really is a better place.
