Friday, March 26, 2010

I decided to write up a list of the plants I'm tending

forsythia
dogwood
rose of sharon (hibiscus)
red bud tree
english ivy
hostas, multiple varieties
sedum, regular and autumn glory
toadlilies
echinacea (coneflower)
japanese anenome flower
ferns
oakleaf hydrangea
bleeding heart
sweet woodruff
lady's mantle
creeping jenny
wild mustard (?)
sedum makinoi
the clover-like ground cover
the succulent-like ground cover
honeysuckle
tulips
daffodils
hyacinths
variegated rush grass (juncus effusus, "Goldstrike")
dwarf spruce
dwarf juniper
another dwarf conifer (?)
a holly bush (Ilex meserveae 'Blue Princess')
the perennial with little white flowers and minty leaves
fine fescue
creeping red fescue
several varieties of perennial ryegrass
jade plant
aloe
succulent unknown identification
asparagus plant
pothos
blackberry bush ("Thornless Chester")
astilbe (false spirea)
lettuce ("simpson elite")
bamboo
a sapling pear or cherry tree (non-fruiting)

Annuals:

Petunias (white, red, purple)
Lobelia
New Guinea Impatiens (red)
Begonia
Ageratum
Alyssum
Geranium
French Marigold ('Antigua' yellow and orange)
Dusty Miller 'Silver Dust'

And here are some of the fauna who live in or visit the yard (so far this spring):
starlings
sparrows
robins hunting for worms in the grass
a pair of bluejays gathering twigs (May 13)
one cardinal
a bumblebee
a lady bug
two cats (they're black with white on their paws and their neck, almost identical)
the next door neighbor's dog "Stella"
the downstairs neighbor's dog "Rosie"
spiders
centipedes
lots of ants (boo...)
slugs (boo...)

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Cool website

Lawnreform.org

Psst... Spring has sprung

I shouldn't be surprised if we have one more blast of wintery weather (knock on wood). But there's a hint of spring in the air. I did a little bit of cleaning up in the yard this morning, and some of the green things are starting to grow again.... :)

the shape of the net

Here's a fun article from the Times: "Scientists strive to map the shape of the shifting net"


Monday, March 1, 2010

and....

this comment posted on Talking Points Memo is interesting:

"I live in Juhsey (NOT "Joisey"): specifically Newark. I went to school in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and live in New York. Does that make me an expert?

The word "corrupt" is a funny one. Each state has its own political culture. I remember when calling yourself a "Republican" in Rhode Island only meant that you weren't a love child of Raymond Patriarca. There were some liberal Republicans; some conservative Republicans. There were even some Republicans on the take. But at least a Rhode Island Republican wasn't a certified made Mafioso. Or at least some weren't. The pond scum of Narragansett Bay were insulted when compared to Freddy St Germain. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse are destroying a fine old Rhode Island tradition.

There were some echoes of this in CT, but it didn't really compare to RI.
New Jersey? Our politicians don't take much salary; they work on the commission system. However, they do provide reasonable services in return for their commissions. Sharpe James was a good example. (Jon Corzine and Cory Booker, neither of whom need commissions, are not. Corzine didn't need commissions because he made so much money at Goldman Sachs. Some say the same is true of Booker, at least insofar as his campaign financing goes.)

The politicians don't take many commissions in New York. But that's not because they're particularly honest; it is because New York has many many many many many la(w)yers of control. There is so much control that very little gets done in NY, unless you can find a rabbi who can circumvent the lawyers. It's kind of like late Soviet Communism, except that some of the New York rabbis are actually Jewish."