What do you do when?

 

What's a 17 year old to do when her laptop crashes the week before finals? Not to mention all her relatives are coming to see one of her sisters graduate from college while the other one is taking part in student protests at her college in Washington DC?

Ask her parents for help.

So her dad talked with me via phone and asked did I have an old laptop? It was just to get her through this last week. He could use her college funds maybe to get a new one for her before next school year...though she did have another year of high school.

I said yes, I had 2 old laptops, one of which worked, and the old Apple needed a new plug. So I hauled it in my suitcase, which didn't end up being overhead because I was sitting in a small plane in the wrong place so it was checked through. I groan when I think of that laptop in a rather sparsely packed bag, being thrown around at least four times in baggage bins.

We found out my old apple just needed a new battery, (since my sons both have had Apples since they were invented, so they could tell it wasn't the plug) so $35 later it worked fine, but somewhat slow. So dear dad purchased a refurbished apple laptop for his daughter!!

We had fun watching her unpack it.

Then dear dad had another request for his mom. He had an aphid infestation in his little basil farm. I looked up on line and found that one of his fungicides that he already had would also kill aphids, but the leaves needed to be harvested so they weren't lying so close together.

That was fun, harvesting the leaves and cleaning off the aphids, putting them in water to then take inside, where later my son made a wonderful pesto, and you probably got some extra protein from aphids, but you couldn't see them or taste them, so...

He then sprayed the remaining leaves, transplanted the latest sprouted plants, and destroyed a few that had really lost their oomph. And he stuck a fertilizer stick in the soil of each pot. (I didn't ask him if that might not be suitable for food crops...he was working so hard.)

There was a hard rain a day or so later, but I went out afterwards and flicked a few leaves, and no aphids flew out. Maybe success. But I'll bet he needs to spray them again maybe once. Sometimes the eggs hatch...and so forth.

His landscaping has really improved, with stone walls in various places, and a family of bunnies that don't eat flowers!

Most of his tulips had bloomed the week before, but a few were still pretty in a shady spot. (house next door in background.)

Then we found this volunteer flower, amid a ground cover. We looked it up, it's Columbine! He's interested in finding some seeds to have more of these lovelies. 

His Lilies of the Valley were just about done blooming

But some nice Fuchsia were brightening up the front step.

His next landscaping job is to plant these roses next to the mailbox out by the road.

"Physical matter is music solidified" - Pythagoras

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PS 

I had a wakeup call last night with tornado warning, and thought for a bit about going and sitting in the bathroom (smaller windows) but then decided if a tornado hit here, I am in the midst of a bunch of trees, so they might hit anywhere...and fell back asleep with the C-PAP going and it didn't cut out when the power was off for a while (or at least I somehow breathed till it came back on.) Fortunately I'm not in the area of Black Mountain where power is still off this morning.

Cherry blossoms on Cherry St.

 I asked the old-timers of Black Mountain at lunch one day, are there cherry trees on Cherry St? It's one of the main streets downtown with lots of shops, restaurants, a tavern, and at least a new art gallery.

They didn't know.

So after lunch I drove over there, and since it's a one way street going uphill, I was lucky to go really slow, since for once there wasn't a lot of traffic. I turned right from Sutton into Cherry St.

Across from the Chifferobe on the other corner, is Sassafras on Sutton. Their upper entrance, to the right as I started up Cherry St. has a tiny courtyard with a blooming cherry tree!

So that is a good start.

Then on the left is Cherry St. Square, with a couple of sad trees that have been pruned. But that's a tiny old cherry tree at the corner of Bone-a-Fide, where pet treats are sold.

Then I turned right into a parking lot which would show what was behind many of the Cherry St. stores...because I knew Sarah Vekasi's pottery shop had a cherry tree behind it.

These early blooming trees on Sutton, next to the railroad tracks, may be a kind of pear, or cherry.

A different day to try to capture the blossoms and the flag.

Today is:  Respect Your Cat Day

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Thankful Thursday

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Today's quote:

We all have bad days and within these days is usually a gem of a gift waiting to be opened.

My little corner of the world

 

Yes windows are open, Nov 4, 2023. Temperatures up to 70.

Nov. 5, 2023, Temperature up to 70 still in afternoons.

The Thanksgiving Cactus is going crazy. But this is its heyday and it will be gone by the 23rd I'm afraid.

The blossoms are so strange in their multiple petals, they remind me somehow of shrimp. 

By the 7th and 8th the temperatures were in high 70s in the afternoons. Yes we do enjoy being outside. But it foretells of something sinister to come, my elder gut tells me. Rain is forecast, at least a little, for Friday. But we've all heard that before.

Another very pink photo - this time the Good Witch Glenda!

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