It's a new day

Considering the events of the past five days, I think today’s earworm has to be the incomparable Nina Simone singing “Feeling Good”.

 

©2024 Bas Bleu

Cake!

In case you’re in need of some happiness, here’s a woodpecker enjoying a suet seed cake.

 

©2024 Bas Bleu

 

Horticulture

It started some time in May, when I bought the dwarf Meyer lemon tree. I didn’t really want a Meyer, but that’s all the garden center had. I got to the microscopic lemon stage, but then someone—my money was on some toerag with a bushy tail—knocked them off.

Well, then I recalled how much I enjoy limes, so I went to a different garden center about a month ago and bought a dwarf lime. No blossoms, but the leaves actually smelled like limes.

After the incipient Meyer lemons disappeared, I went back to that second garden center and bought a dwarf Ponderosa lemon tree. It was covered with blossoms, so I was hopeful. There were also microscopic lemons.

Then I watched one day as Scooter, the chipmunk, hopped up to the Meyer tree, rampaged around the branches, moved on to the lime and then to the Ponderosa. He was the culprit, the little hooligan. I opened the door to yell at him.

But I knew I needed to do more, so I now have the Ponderosa encased in a net bag. He’s tried twice to get up under it.

I may need to make another trip to the garden center.

(But, listen—I do not have a citrus problem. I can stop whenever I want.)

 

 

 

©2024 Bas Bleu

 

Touching grass

Righty-ho, then—dunno about you, but I need to look away from the screen and breathe. So here are a couple of cloud formations.

Nothing spectacular; just nature being gorgeous.

 

 

©2024 Bas Bleu

 

 

Gratitude Monday: hearing it

I gotta say—after the past week, I was feeling like there’s not much for me to be grateful for. Republicans fucking terrify me, Democrats just screwed the pooch and my hip problem just doesn’t seem to want to resolve itself. I thought I was going to have to reach for something like, “I thought I’d run out of ricotta because I couldn’t find it in the fridge, but then remembered that I last bought it at Trader Joe’s, and it was a blue container, not a red one.”

But then I recall a chat with a friend on Friday, who cut through my bullshit and suggested that instead of focusing on a project, I should come to grips with the much larger one—purpose. Which, of course, is a shit-ton more challenging, but also is at the base of all my miasma.

Rats.

So today—again—I’m grateful for the support and insights of friends, who will say things out loud when you need to hear them but can’t shape your mouth around them.

 

 

©2024 Bas Bleu