I planted half the lobelia out front in a spot that just struck me as blank. It's technically an annual, but I've had them come back in pots, so we'll see.

I just love how when I dig in my dirt, I find bazillions of earthworms. It's not the fanciest dirt ever, sorta grey with a higher sand component (which is a good thing b/c we want the water to sink to below basement floor level faster rather than trying to come through the walls) but good god, the worms are happy. I rarely found worms in the g.d. clay.

Apparently our earthworms are not native, and that all earthworms native to at least the eastern seaboard were made extinct by the glaciers 70,000 years ago. And that they do not in fact improve our soil, but eat up the fallen vegetation on the soil surface at a rate that is comparable to feeding trees Red Bull. And that they actually cause soil compaction and not soil improvement.

I remember two years ago doing a project in the woods at work and the earthworm activity (probably induced by our constant walking back and forth over the area) was so extreme that it looked like the ground itself was moving.

Thanks to the generosity of neighbors and the barter system, our container garden is gorgeous!

H has done a lot of work for the neighbor across the street: repairs, plumbing, carpentry. He was up on her shed roof not long ago, removing the house-eating moss. She's a landscape gardener, so when she saw us arranging pots in the planting strip along the front of the house, asked if we'd like her to do the planting for us. She bought most of the plants (a fraction of what she'd have paid a handyman). She's moving this summer, and won't take all the plants from her garden. Rather than leave them to an uncertain fate, they got tucked into our pots. We asked the grown children of our neighbor who died if we could have a couple of her pots, to remind us of her. "Take all you want." So we wound up with seven of her oversized pots.

I'm thrilled. And apparently the rest of the neighborhood thought the house looked horrific before, as they've all stopped to say how much better it looks now.

Great. They sure were doing a shitty job of eating the fallen vegetation before.

That's gorgeous, Bev. I love that kind of skill sharing.

Lyrebird

Anyone else want to play Star Wars sound effects for that bird?

My faux-livestrong bands have never failed me before.

That's what I use.

I have also been laughed at by a parrot.

Parrots like to tease. I used to work near a pet store that had a parrot who would wolf whistle at my BFF and immediately turn his back on her. He would ignore her if she talked to him but as soon as she'd walk away he'd whistle again. He always greeted me with a hello but refused to say goodbye until my last day at that job.

What does S-slash-M stand for?"

Hahahaha!

HOLY CRAP, I entered that living room at the speed of light, to find, thank all that's merciful, that she was looking at a box of small-to-medium overnight diapers.

"Oh, it's the diapers."
"Yeah, some guy on an S/M site was giving advice for uses of them. So I was wondering what was S/M and what do they do with diapers?"

Parrots like to tease.

Oh dear god yes. The wild parrots around here are awful with the teasing and taunting.

The Lena Horne just died thing continues unabated, but this picture of her is lovely. [link]

Norman Reedus question:

• Is Dary's haircut the one you think of when you visualise him: [link] ?
• Do you prefer it to a shorter look: [link] ?
• Do you think he's attractive?
• Why or why not?

I don't know who that is, but I don't think he's attractive. Too Greasy