Mar 1-15

friend with weed(s)

2005 Mar 17

started off on a more march like note today...it was cold and gray and looked like it would rain.

typical for the rogue valley, it never did get around to raining though. the sun came out before noon even rolled around.

pretty quiet at work, although i still sold a few trees in keeping with my reputation. it was funny, at the sales meeting, someone from ashland said, I notice you guys have been selling more trees lately. maybe it's a coincidence after all, but i'd like to take some credit for it. i'm pretty good at sending people home with trees. all i can hope though, is that they aren't killing them.

someone made my day though, but coming in with obvious care and research put into their decisions. and the good sense enough to accept what nature dictates. i love these types, the ones who obviously know what they're doing, but yet aren't horticulture snobs at the same time.

when i got home i was good and tired. but i stumbled out back to pick some miner's lettuce. it's my new favorite wild edible, a lot easier to use in some ways than chickweed, but a completely different creature. i had never seen it before, but now that i'm sure it's safe to eat, i've been eating lots of it, since we have so much growing over by the recycling area.

while i was over there though, i got to talking to the neighbor across the street. praising her artichokes and asparagus got me set up with a bag full of turnips, beets and some arugula. she's my new best friend, lemme tell ya. i'll now have someone who can adopt dumpster plants, since i usually don't have anywhere to put them.

the hustla

2005 Mar 13

they call me the tree hustler, cos you come in and so much as look at a tree, and you'll probably be taking it home...

the last couple of days there's been some real commodians on the bus. must mean it's time to get a new walkman again...

the plums around here are all scattering their petals like rain. they've bloomed out and will be all leafy in no time. seems like they come and go in about a week so i'm glad i got a couple of pictures, but wish i had more time to go around with my camera. this is the downside of working.

i saw the cutest thing at work...there was this 4 year old girl, and someone brought in a golden retriever puppy--and they just bonded. they looked so cute i just had to take a picture of it. it took a good 30 minutes for the pile of mush feeling to dissipate. i was probably rocking the googliest grin ever-it was that cute.

things have gotten better with the neighbors upstairs. sometimes i hear them but the worst offenses seem to be gone. talking to the landlord a couple of times musta made things simmer down. i'm glad i don't have to do anything real drastic like sleep in my car to get a good night's sleep...

i had two people ask me about water plants today...which rocked. it gave me a chance to show off my knowledge in that department. it's a nice break from "how long do pansies bloom?"

my grandfather knew all kinds of amazing things, some of which he told me, and some which I also remember...and one of them came back to haunt me today.

and on an entirely different note: boy do I love this new insecticidal soap we sell. It's called Rose Pharm and boy oh boy oh boy do I love it. not only does it smell great, but it's organic and it really works, and by golly it's totally worth the $12.95 they charge. i just get downright giddy thinking about it. I don't have any roses mind you, but my poor houseplants that get all infested with nasty pestilences respond really well to this stuff.

okay, i'll calm down now.

wonder how everybody's doing...haven't heard from anyone in awhile, so i guess people are busy or just not up to anything real exciting--but if you are, I'd love to hear about it. even if you aren't, for that matter.

ume-yu

2005 Mar 08

Around here it's not raining like we all would wish, but there is a steady rain of plum blossoms. The daffodils and all the other spring bulbs are flowering, and the air smells like the plum blossoms that are covering the sidewalks. It's the peak of the flowering plums...in a couple days all those flowers will be gone and the trees will be the softest spring green. When you walk down the street, the pears and plums contribute their pink and white splashes in with the wild yellow of the forsythia. I've even seen violets in the backyard, and other trees are setting their buds.

The air smells really good in a way that's too subtle for most people to notice.

Don't feel too good right at the present, but I took a stroll down to the library and picked up bela fleck and charlie musselwhite. i was the only person in a jacket. everywhere else, bare flesh and sandals have taken over the collective populace. i'm not quite ready to trust the fickle ways of spring. mom says back east they had the same weather--but then the next day it snowed. never trust spring.

went to the farmer's market for the first time in months. didn't see rachel over at the fry booth, so i wonder if she's on seasonal layoff or doing something else...i didn't leave empty handed though. got some fig preserves and rhubarb. i'm a sucker for flavors you can't get at the grocery store. call me old fashioned i guess.

didn't go to class, though i would have liked to. just didn't feel up for the commute and sitting in a desk. i'm too achy at the moment. week doesn't feel quite right though.

Was quieter last night upstairs. That's a major improvement. Makes me wonder if there's any hope the problems been taken care of.

had another dream about decleyre. i miss those guys. sometimes i feel like i left a family behind, and i miss that family. wonder if my life will ever be like that again?

roundup

2005 Mar 06

whew, the past 4 days are a bit of a blur...

what have i been up to? not much really. just working. the weekdays are usually pretty chill, but the weekends have been hype. we had a ton of people come in on saturday and sunday. i had to soak my feet on saturday night, and frankly may do it again today.

feeling a bit sleep deprived at the moment because our "charming" neigbhors didn't sleep at all last night. and when they don't sleep NEITHER DO WE. i also have a mysterious earache. nice.

it's been so nice lately. the past couple of days were supposed to be rainy but it really didn't rain during the day. today was real nice and sunny and warm. it's so weird.

i heard last week that it might get up to 80 this week. now it seems quite possible.

last night was awful. these people are really really getting on my nerves. it's like it doesn't even occur to them that other people live around them, so they just go around making all kinds of noise day and night. i'm so over it. (okay bitchfest over)

somebody came in the other day wanting roundup. it's a day i knew would come but it still blows my mind that people would rather spray some nasty chemicals than take the time to pull up a few weeds. the one consolation is that for every one of those types, i have 2 or 3 people that interrogate me about whether or not something in the "chemical/fertilizer" section is organic or not. miracle grow shmiracle grow. hah! believe it or not, it doesn't work on everything (as the commercials would have you believe).

Top 3 questions I've had this week:

1. Q: can i plant this camelia/rhododendron in the sun? A: sure, if you want to kill it.

2. Q: why does my lawn look like crap? I've been watering it. A: the short answer is that it needs some food as well! Nitrogen baby...or iron in some cases. But seriously though, grass in this climate is just crazy...it's too dry and hot here. It doesn't rain for months and months...If you have to have the stuff, try something more suited to the climate to begin with.

3. Q: does this (forsythia/ornamental pear/etc) bloom year round? A: nope. That's why it's special. Who would get excited about flowering trees if they looked that way all the time? (Or the blaze of fall reds and oranges, for that matter)? But more importantly those flowers often serve an important biological purpose--to attract bees/pollinators so that tree can make fruits. So nature in it's wisdom makes these displays brief, perhaps so that we can appreciate them all the more for their uniqueness.

well before I get all philosophical, i should probably go check on the laundry.

i think peace and quiet time is over. It was quiet for about an hour and a half, but someone just pulled up and went upstairs. so much for relaxation.

birthday buddies? nope.

2005 Mar 01

lucky me, it's actually gonna be nice today.

i was hoping i'd have a birthday buddy sometime today, but it didn't happen after all.

went to the library but i forgot it doesn't open 'til noon, so i wasted my time on that errand. tried kickin' it next door at evo's but that still left me with more than an hour and a half on my hands, so i thought maybe i could swing on over to goodwill and find myself a birthday present. they didn't have any sunset publications (a currently useful commodity) but i got a couple of japanese bowls. still had too much time on my hands so i gave up and went back home.

sure enough it looks like march outside. the daffodills are blooming all over town. plum trees are flowering, and i've even seen a few pears. The forsythia is blooming and it's starting to look a lot more cheery out there in late winter land.

by the time i wanted to go to class it started getting rainy. i got a mean case of motion sickness from reading on the bus, that didn't fade away for about 20 minutes. The rain was still coming down when I came out of the building, so I had to stand under the bus shelter. unfortunately i was surrounded by smokers so my lungs seized up and i had to go off in the cold to find a place i could breathe in.

ended up fixing some guy's cassette tape while i was waiting for the bus driver to show up and get her rollin', then buried my nose in native trees of the northwest. there's some really neat stuff in the conifer section, rare trees that like harsh unforgiving environments...trees that no doubt are likely to disappear with the bush administration's wholesale logging of the national forests around here. makes me grouchy just thinking about it. i'm a softy for trees, they're really neat, especially the ancient ones like redwoods, sequoias and bristlecone pines.