Saturday, April 23, 2022

Grazin' In The Grass, It's A Gas, Baby Can You Dig It?

As I wrote to a friend today, this has been the most Sunday-ish Saturday. It just has that feel of an irritating sadness, a yes-it's-beautiful-but-so-what? air about things. 

Perhaps it all started last night when Jack and Maurice had a fight ON MY FACE in bed. Jack got to the bed first and was settled in without a care in the world until I suppose Maurice jumped up on the bed to claim what has become her usual spot which she certainly does not share with Jack and upon discovering each other's presence they hissed and clawed and toothed, waking me up and causing me to frantically try to bat them away from me, which I did, and one of them ended up on the bed and other one didn't and I'm not sure which was which because it was so dark and when I got up, neither one of them was there. I have a tiny Bindi in the middle of my forehead now and a small, shallow laceration on an eyebrow but I am quite aware it could have been so much worse. 
You know, there are a lot of things I have never experienced in my life, some of them to my vast relief, and some to my vast regret, but having two cats fight on my face is not something I had ever even pondered happening in my wildest dreams. 
Mr. Moon slept right through it. I told him about it this morning and he said, "Did I wake up? Really? That happened?" Yep. It happened. Two feet away from his sleeping self. 
Notice to thieves and burglars: Do not even attempt to be stealthy if you enter our house at night. Just don't waste the effort. 
I guess when you learn to sleep through a train virtually going through the house every night, you learn to sleep though almost anything. 

So anyway, Mr. Moon was invited to a fish fry today and I, too, was invited but they know by now that I'm not showing up. I made a pasta salad for him to take but I don't think much of it got eaten. It had things in it like chard and kale and fresh peas from the garden and no one eats pasta salad for its health-giving benefits. Plus, I didn't use Good Seasons Italian dressing which I think is a requirement and don't get me wrong- I love the stuff but I made my own vinaigrette. I used two varieties of basil in it too which probably freaked out some taste buds. 
Anyway, I tried. 

I planted a row of zipper peas but since they are a year old, I have no idea if any of them will come up. Then, because I was feeling mean and ugly I decided to get started pulling some of this mess.


That's one small part of a corner in the front yard between the fence and the azaleas. There are at least four different types of invasive plants in there. Mostly what you can see are the crocosmia and the rice paper plants. I got down on my knees and hammered my trowel as deep under roots as I could get. The crocosmia grows from bulbs and I doubt I get a tenth of them when I dig them up. I think the rice paper plants may grow from roots which have been cursed with immortality and forget trying to get every bit of them up. But I suppose it was therapeutic in some way and I did enjoy it when the chickens showed up to scratch around. 


Liberace is so damn photogenic. 
Here's a picture I got of Miss Pecky pecking the gnats off of her rooster. 


This is a service that a good sister-wife provides and it always looks like kissing to me. 

I found a small creature clinging to a stalk of crocosmia and he/she (they?) were kind enough to hold still for me to take a picture. 


He-She-They were probably hunting for gnats too. Or mosquitoes. Plenty of those. This little one gave me pause- here I was, the great wildlife protector, devastating a habitat. I can only take comfort in the fact that crocosmia is the farthest thing there can be from a native plant species unless one lives in Africa. 
Which I do not. 

I read an article today in the New Yorker that gave me a great deal to think about. You can find it here. 
It's concerning a movement to make natural resources like lakes and rivers and forests entities which can sue for their own protection. With the help of humans, of course. This is not exactly a new or completely outlandish idea. I think I had heard something about Ecuador and how its constitution has some similar ideas in it. 

From the article:

When Ecuador’s new constitution was adopted, in 2008, it marked another, much more significant world first. The constitution’s preamble celebrates Pacha Mama, usually translated from Quechua as “Mother Earth,” and a later section enumerates the rights that Pacha Mama enjoys. These include “the right to integral respect for its existence” and “the right to be restored.” The constitution also includes a right to buen vivir, which translates into English as “good living,” but is itself a translation of the Quechua term sumak kawsay, which has far-reaching spiritual and political implications.

The effects of such a shift in thinking are almost beyond imagining. It could give environmentalists more and better tools to protect what we are so rapidly destroying. Is there time for such a change to be made to do any good? 
Well. I don't know. The cynic in me says probably not. 
The child who believes in magic in me says- why not try? 

Here's how much invasive pulling I got done today. 


But the chickens appreciated the disturbed earth, and delighted in what they might find in it. 
So there is that. 
Gee. Tomorrow is the real Sunday. I can't wait. 

Love...Ms. Moon
 


24 comments:

  1. well, you got your Sunday *blues* over with on Saturday....so hope tomorrow will be lighter! I must say Liberace is about the most stunning rooster I've ever seen (other than Elvis, and my dear friend Lynne's rooster Cisco). And hearing you mention Good Seasonings salad dressing on pasta salad (really?) almost made me cringe.....but...... it's like my SIL who insists on putting a whole jar of pimento's (which I detest) into her macaroni salad......yuck! Quickest way to ruin anything, in my opinion. Have a martini (again) and hope the cats behave better tonight
    Susan M

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    1. Maybe the cats need a martini! LOL

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    2. Well, I have to admit that I do love Good Seasons although I have not had any in years. And (oh, don't hate me!) I love jarred pimentos!
      What a boring world it would be if we all liked the same things.
      I'm thinking the cats need some gummies.

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  2. The New Yorker article is for subscribers, paywalled. But I like the gist. Yes, if corporations can be legally people, why can't natural areas also have legal rights. Good idea.

    I love the occasional little lizards and other animals you find hanging out on the grass.

    I'm confused regularly about what day it is. This week is spring break so my across the street neighbor is at home every day. I keep thinking every day must be the weekend.

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    1. I'm sorry you couldn't read the article. I think you would have appreciated it, Liz.
      We do have a lot of little critters around here, don't we? Right now we have an anole living in the kitchen.
      As to what day it is- all I know is that I need to remember when it's Friday so I can wash the sheets and have a martini. Which is pretty darn swell.

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  3. Liberace looks like a porcelain rooster ... He is a beautiful guy!
    I can't imagine the cats fighting on your face! Good grief!

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    1. Liberace is good-looking man-bird, isn't he? But then again, most roosters are.
      Yeah. Cat fight on the face. I do not recommend it.

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  4. Have you ever experienced snakes....or worse yet, poisonous snakes in your
    years of gardening/landscaping around the house? What do you do? Being in
    Florida, I would imagine you're used to that? Have they ever gotten into the house? Yikes!

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    Replies
    1. Yes. I have most definitely seen snakes in the yard. They sometimes get in the hen house and eat eggs. But those are not poisonous. And yes, we have seen a rattler in the yard. Mr. Moon did kill that because it was right up against the house and the grands where here. And once again- yes. I have had snakes in the house. That is Florida.

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    2. Thank you for the information. Really interesting. I guess that's just living in Florida. I used to live in Miami, and they warned us about pygmy rattlers when walking dogs. I had pugs. I stayed pretty
      much on the sidewalks and was hypervigilant (paranoid) most of the time! Alligators were another issue. Saw neither snakes nor alligators when out, but I was in a pretty densely populated area.
      I was going to John Penneycamp snorkeling in the Keys all the time when I first moved down. That was the year 'Jaws' came out!! Honestly, I've never been back in the ocean again....nor a lake. I had permanent PTSD after that movie! LOL! I live in Ohio so it's relatively safe....except for the people! Love your blog!

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  5. i would eat the hell out of your pasta salad!

    xxalainaxx

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    1. Actually, more of it got eaten than I thought and we had some of it last night. It was pretty darn tasty.

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  6. Marcia LaRue is right - Liberace looks too perfect to be real! I think your little frog will fine in any thick herbaceous habitat - as long as the chickens don't get him!

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  7. Orange Liberace amongst the green leaves is gorgeous!!

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  8. Your salad sounds amazing I would eat the entire bowl full- without the pasta. Liberace is the most perfect guy ever! OMG that photo of him in the greenest grass with his color is so amazing.Knoked my one eye right out.
    Cat fight on your face - that is not good. Trains rumbling through the house - OK - but not the switchblade feet of angry cats on your face where your eyes live!!
    I never know what day it is so thank you for the reminder.

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  9. Liberace's picture is so perfect I thought he was a garden figurine. Spring bright colors there, even in the rooster.

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  10. Some years ago when we were living in a small apartment, the next door Nazi decided to fire off a gun in the middle of the night. Our cat at the time came awake with a leap, right across SWMBO's face, ripping open her bottom lip. We went to the emergency room at the hospital and when we told them how it happened, they couldn't stop laughing. Some care, huh? Course, after a few days, we were laughing about it too.

    Liberace is definitely, positively a looker. And I'll bet he knows it.

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  11. Liberace doesn't even look real. He looks like a model of what a rooster should look like, a very handsome fellow.

    How your Sunday doesn't suck and hope you get a better night's sleep:)

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  12. You cleared a fair sized piece, although you may have to keep turning it over and checking for more bulbs or roots. What will you plant in there once it is fully cleared?
    I hope your peas grow.

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  13. Those cats! Seriously.
    In 2017, New Zealand granted legal personhood to the Whanganui River, the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, had been fighting for more than 160 years for this. Indigenous people the world over have deep connections with nature, such as waterways, mountains, springs, forests etc. You probably know that many of the indigenous people in your country do this too.
    I wish we would eat more eggs - regularly - to start keeping chickens. I am in love with your flock.

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  14. I did some weeding yesterday too but I have lots more to do. Today it is raining so I don't have to feel guilty about not weeding!
    Sorry about the cat fight! Shame on them!
    Enjoy your Sunday!

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  15. I was out weeding in the rain today (for my one-hour stint). Just like your rice paper plant, I don't know why I bother really but those bloody dandelions will take over my raised beds if I don't do something about them. And that first picture of Liberace is so beautiful he actually looks fake!

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  16. "Grazin in the Grass", what a great summer song. Your chickens look happy, I agree with the others you have a gorgeous rooster.

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  17. I hope your Sunday went better than your Saturday, though from this end your Saturday doesn't sound TOO terrible. Aside from the cat fight on your face!

    I love the idea of giving the natural world a legal voice. If corporations are entitled to a right of free speech -- and thus the ability to contribute to political campaigns -- why shouldn't nature also be entitled to recognition?

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.