Tuesday, March 7, 2023

I'm Just Lazy

Last night Mr. Moon started sounding stopped up and sniffly. "I think the pollen is finally getting to me," he said. 
"I think the flu is finally getting to you," I told him. 

So yes he has it too but it's such a light version. Of course, while I'm staying in the house and hardly doing a damn thing, he's planting tomatoes and peppers and hauling a boat to be repaired to St. Marks, and oh yeah, now he's mowing. 
Women often complain about how wimpy their men are when they get the slightest cold but I have to say that I wish my husband was a little wimpier about being sick. He just refuses to acknowledge it unless it literally knocks him out. Which makes me feel so guilty. I do not feel terrible and I absolutely could do more than I'm doing but I don't want to. For one thing, I refuse to go work outside in 89 degree heat. Forget it. I have done the things around the house that need doing but that's hardly anything. 
Ah well. He is who he is and I am who I am and he is not sidelined by a puny little illness and I use it as an excuse to sit around and do a jigsaw puzzle. Tomorrow I will be back at it, though, as I have to go to town to get my permanent crown put on and I'll stop by the grocery store, of course because god knows I can't pass a Publix without stopping. 

My potential crow-friend stopped by today, perched, and observed me for awhile. 


He did not, however, speak to me. I spoke to him though. I said, "Hello! Hello!" in my best crow-friend voice and when he did not reply I added, "You're such a pretty bird!" which is probably the number one thing said to birds by humans. In fact, when I was a child we had a parakeet whose name was...Pretty. So I went on with my inane one-sided conversation for awhile and then I put two peanuts in the bird feeder but as far as I know, the crow did not grab them. He surely didn't while I was watching. After awhile, he flew away. He has probably studied me long enough now to decide that I am not worth befriending. 
Sigh. 

As I said, Mr. Moon planted tomatoes and peppers in the garden this afternoon and I did the strenuous and arduous task of ordering rattlesnake pole beans to plant from an heirloom seed company. I should have done this a month ago. 
I feel particularly useless today. I worked on the jigsaw puzzle and believe it or not, each one of those tiny bees (I guess they're bees) on the border of the puzzle are different and many of them are now in the correct place, marching around the edges, but some are not. I am not a visual person. Never have been. Not in a detailed identifying way, at least. So this is hard for me. 



Why am I talking about this? I'm sorry. No wonder the crow does not want to be my friend. 

So everything is busting out blooming. Speaking of not being visual, I just noticed today that the tung tree is in full bloom. As some of you know, I love the tung blossoms. 


There is a very interesting article about how and why tung trees were introduced in Florida HERE.  
I was delighted when we moved here in March, nineteen years ago, to discover that there was a tung tree on the property. They are supposedly incredibly poisonous but as far as I know, I've never had a cat, chicken, or dog get sick from eating anything that fell from our tree. 

The wisteria has made it to the top of the bamboo. 


I know you can't tell but that is way, way up in the air. 

And the native buck-eye is blooming beautifully. 


Look at those elegant, slender throats! I suppose this may mean it is time to put the hummingbird feeder out again. 

Next will come the native azalea, and then the ashe magnolia, and finally the magnolia grandiflora, the Queen, the Empress, the Goddess of all blooms. The wheel of blossoms turns and turns and turns again and I am grateful for each and every turn. 

Love...Ms. Moon


33 comments:

  1. The tung blossoms are just too beautiful! All of your blooms are ushering in Spring in such a lovely and fragrant way!

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  2. I’m amazed at all your gorgeous blossoms! But I’m with you- if it’s 89 degrees I’ll be outside around 7am or after 5-ish, to check on the veggies😅 I think it’s perfectly fine to stay inside with your jigsaw puzzle- I’d come over to join you if I lived closer😊(I’m in the mid-Hudson valley, NY, where there’s still some snow on the ground) xo, Rigmor

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    1. We wouldn't know what to do with snow on the ground. Not going to happen here.
      That would be a long way to travel to help with a jigsaw puzzle.

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  3. My b-i-i was a southern Ohio boy who became a citizen of NE Ohio when he married my sister. A buckeye grows in Southern Ohio that Tom swears is unlike the Northern Ohio buckeye. To prove the native Southern buckeye cannot grow in Northern Ohio, he started a southern buckeye from seed and then moved the tiny tree north to out Peninsula back yard. He protected it from deer and pointed it out to the new owner. The S buckeye is now six feet tall and growing every year. Tom is quite proud of it, even though he does not live there any more.

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    1. I, too, am proud of trees I've planted where I no longer live.

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  4. Why are the beauties so toxic? That tung flower is gorgeous. Does it have a scent or is its visual magnificence enough?
    If it's already getting hot and it's only Spring how do you cope with summer? Or doesn't it get much hotter?

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    1. They don't have a scent that I've noticed.
      I've read that one tung nut can be fatal to a human and that the leaves can cause rashes. I will avoid swallowing one of the nuts.
      This has been a record-breaking high-heat spring. Summer? Well, who knows. But yes, it always gets hotter.

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  5. I wouldn't do anything outside if it were 89 here either! We are still having nightly fires in woodstove......in MARCH! In Calif! Interesting that you speak of putting hummer feeders up when they seem to have an abundant source of flowering plants there? And interesting article on Tung trees......I had NO idea. Do the flowers have a scent? can you cut them and bring them in to enjoy? Hoping you both feel better!
    Susan M

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    1. and my never ending PS's....ugh. NO, you are NOT lazy! Susan M

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    2. We just put up a hummingbird feeder to watch the pretty little birds come and go.
      I have cut blossoms of the tung to bring in. Probably not really a good idea considering their toxicity.

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  6. That's too hot to be working outside. Is the tung the same tree we get tung oil from? Just nosy.

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    1. The very one. That is why they were imported and cultivated here.

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  7. The Tung blossoms are so beautiful! I wouldn't work in 89 degree heat either, unless that was a cool change from one of our 100+ degree days, when I definitely stay inside!

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    1. We will start getting those temperatures in a few months. No doubt.

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  8. Seems so strange that you are sweltering in 89 degrees and it is snowing here at the moment. There is about 1 or 2 inches of the damn stuff on my car that will have to be shifted before I can take the dog for a walk. The road looks clear and it is melting, but easier to walk on a snowy field than a snowy pavement! Therefore I need to go in the car!

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    1. I know Frances!!!! We've had glorious but cold weather (in France) until the past few days and now the rain is back, but at least there's more snow in the mountains so the skiers are happy - and the ski lift owners I guess!

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    2. Funny that we all live on the same planet.

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  9. Bring on the blossoms of spring. They are always welcome, but that tung blossom is a real beauty. A day spent with a jigsaw puzzle and talking with a would-be-friend crow seems like an all together fine day.

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  10. yes, spring marches by in a sequence of flowers. the tung flowers are beautiful. if I wasn't already surrounded by trees I might plant one. and I love your ash magnolia too.

    I love jigsaw puzzles and if I had one out I wouldn't get anything done until it was finished. I satisfy my jigsaw puzzle doing with an app on my tablet. small puzzles, 283 pieces I think that I can finish in two or three meals, breakfasts or lunches.

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    1. Huh! A jigsaw puzzle app! I'll have to check that out!

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  11. I remember bird-sitting my nephew's parakeet years ago when his family went on vacation and it died while I was watching it! I tried my own version of "bird CPR" by blowing on its little beak and rubbing its little bird chest. Didn't work. I kept it in the freezer for him until they got home so he could give it a proper burial. I felt so bad about that. Your crow story reminded me about this...

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    1. Oh, Ellen. That must have been horribly traumatic for you.

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  12. That crow DOES want to be your friend. Just the fact that he was observing you was a good sign. Setting out two peanuts for him was a good thing to do. Did he take them? If he did, make sure you're out there about the same time, to do it all over again.

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    1. I bought a whole new bag of peanuts today. I will be leaving him some daily.

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    2. I've heard they prefer peanuts in the shells, is that what you buy?

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  13. I think people overreact to poisonous plants. There's lots of poisonous stuff out there but as long as no one eats it (and often significant quantities) it's not going to harm us. We have several types of poisonous flowers and sometimes people say to me, "Don't let Olga eat it!" They mean well, but Olga is not going to eat a flower. Unless it's covered with gravy.

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    1. You made me laugh.
      Tung nuts are pretty big. I don't know who or what could actually swallow one.

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  14. You need to name that bird, Ms. Moon

    I read about an artist this morning who takes discarded or old puzzle pieces and makes beautiful pictures out of them. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086453529185

    I spent my childhood and young adulthood being sick and was really not expected to live and so now, at 76, and having outlived my siblings, I see no reason to complain anymore about anything!

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    1. I will check out that FB page. Thank you!
      I am glad you lived!

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  15. Robert Frost:
    "The way a crow shook down on me/the dust of snow from a hemlock tree/has given my heart a change of mood/and saved some part of a day I rued".

    Change to "The way a crow shook down on me/the pollen from a southern pine tree/etc etc..."

    Chris from Boise

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    1. Oh! How I love that. It truly speaks to me. Thank you, Chris.

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