z

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:13:24 GMT

'Stoned wallabies make crop circles'

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:34:36 GMT

'Stoned wallabies make crop circles'

Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite", a government official has said.

Lara Giddings, the attorney general for the island state of Tasmania, said the kangaroo-like marsupials were getting into poppy fields grown for medicine.

She was reporting to a parliamentary hearing on security for poppy crops.

Australia supplies about 50% of the world's legally-grown opium used to make morphine and other painkillers.

We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles. Then they crash
Lara Giddings, government official

"The one interesting bit that I found recently in one of my briefs on the poppy industry was that we have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," Lara Giddings told the hearing.

"Then they crash," she added. "We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high."

Rick Rockliff, a spokesman for poppy producer Tasmanian Alkaloids, said the wallaby incursions were not very common, but other animals had also been spotted in the poppy fields acting unusually.

"There have been many stories about sheep that have eaten some of the poppies after harvesting and they all walk around in circles," he added.

Retired Tasmanian poppy farmer Lyndley Chopping also said he had seen strange behaviour from wallabies in his fields.

"They would just come and eat some poppies and they would go away," he told ABC News.

"They'd come back again and they would do their circle work in the paddock."

Some people believe the mysterious circles that appear in fields in a number of countries are created by aliens. Others put them down to a human hoax.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8118257.stm

always the best weekly horrorscopes

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:08:17 GMT

CANCER (June 21-July 22): "His heart was growing full of broken wings
and artificial flowers," wrote poet Federico Garcia Lorca. "In his mouth,
just one small word was left." There were times during the first half of
June when I was tempted to borrow those words to describe you,
Cancerian. Now, thankfully, you're moving into a much brighter phase. The
buds that are about to bloom in your heart are very much alive, not
artificial, and your wings, while not fully restored to strength, are healing.
Meanwhile, your mouth is even now being replenished with a fresh supply
of many vivid words.

http://FreeWillAstrology.com

vegetables will grow here

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:32:56 GMT

if i can keep the raccoon out:

calendula and cornflower

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:31:43 GMT

the gauntlet has been thrown

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:29:32 GMT

the raccoon tore through the net last night and left a calling card for me:

suggestions?

for monissa

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:27:44 GMT

molly

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:17:56 GMT

molly
Originally uploaded by zzinnia

she likes to re-dig the same ole every day and lay in the cool earth.

mummies on father's day

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:53:50 GMT

mummies on father's day
Originally uploaded by zzinnia

please note the 3 wolf moon tshirt on the laptop. also, i am not the one who says, great, now clean it up! that's the mom. i'm the older, more mature aunt who sings, i see london, i see france....

the new vegatabe garden

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:47:52 GMT

off to a very late start

cough

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:09:32 GMT

gakked from orangebeaver

ahhh.

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:10:56 GMT

i has a bath. for the first time in 3 yrs! (usually, i shower.)

oh, how I'd forgotten the loveliness of letting water out, topping it with hot! adding Epsom salts, to soothe my aching body (that just finished pitchforking my 18' x 24' plot--which was never a vegetable garden before).(this was day 3.) but i got stuff in the ground, finally. my work schedule's been brutal. and it has been raining constantly. but tonight, 3 kinds of tomatoes, green beans, silver queen corn, and marigolds are in!

beets, arugula, lettuce, jalapeños, habaneros, sweet yellow peppers, basil, carrots, romaine, okra!, cukes, and zucchini--guh! where will i fit it all tomorrow???

but for now i must log into work and execute a full export of the cod.

woot(zor).

today

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:46:54 GMT

made meatballs for my mom. and rotini. i cheated and opened a jar of sauce, though.

worked in the yard from 7:30-11:30. went to a meeting. took a nap. worked in the yard from 5:30 to 8:30. (it was a long nap.)

watched S2E01 True Blood tonight! woo hoo!

spoiler: Lafayette's not dead! man, they really have veered off from the books! (in good way.)

sigh. still, my tomatoes are not planted.

garden, end of may

Fri, 29 May 2009 02:57:26 GMT

melissa had this made for me for christmas:

looking to the pond, from the back yard

you can see the bright green privet leaves, where i've wired them to a cross-piece to grow into an arch. i'm not going to trim the hedges until after they flower. i love that scent! it reminds me of getting out of school for the summer!

by next year, the garden will be "walled" by privet hedge!

my trusty wheelbarrow:

first clematis of the year:

centaurea montana

lovely ligularia leaves:

new path to the apple tree

melissa helped plant the reds and lay the path

the yew side of the pond

looking to the yew

unfinished path

rocks for pathing

lynne's mother-in-law's siberian iris

new velvety citron water plant (name unknown)

3 things:

Mon, 25 May 2009 11:15:15 GMT

i am very thankful that my mom's surgery went well, and thatr she's going to be all right. (she feels awful right now, the day aftermher surgery. they've got her on dilautid, and even that's not enough for the pain.)

despite seeing 2 doctors, the fire and ice in my right arm continues to wake me multiple times a night. i am typing left handed because i can't get my fingers to hit the correct keys with my right hsnd. i can't pick things up. it's useless.

i have poison ivy.

sigh.

Thu, 21 May 2009 05:58:25 GMT

so, i cleared out a big part of the back of the garden last night and moved a lot of stuff around and dug out the stone path between the hostas and the yew, and tonight i worked on relaying it. see?

(that brick edging is new. unfortunately, i couldn't find enough bricks to do both sides.)

from another angle:

isn't that dulce de leche heuchera (orange palnt near the glass orb) da BOMB??!?

beauty shot of the ligularia (dark leaves) and the most sumptuous columbine i've ever seen:

me pond, with cattail and water hyacinth:

the lone allium gladiator that survived the over-the-fence-raiding neighborhood kids:

and, the wall o'iris is in bloom!!!

garden update

Fri, 15 May 2009 19:54:28 GMT

work done out front this week:

3 kinds of iris (japanese bookend the bed, german/bearded are the bulk of it), rose campion (that i stole 15 yrs ago from a hillside near a golf course where hey were growing wild, this side of a stone wall), lambs' ear (a salvage from my days working for the gardener on weekends) and california poppy, that i planted from seed 4 or 5 years ago and has reseeded since), sweet williams that wintered over from last year but have not yet budded, and petunias (annuals bought in 6-pack).

behind the iris bed is an untamed tangle of concord grape vine, blueberry bushes (planted by my grandpa before iw as born), boysenberry tree (planted by the birds in recent age), leftover granite blocks (from the house construction in 1951), milkweed, and poison ivy. and some other new-on-the-scene weed that i don't know the name of yet.

here's some close-ups:

gud4proofs

Wed, 13 May 2009 02:07:37 GMT

gud4proofs
Originally uploaded by zzinnia

I just sent the approval to the printer for the proofs of GUD issue 4!! sweet!!!

garden

Mon, 11 May 2009 02:05:23 GMT

apple blossoms

the rest of these are the garden pre-cleanup. but the colors are pretty:

bluebells and grape hyacinth

crocus gone by, tulips, and euphorbia

my little cement woodchuck under the ligularia

the left front of the pond

the "aunt sue's garden" stone melissa gave me is at the center of the entrance

in the bucket are the rose of sharon stalks i dug up 2 weeks ago. i planted them this morning before we went to the mets game

citi field

Mon, 11 May 2009 01:49:27 GMT

was fun. the mets beat the pirates, 8-4.

the tarts enjoyed it.

allergy attack & getting old

Mon, 04 May 2009 13:42:19 GMT

last night i had an allergy attack, and the right side of my body felt inflamed. i scratched until i was bleeding on my torso. it was awful. i took 2 benadryl and went to bed at 8. unfortunately, i didn't wake up until 8, either--when i was supposed to be on the way to work. sigh.

also, for the past few months, when i wake up, my hands are numb. pins & needles numb, to the point where i have difficulty flipping open my phone to shut the alarm. my arms and feet feel wooden and i do stretches to try and awaken them. it makes things like showering--where you need to actually hold the soap in order to wash--very difficult. double sigh.

i woke up two hours ago, and my hands are still very still and somewhat insensate, which makes typing difficult. and driving. etc.

start of garden, 2009

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:42:04 GMT

is underway, well and along without my help. i mangaed to do some little winter cleanup before i was struck down by all those infections. work is keeping me too late to do much, as i am cooking when i get home. i hope to get out at 5 today, and make some progress on the list i have barely scratched the surface of:

clean out side beds near back porch and plant cannas and seeds (est.: 2 hrs)
dig up rose of sharon that sprouted in the yard and plant along fence (where neighbor took it upon himself to rip out all the barberry that had been there since my grandfather planted them, before i can even remember) (2-3 hrs)
pick up fallen branches in yard (1/2 hr)
clean up dog poop (15 min)
mow yard (3 hrs)
clean out red garden (1 hr)
weed path around pond (1 hr)
clean out beds around pond (2 hrs)
re-dig new garden where all that grass has crept back in (1/2 hr)
re-stone path in back (1 hr)
weed and reset path near hostas
clean out lily beds (1 hr)
plant annuals (1 hr)
dig out lambs ear from front wall and put in lavender (2 hrs)

clean out iris bed (1/2 hr)
rake front beds (1/2 hr)
line bed between slate and pond with travertine (done!!)
haul misc brush piles from already-done cleanup to compost heap (1/2 hr)
repair compost bin fencing (1/2 hr)
mulch (2 hrs)
dig and plant vegetable garden (2-3 hrs)
reset granite edging stone that is slipping into pond (entails climbing into pond, as pulling from land gives no leverage. sigh.) (1 hr?)
find edging stone that has fallen into pond and reposition on rim (again, with the climbing in and lifting very, very heavy stone.) (1 hr?)
stop hose spigot from leaking

okay, that totals more than a full diurnal cycle. sigh.

on it.

sycamores on booth street

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:18:08 GMT

sycamores on booth street
Originally uploaded by zzinnia

some of my favorite trees.

news from GÜD

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:31:28 GMT

News: GUD goes 'pay per view' and adds lolcat translations

The "I Believe" speech from Neil Gaiman's "American Gods

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:46:10 GMT

The "I Believe" speech from Neil Gaiman's "American Gods
(which you can buy on a t-shirt, here.

I can believe things that are true and I can believe things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen–I believe that people are perfectible, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones who look like wrinkledy lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline of good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste. I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like the Martians in War of The Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman. I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumblebee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says that sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies too. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive

and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.

z

'Stoned wallabies make crop circles'

'Stoned wallabies make crop circles'

always the best weekly horrorscopes

vegetables will grow here

calendula and cornflower

the gauntlet has been thrown

for monissa

molly

mummies on father's day

the new vegatabe garden

*cough*

ahhh.

today

garden, end of may

3 things:

garden update

gud4proofs

garden

citi field

allergy attack & getting old

start of garden, 2009

sycamores on booth street

news from GÜD

The "I Believe" speech from Neil Gaiman's "American Gods

cough