Well, one of the Rockins, at least. This one is on the fence, and the male parks his arse on the neighbours’ roof, ready to defend his wife and kids (though Mrs. Rockin is perfectly capable of launching a shrieking air attack worthy of the Luftwaffe, should that become necessary). Taken 04-18-18.

This forsythia has only a few flowers, but considering that it was a tiny stick when I got it, I planted it in a bad spot, the landscapers literally ran over it when they filled in the former gravel pit, and I never water it, it’s done an admirable job. Taken 04-22-18.

I guess all the watering I did last summer paid off; my long-awaited (and damned hard to find) Lonicera flava is going to bloom! This is the real thing, unlike the goddamned japonica I got from that stupid bitch who claimed it was the fault of her supplier. Suuuuure it was, and you couldn’t tell the difference even though you’re supposed to specialize in fucking vines. The price alone should have given it away; japonica is a fucking weed, and it’s not expensive. The real thing is rare, and it is expensive. Not that it made a difference to you; I’m sure you got it for nearly nothing, then priced it like a hard-to-find native. Bitch. I remember the name of your business! Taken 04-24-18.

I forget which Physocarpus this was, but it really struggles, and that’s even with my watering it regularly all last summer. I wish I liked the shape of the leaves better; I would have put it out front. I don’t care for them, though, but want the plant for its fruit (that I hope eventually to see) because birds like it. The leaves are such a pretty colour! Taken on 04-28-18.

It’s little, it’s spindly, and I have no idea whether it’s fruit from my pink ones, or whether it’ll be a native white one, but I’ll take free dogwoods! There are actually two of them, both about the same size. It’ll be at least a few years before I’ll know what colour they are, and I really hope they survive because they planted themselves in spots where the hose wouldn’t reach even if I were inclined to drag it down there (which I won’t be in the heat of July). Taken on 04-28-18.

Bills are good for something. I was tired of messing with a BT FM adapter that worked sometimes and sometimes it didn’t, and even on a good day, I had static, so I broke down and bought a Kenwood stereo. Since I use my Visa for everything (including any bills that can be paid by Visa), I had amassed enough Amazon points that the stereo ended up costing me 71 cents in actual money. I emailed the details of our foray into Perfeshnl Stare-y-o Ahstallin to R, so rather than type another Wall O’ Text, I’ll copypasta….

Whew! That was an adventure! We started installing my stereo yesterday, and we’d done our research. We knew what size metric sockets we needed, and which bolts had to be removed to lift the dash and remove the trim around the stereo and instrument panel. We’d watched YouTube videos on how to get everything apart. Car manufacturers use whatever the hell coloured wires they want, so I had bought a mounting kit to fit my car, and it came with a wiring harness adapter so that the connector in the car would match up to the standard-coloured wires on the stereo’s wiring harness…so we thought.

I took off the dash and trim without too much trouble, and removed the old stereo. While I was doing that, P was wiring the adapter harness to the wiring harness for the stereo. I’ve never installed a car stereo before, and he has, so he volunteered to do the wiring. I got out my heat gun, and shrink tubing, because I trust that more than electrical tape, especially where there will be temperature extremes, like in a car in Illinois. He got it wired and got the shrink tubing on, it looked great, and we were all set to try it out. I plugged it in, and…nothing. No power, nothing. Well, fuck.

P had followed the wiring list that came with the adapter, so we thought that was okay, and perhaps the stereo was just dead. Doesn’t happen often, but does occasionally, and we couldn’t figure out what to do. Finally, I remembered that Roger used to use a car stereo running off a battery when he had no electricity in his little blue trailer. I didn’t remember how he’d done it, but I remembered that he did, so we went googling to learn how.

We wired the stereo directly to the battery, and it powered right on, no problem. Okay, so the stereo works. P was convinced that I’d got the wrong wiring harness adapter, but I KNEW I hadn’t because it fit perfectly, and all of the pins matched. He did some more googling, and came across a video on how to direct-wire a stereo without an adapter. No earthly way was I going to let him cut the plug off my car, but I was willing to sacrifice the old radio, which did work even if it had no fancy features. I cut the wires off, stripped half an inch at the end, separated them so they didn’t touch, and plugged into the car. With the ignition off, I used P’s multimeter to test the yellow wire, which was supposed to be 12v constant. Worked fine; 12v. Turned the ignition to Acc, and tested the red wire. Nothing. I knew that grey, white, and purple were speaker wires, so I tested some other colours. Lo and behold, the red AND WHITE wire was ignition/acc, not the red one as the diagram had said!

Once we figured that out, I tried the same test with the adapter I’d bought, and the red and white wire was indeed the correct one. We fixed up the wires (getting that shrink tubing off once it’s been heated is HARD!), and just slid the tubing on for a final test. Worked fine, and the radio had sound to both speakers. I don’t really know how to use it yet, so I didn’t know how to connect to my phone, and was going to try a CD, but we have only half a dozen actual music CDs, and I have no idea where they are. We settled for trusting that if the radio worked, everything else probably did, too.

I took the stereo back in the garage, and P shrunk the new tubing in place. Took it back out, connected it, checked again to make sure it worked, and then put the dash back together. I had put one of the screws back in, and then I thought, “Oh, goddamn it. I forgot the microphone!” The stereo came with a little omnidirectional mic for hands-free use. I never get calls, but I do need it for “Ok Google” in the car. Unfortunately…it plugs into the back of the stereo. Well, shit. I wasn’t about to tear the dash apart again last night, so I did it this morning. I mounted the mic up where my map lights are, then ran the cord under the edge of the headliner, under the trim, and in behind the instrument panel and into the stereo. It looks pretty good because all of the wire is hidden, and it works well.

So…we finally got my 71-cent Kenwood stereo installed, and I now have Bluetooth in the car that works reliably (at least so far). I use Android Auto so it can read my texts while I’m driving, and I can respond via voice. I play music, of course, and this is WAAAAAY more stereo than my little factory speakers can handle, but it’s not like I blast it anyway, so it’s fine. I’m very happy with it. Not bad for 71 cents!

Dash torn apart, and old radio removed.

Shiny new 71-cent Kenwood!

The car is mostly back together; I have a couple of PITA screws left to do, but wanted to make sure the mic and everything work well because those screws are a huge deal to get at, and the dash can’t be removed without their removal.

A couple of weeks ago, it occurred to me to check on the Virginia bluebells. I saw a couple of leaves just beginning to peep up from the ground. Disappointed, I thought that most of them had probably died because it was so hot and dry last summer, and I didn’t water them at all. I stand corrected; they are quite alive, and after I thought about it a while, it occurred to me that they go dormant in late spring/early summer, so they probably don’t care much how dry it is or is not. Anyway, they’re alive!

Canada bloodroot not looking like much, so last year’s super-dry summer may very well have claimed some victims. This one is alive, though, and I’ll take whatever flowers I can get.

I was doing a little flowerbed-clearing when I came across a whole bunch of seedlings.

I don’t know what they are for sure, but given the location, I think they just might be cup plant. Time will tell; I understand they’re slow to establish from seed, and I kind of hope these don’t establish at all if they’re Sylphium because those are some seriously big plants, and the seedlings are closer to the front than the original plants, so they’d overpower the smaller plants. Anyway, we’ll see what happens.

This is from the afternoon I took off yesterday. I saw a sulphur, but I’ve seen them on warm days earlier than this. Red Admiral, though, always says spring to me. Early spring, but spring!

“It won’t help to stand on the seat, Windsor crabs jump 30 feet.”

For reasons known only to that hateful bitch, Mother Nature, it’s turned cold. Not just, “Gee, it’s a little chilly out here,” but record-breaking, frost on the goddamned punkins cold. Fuck winter. This winter is like that volatile relationship that you had in your 20s where you fought all the time, and had to have the last word, so you’d storm out the door, then turn around and come back with, “And another thing!” I’d say it has been like that, but it WON’T FUCKING LEAVE, so I cannot yet use the past tense. Jesus. Anyway, it was a little better this morning than it was yesterday, and I’ll have a look and see what got frost-damaged and what’s still okay. Hopefully most will be okay.

For now, just a couple of pictures of the hyacinths that did bloom this year. Not many, and they aren’t exactly thriving, most likely because summer is so hot and it NEVER rains, and I can’t afford to water more than absolutely necessary, but they’re flowers, and when winter just won’t give the fuck up, I’ll take whatever I can get.

So, as always, I’m late getting these posted (half of the reason is that multi-image uploads always fail from the fucking WP app and piss me off so I don’t even want to bother anymore). Anyway, it may be chilly and grey on the first day of sprang, but sprang is sprangin’ whether the weather knows it or not! These were taken on the 15th, when it was less freezing, windy, and dismal.

Mini daffodils. Wish these weren’t so hard to find; they really are very cute! The mini tulips I planted at the same time as these are long dead, but the daffy-down-dillies seem pretty tough.

Old faithful Canadian ginger is beginning to unfurl beneath its blanket of leaves, spiky balls, and the mulch I actually put there intentionally. I love this stuff; it isn’t really useful for birbs or flutter-guys (though I’m told that Pipevine Swallowtail will use it in a pinch), but it’s pretty, it’s tough as all hell, and it’s native. What’s not to love?

Just starting to see a little bloomage on the Allegheny sprurge (no WAY could I get the word “Pachysandra” in my head today!). It looks a bit worse for wear, but in fairness to the plants, it is in a difficult spot. I’ll be content as long as it survives, and if it can manage to spread a little, I’ll be overjoyed.

What I really mean is “caught up FOR now”, but sprang be sprangin’, and ah be watchin’ it!

Not too long now before pretty purple hyacinths bloom. Fingers crossed for the other colours!

It’s been so cloudy and dull lately that the lovely little croci are closed more often than not, but they certainly are pretty when they’re open!

I was clearing debris in the Bee Happy bed yesterday, when I had to stop and actually put some of it back because it’s someone’s house.

I actually plan to get a few terracotta pots this year and cut them in half to make toad houses. Kind of a PITA to cut, but I’ll figure out something; terracotta stays cooler than plastic in summer, and I think the Toadallys would appreciate that when it’s hot and dry. I love toads…they always look pissed off.

I haven’t been able to upload media with this POS app for months. Let’s see if it can manage a fucking text post?

Thank you, Altec-Lansing, for giving up on Chromecast and going with Alexa, because otherwise, I could never have afforded a whole-home sound system. Since you aimed too high (Sonos-killer? Really?), and Walmart had these for $21 if I knew where to look, I have music everywhere! What I didn’t have in the hallway, though, was a place to put the speaker.

Piece of cedar left over from roost houses I built a couple of years ago, plus some really half-assed sanding, a coat of Killz, and a couple of light coats of spray paint.

These little brackets were under three bucks each; P picked them up for me at Walmart. They were already antique white, but I gave them a light coat so they’d exactly match the shelf.

Speaker on its shelf, so I can rock out all around the house; even in the hallway!

Still needs to be painted once I get to Sherwin-Williams and get “Biltmore Buff” paint mixed, but I found some small cord cover on Amazon to cover the ugly black cord. I actually bought 5 pieces, 5′ long each, which I think were just under $5 each, and they shipped each one in a separate box. Shipping alone would have been more than the things cost! Whatever…the cord looks better, and eventually, I’ll get it painted to match the wall.

I took these ages ago, because it’s actually 03-12, but I was lazy getting them cropped/resized, then I couldn’t get them to upload from my phone, then my site was down for a couple of days, then I got busy, so whatever. Everything’s a lot farther advanced now, of course, but I took them, and dammit, I’m posting them, and changing the post date so they appear in the correct order.

Croci peeking up out of the lawn. As dry as it was last summer, I’m surprised they even survived.

Cool shelf fungus. I was down by the creek, trying to think of excuses for not yet having started bush honeysuckle removal down there.

Of all the bebe pines I’ve planted, only two remain. They’re pretty sad-looking, but they by-god survived last summer, and the summer before (one or both of them did), so they’re tough little bastards!

It’s been so long that I forgot whose buds these are, but what the hell. I know one of them is from Diervilla…I think. 😀

Bee balm population looks good so far!

These amused me because even though they’re still pretty spindly, this is one of the two 10-12″ single sticks of freebie purple lilac that I planted beside the old lady’s white lilac. I didn’t think they’d survive at all, but they’re actually doing pretty well, considering the start they got (or didn’t get…they were really little and bareroot).

Miniature daffodils playing peekaboo!

The biggest of the hyacinths. I’ll bet it’s purple because they always bloom first. Hell, I don’t even know that my other colours survived…we’ll see!