I ordered them from a nice lady on ebay, and they arrived yesterday. I can think of about half a dozen things I’d rather have done after work than dig in wet ground because it rained for three days, but roots need to be in the dirt, so dig I did!

I made a spot for the hyssop over by the Miracle Tuliptree. It’s pretty droopy, and isn’t an awful lot to look at even mature because only a few flowers open at any given time, but it grows tall, and bees love it, so it gets a spot near the back.

Obedient plant is named for the way the flowers can be manipulated, not because it stays where it’s originally planted (it doesn’t…it’s in the mint family and tends to be a bit aggressive). I cleared a spot over by the creek and planted it there; at best, it overtakes the goddamned weeds, and at worst, it doesn’t spread. I’m hoping for the former, but as long as it doesn’t die, I’m satisfied.

The long-awaited blooms on my flava honeysuckle are…white. I got this from a reputable place, but I swear to god that if this turns out to be japonica and not flava, I’ll jump in HK, drive to Georgia and kick somebody’s arse. These are just the first few blooms, and honeysuckles can be somewhat variable, so for now, I’ll leave my arse-kicking boots in the house and wait.

I got the damned thing to work—Hallelujah! That’s four IT issues solved in as many days:

1. We downgraded QB from 2016 to 2013 because Intuit pissed us off by forcing an update that would require us to change our passwords every 90 days, and making me spend 45 minutes on the phone with what they laughingly refer to as “tech support”, only to be told that there was no way around the forced password change. I told them our accounting software is not and has never been online, so we’re not going to get “hacked” unless someone literally “hacks” through a steel door in a concrete building with no windows, and a monitored alarm system, but they just kept saying it was for our own protection. We decide when we need protection, so C said Intuit could stuff their  “upgraded” crapware up their arses, I applauded, and we went back to 2013. Fortunately, it hadn’t been long since we’d “upgraded”, so it wasn’t much trouble to manually add in the information created after the file was converted to 2016 format (which I hate…the only reason they do that is an attempt to force upgrades.)

2. B wanted a local printer because he’s had trouble connecting to C’s on the network. The only printer we had available was an old HP that has no 64-bit driver at all, and has insufficient memory to hold its own settings, so therefore must have its firmware flashed every time it starts. That wasn’t happening on his Windows 7 64-bit computer, so I gave him the HP printer I’d been using for my second computer (driver is kind of “hackish” and not really for Win7, or for that printer model, but it works), and I took the one that would have to be run in a virtual machine.

3. We have three full toner cartridges for the printer with no 64-bit driver, plus it’s a workhorse, and we didn’t want to just toss it if I could get it working. I installed it in a virtual machine with the 32-bit driver, shared it, and used a 64-bit driver for a different printer that happens to have the same Zenographics ZJ-stream GDI. That printed text just fine, but would not print images, PDFs or anything generated by QB at all. Not good enough; it’s the printer for QB! I uninstalled it and re-installed it manually, BUT this time, I shared the DOS version of it, and told Win7 to use the driver for a different HP printer. Works like a charm!

4. We use an ooooooold (1998 old) version of DBA Manufacturing for shop parts management. It’s installed on a file server, and workstations connect…except the XP virtual machine would start it, then throw fatal errors when I tried to do an inquiry on a part number, which is literally the only thing I need. I had mapped the network drive, thinking that would be enough because on vanilla XP, it didn’t need anything at all, but for the virtual machine, I ended up having to set a new environment variable path, and it works just fine.

Go, me!

I’m just now catching up not because I did a lot last week (I didn’t) but because I did so little that it wasn’t really worth writing. The weekend, however, I didn’t waste even though it was cold.

Week stuff.

I’m glad I didn’t pull these, thinking they were lady’s finger because they are actually the Missouri evening primrose that I’d planted last year. These weird, red-spotted buds and the fact that they appeared in each front corner of the south flowerbed are what saved them because I’d almost decided they were weeds!

It was dark and rainy, but my little pines are alive so far. All but one appear to have new growth; they won’t all survive (and there wouldn’t be room if they did), but I hope to get one or two big enough to be useful to birds.

The birds plant sunflowers everywhere…and I do mean everywhere. This one is growing in an osage-orange tree! It won’t get very big, and might even die because there’s no room for a taproot, but it’s pretty cool anyway.

I had to go to ACE to get an empty paint can (shipping touch-up paint to a customer), and found these honeysuckle fuchsia. Fuchsia triphylla “Gartenmeister Bonstedt” (for when I forget). They’ll need to be indoors over the winter, but they certainly are pretty, and I think the MLBs will like them.

Friday after work, I potted the fuchsia. I agonized over where to put them because they want part sun or light shade, but fuchsia doesn’t like hot afternoon sun; it likes morning sun, and I didn’t really have dappled shade anywhere that these would work. Over by the pond would’ve been okay, except that the MLBs rarely venture over there due to the fact that the songbirds and woodpeckers congregate there, and it would be a shame to waste such perfect MLB flowers.

Saturday and Sunday, I worked my arse off. Lots of seeds that didn’t get photographed, but lots of other stuff, too!

I dug up some native bee balm, cut back even more of it, and made room for some morning glory seeds.

I moved the gloriosa daisy and my two remaining (sad-looking) ‘Winky’ columbines, and planted Maximilian sunflowers on Saturday. On Sunday, I was looking for a place to plant a forgotten packet of Mexican sunflowers, and since the Maximilian won’t do anything this year (perennials, and natives), I threw the Mexicans in as well. Dunno how that’s going to turn out, but I had nowhere else for the Mexican; I’ve already planted it everywhere else I wanted to deal with it.

Gloriosa daisy, looking rather droopy, but it had just been uprooted, so that’s understandable. This is its second year, so I tossed a few seeds in along with the plant so even if this one doesn’t come back, I won’t have a bare spot next year.

Also a bit droopy, the bee balm that I moved over to Thug Life. I planted it over on the southwest side last year, but it didn’t bloom. I expect it will this year (I hope!), but this may not because I wasn’t any too gentle; the roots are too much a tangle of runners for “gentle”. Anyway, it’s there; that’s good enough, and if it does bloom, so much the better.

I didn’t do this, exactly, but the two little penstemon Husker Red I had at 544 and couldn’t dig up so I brought seeds have been very busy!

I forget which penstemon this is, but it’s pretty.

The pond. Where to begin? I’d had a HUGE leak problem, and suspected that it was the same problem I’d had last year, but fixed with landscape foam and silicone instead of pulling apart the rocks and doing it properly. On Sunday, I donned a pair of dirty garden gloves and proceeded to turn them into muddy garden gloves. I cheated with insulation and built up that side, and had to take away most of the dam effect because once it backs up even a little too far, it runs over, and I’m right back where I started. I did manage to get it at least sort of the way I want, but I’m still not 100% happy with this pond, and only time will tell as to whether I’ve actually fixed that spot for good. I still might change up the rocks around the main part, if I can find any very large, flat rocks without having to buy an entire ton of them. We’ll see, but for now, at least, I’m not losing 4” of water in a day.

Oh, and I found this lovely (and enormous!) lady when I was planting Maximilian sunflower seeds.

I had an excuse Monday, but my only excuse yesterday was that I was kind of lazy, and got the new weed whacker, so I wanted to play with that and didn’t plant anything.

I’ve been lazy, but I can’t say the same for the Virginia creeper around the pond. It’s been rather busy, and looks very nice.

I did trim back the catnip; I don’t want it to take over like it did last year. I wasn’t alone, though…I had an assistant. A very happy assistant.

I was late getting home yesterday because I had an appointment with the chiropractor. The glorious, wonderful chiropractor who fixed my neck, prescribed ice for the inflammation, and got rid of my headache. Anyway, I didn’t accomplish much, but nearly as much after work as I’d done in all of last weekend because I was so sick. If it would stop raining, I’d try to get the cardinal climber planted after work, but I dunno. At least I got the topsoil to mix with the garden soil and Black Kow; hopefully the weed seeds haven’t yet got a start.

Anyway, the first thing I noticed, due to the fact that I was no longer in pain, was that when I picked the geraniums to go with the black ‘toonyas, I went with bright pink for a kind of 80s feel. They had no blooms when I bought them, but the first one appeared yesterday. “Bright” is not an exaggeration. I think I had a peplum jacket these colours in 1987.

The only actual accomplishment (aside from filling MLB feeders with nectar I’d made on Sunday night) was that I mixed up some topsoil and garden soil, and pulled the weed-choked mulch out of the Sweet Tea honeysuckle’s spot, then added dirt (honeysuckle had some exposed root near the base…surprised it survived the winter like that), and planted the creeping zinnia seeds that arrived yesterday. That was pretty much it, but at least I’m not in pain! 🙂

I accomplished very, very little this past weekend because Saturday was a “throw up my coffee and spend the entire day with ice on my head”, and Sunday was “Dragging my arse, still have a dull ache behind my eye, and have to do laundry.”

After I threw up my coffee on Saturday, I felt well enough to get dressed, so before that feeling went away, I planted the threadleaf coreopsis (Route 66 and Main St) and coreopsis Baby Sun that I’d got on Thursday.

That was basically it; the rest of the day was a wash but for the fact that I discovered I have not one, but two bullfrog girls. Michigan Jane is the smaller of the two, and I named the bigger one Big Bertha. Not very imaginative, I know, but I had a very bad headache.

Near dark on Saturday, my big accomplishment was planting a few borage seeds in the Bee Happy bed, and a few bloodflower in the milkweed bed. That’s basically it for the day.

Sunday was only marginally better, and I didn’t take any pictures because I felt too gross to care, but I managed to rip up some grass where I wanted to move the Backstop so it will (hopefully) block the view of the neighbours’ ugly shed this summer. We had a bit of a time with it, and it’s not perfect, but once it’s covered with cardinal climber (hopefully, I have enough seeds), it’ll be fine.

P.S. I also had to break down and spray the Tornado Honeysuckle with insecticidal soap because the goddamned aphids were getting out of hand. Nearly all of the blooms/blooms-in-progress were deformed and therefore useless to Mean Little Birds, so I cut off as many as my head could stand to do. Hopefully, the honeysuckle will know it hasn’t done its big spring bloom yet, and will make more flowers.

Fingers crossed that I get blooms this year!

I went outside at lunch and (with B’s permission, of course) scored some really nice, cushy moss from beside the building next door. I put it here and there on rocks in the pond. I hope it grows well; it’s a different kind from the stuff that grows over by our gradge, and very pretty.

The coneflowers I got from G on ebay arrived yesterday, and I put them in two clumps in the NoMo flowerbed. They look a bit droopy, but if I’d spent three days in the mail, I would, too, and their roots are nice and healthy, so I think they’ll be okay.

I went out at lunch yesterday in search of some yellow flowers to break up the pink and purple in the NoMo bed. I got four Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’, but I also caved in and got four ‘Sombrero Salsa Red’ coneflower. I doubt they’ll be as popular as the purple ones, but they are pretty, and hopefully they’ll survive next winter (and the next, and the next). I normally avoid fancy cultivars of perfectly good natives because the fancy ones aren’t usually as hardy or as attractive to butterflies, bees and hummingbirds, but it’s not like I don’t have purple coneflower; I have tons, and more on the way (probably tomorrow). Anyway, it was kind of cool outside, but perfect for digging, so I planted them right away. I also threw in a few Rudbeckia ‘Becky Cinnamon’ seeds in the middle of the Goldsturm, and some random Rudbeckia in the middle of the coneflowers. Maybe too late for them to bloom this year, but maybe not. We’ll see.

The few purloined jewelweed that I “liberated” our first spring at Parview have had no special treatment, and I know they’ve been very, very dry in the summer, but that hasn’t stopped them from seeding themselves…in an area much larger than I originally planted them. They’re very welcome, though; I’ve loved jewelweed since I was a kid and used to think they might be goblets from which fairies drank while no one was looking.

The Canadian columbine will be pretty much gone by the time the digitalis is in full bloom, but they’re so pretty even now. A phone camera doesn’t do them justice.

My little (not so little anymore) trooper. Tornado honeysuckle gets aphids every goddamned spring, and they deform entirely too many blooms to suit me, but it’s still beautiful, and really seems to like its big, sturdy trellis (better be sturdy…24″ of concrete holding the posts in place). This is the first non-deformed by fucking aphids bloom. I still haven’t seen any MLBs, though. 🙁

I knew it was going to rain on Saturday, so when I got home from work on Friday, I planted the ‘Baby Sun’ coreopsis I’d just got, and the four ‘Balmy Purple’ bee balm I’d had for a while. Both in the NoMo flowerbed.

I was up fairly early on Saturday, and it was raining, but it stopped in the afternoon, and I didn’t want to waste the entire day, so I decided to fix the pond a bit, building up the low spots. It’s still not perfect, but it’s a lot better, and there’s much less exposed liner. While it was raining, I’d trimmed Cliffie’s plants a bit so he had somewhere to swim, and I put the clippings in the pond. It’s only elodea and a little ludwigia, but the frogs appreciate them even if the plants don’t look like much since they’re mostly under water.

I also put in the last two stepping stones. Finally!

I was almost out of daylight, but decided to pot the geranium and ‘Black Magic’ ‘toonyas. I made one big pot with three geraniums and four ‘toonyas. It was almost dark when I’d finished, so I took the picture yesterday, after I’d pulled up whatever plant had volunteered practically in the roots of the weigela on the south side of the house. I potted it because I want to see what the flowers look like before I decide it’s a weed. It’s definitely not weigela, but it was so close and so large that I think it must have come with it.

Another one in a smaller pot; this has one geranium and three ‘toonyas.

I got up and moving around fairly early on Sunday because I knew we had to mow the lawn, and I wanted to get rid of the big pile of bush honeysuckle that I’d dragged out after The O cut it down for me. I didn’t take pictures; I just wanted to get it gone. I also went in to check on my bebe pine trees, which are doing okay so far. I cut back a little more honeysuckle about which I’d been undecided when The O was there. The stuff he cut hasn’t tried to grow back; it’s the best kind of Asian bush honeysuckle…the dying/dead kind.

The cool orange fungus that I’d found a couple of weeks ago is bigger, and even cooler. I think it may be Tremella mesenterica, AKA witches’ butter.

My trumpet creeper seeds finally sprouted in the spots where I half killed myself to get the goddamned bush honeysuckle out. I like the seedlings; they’re cute.

I’m almost sorry I put the ‘Java Red’ weigela back near the creek because they’re beautiful, but not as visible as I’d like. It’ll be better when they reach their full height of 5-6′; that’s why they’re so far back anyway. I’m also not the only one who appreciates them because I found this beautiful Spicebush Swallowtail on them. One of the guys I overwintered eclosed last week, and I’d like to think this is him. I hope the other one made it, but so far, he’s still asleep. This one, though, was very much awake.

I planted the last three black ‘toonyas in the Bee Happy bed. I was going to put them in hanging pots, but decided to put them near plants that attract bees anyway, just to see whether the bees would go to the black flowers. I know they don’t see them as black the way we do, but I’m still curious. They look interesting between the purple veronica and salvia, and help break up it a little.

Not all of the asters I planted last fall survived the winter, but some did. I know they eat the leaves, but I was still glad to see this little guy. I’ll guess Silvery Checkerspot, and he’ll be as pretty as any flower, so he can eat my asters; I can always buy more if he brings too many friends.

Cletus is still around, singing, “Ur-ur-ur-ur! Ur-ur-ur-ur!” I forget when I took this picture, but I like it. Cletus was the first creature to move into our pond, so I’ve grown attached to him.

Cletus isn’t the only one living there, though. P said he’d seen Cletus and told me where, but when I went to look, the frog I saw was not Cletus. Smaller, and not a leopard; I didn’t know what kind of frog it might be.

I got a better picture, and posted a request to /r/frogs. Before I got any responses, though, I’d figured out that it was probably a juvenile bullfrog. Someone responded that it is certainly a bullfrog, and since the tympanum is about the same size as the eye, I’m going with “girl bullfrog”. I had originally decided upon Michigan J. Frog, but someone suggested Michigan Jane Frog, and since she’s a girl, I think that’s perfect. The mosquito is also a girl; I hope she lays eggs so her larvae can enjoy the Mosquito Dunks in the pond. Hehe. Anyway, here’s Michigan Jane.

I was technically supposed to be doing laundry, but since P mowed the yard, I had enough free time to plant the jewelweed that I’d had in pots. It didn’t seem to like potting much, and since it doesn’t like growing in water, I just planted it in the spot where it stays damp if the bird pool backs up even a little bit. If the stuff down by the creek is anything by which to judge, it should seed itself nicely.

I also planted a bunch of seeds hither and yon, but of course no photos because…they’re seeds, covered with mulch. Zzzzzzzzzzzz…….