A good night's sleep, chocolate, the happiness and satisfaction of sharing on AgingCare forum. Does anyone have some favorite things to think about? Yes, this phrase is from the song in the movie "The sound of Music". My husband and I often resort to using movie lines and song to improve communication. We were the only two in a gathering of people who heard the background music playing. We both had the same (cassette tape/CD). A connection bringing two people together. To this day, we crack up when one uses a simple movie line to make a serious point.
SO, What is one of your favorite movie line, some of your favorite things?
Folding napkins like swans is one of the reasons why some of her ideas are so unrealistic. Imagine having all that time to sit and make cloth origami figures after doing the laundry.
Any more Martha jokes to share? I'd enjoy reading them.
"Martha Stewart published her recipe for disaster -- mix one part arrogance with two parts incompetence, simmer in the juices and then serve hot in the can." —Jay Leno
"Tough times for Martha Stewart. Yesterday, Martha Stewart reported to her parole officer and had to take a mandatory urine test for cocaine and marijuana. Martha was found to be drug-free and her urine was found to be a lovely yellow saffron." —Conan O'Brien
"Martha Stewart was convicted of four counts of lying and obstruction of justice and could serve up to 20 years in Congress." —Craig Kilborn
"Martha Stewart was found guilty on all charges. You know what that means, stripes are in this year." —Jay Leno
When she was in jail, she told all the inmates that "Stripes are in this year"! Hope these will bring a little chuckle to all of you. Have a great, safe Labor Day weekend.
Glad and Massach, thank for the Martha jokes. I laugh everytime I read them.
And isn't it just typical that she'd turn a GPS device into jewelry!
Mina, you touch on so many of the natural things that are comforting. I love watching fireflies in their nightly dances, have never but would love to see a whale, and of course follow the butterflies as they flit from one pollinator plant to another in the garden.
This year I let the mulleins grow freely and had more butterflies, including a new one I've never seen. I still haven't identified it.
I've never planted the milkweed - it just grows naturally although I didn't have any this year.
Some gardeners I met on a now defunct gardening forum cultivated butterflies - they used jars to place milkweed or parsley, attract the butterflies, then they took care of the caterpillars until they morphed. I think I have the directions on my old computer.
Mullein is also known as verbascum. It's a wildflower, grows naturally when conditions are right. I guess they were this year because I had about 3 dozen volunteers. But they had trouble blooming; they'd get started, then stop, start again, then stop. Must have had something to do with the weather.
The stalks have the best posture of any wildflower I've seen! The leaves are pretty, kind of fuzzy like the lambs' ear plants, but I've read that they're miserable to the skin if touched when dried. So they need to be cut back and/or composted before the leaves become dried as the season ends.
This is what they look like:
https://www.google. c o m /search? (spaces added so the link won't be deleted)
q=mullein,+verbascum&biw=1097&bih=534&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CC8QsARqFQoTCOzR0sDs3scCFc4JkgodcbAISQ.
Mine look like the one in the first photo on the left in the first line. They're beautiful when the tall seed stalk blooms, but mine never had more than a few blooms. Still, the butterflies enjoyed them. And they were stately in the garden. Some only grew a few feet but at least a few of them are probably close to 8 feet tall. Next year I think I'll interplant them with sunflowers - they're both tall plants.
So you're a butterfly lover too?
I've never tried the cultivated varieties of mullein but when I had a bigger garden I often left some of the 'weeds' to grow in out of the way places, they have such nice fuzzy grey leaves!
Asclepias tuberosa or butterfly weed is a prairie native milkweed that is spectacular in the garden and attracts lots of butterflies and other insects, plants are often found in garden centres. I was lucky there is a big plant at our new home but so far I've never had any monarchs lay eggs on it.
If you want black swallowtails all you have to do is plant some parsley or carrots, I even had some caterpillars on my little potted carrots this year!
There is a worrisome factor: Neighbors are prolific pesticide sprayers, without regard to our preferences. When one can smell the spray coming in the open windows, that is a problem. But there is an abundance of hummingbirds, hummingbird feeders, and a pretty delicate hummingbird flower across the street.
One of my fave moments: When 2 butterflies twirl around each other in flight as they go higher and higher! It's butterfly love to me. It also reminds me of my relationship with Christ. I sometimes imagine he and I are like the 2 butterflies intertwined, twirling upwards in our delightful relationship with each other.
Does anyone else have some kind of favorite moment related to butterflies? Or flowers?
I've never seen butterflies on carrots but since they do like parsley and carrot tops are similar in texture, perhaps that's the attraction.
I couldn't help thinking of this post yesterday as I saw dozens of milkweed plants beginning to yellow.
SendMe, I too have read about the Colony Collapse Disorder (doesn't that sound like something from the DSM?) that addresses the devastating bee decline. I've even been thinking about becoming a beekeeper, but I can't keep up with what I have on my plate now.
But I do think that as good citizens, we have a responsibility to help the pollinators if we can, especially since pollinator plants are easy to integrate into our yards.
As to the pesticide sprayers, that's a really tough situation, bad for you and your family as well as the pollinators. Unfortunately, some people just refuse to educate themselves about the dangers of pesticides. I'm wondering if your city has any code restrictions that address excessive use of pesticides, or does California have any? CA has been ahead of the nation on certain issues, so maybe they could help.
Having to smell pesticides in one's own home is disgusting.
There's another option and that's to create a pesticide absorbing fence, something very tall and natively hardy to stop the spray, but I'm also wondering if the prevailing winds would just blow it over into your yard?
Have you or any of you family become ill from the pesticides? Hopefully not, but if so, perhaps you could raise the issue not only with the city's code enforcement but with the county's health department since the pesticides are toxic and could be compromising your health.
https://www.agingcare.com/discussions/Gardening-as-therapy-187150.htm
I might copy some of my posts here to that thread; you're invited to do the same and we can pick up the discussion there.
I do have one favorite story to share about a butterfly. I found it on the pavement in a parking lot, which I thought surprising. After watching it a few moments, it seemed to be injured or disabled. So I gently picked it up and put it in my car to take home to my garden, which I did.
I found a nice place for it, picked some flowers and put out some water, but it died by the end of the day. I was saddened, but I do think that whatever injuries it had that apparently prevented it from flying might have been too severe for it to survive. And with that limitation, it could have been prey for anything that might have sauntered by in my yard.
It was such a dainty little thing, soft to the touch, something like a kitten not in texture but just in feel.
For a moment I thought perhaps I could have bonded to this lovely little creature.
There is an eagle count every year here by conservationists to make sure the count isn't getting smaller cause they are a protected species here.
I love your idea! I've tried several ways to go to the site you printed, but I can't get it to work. Any suggestions?
You're right; the link no longer works. Thanks for pointing that out. I got an error message when I tried to access it via the link I posted.
I just bumped that thread up to the top of the Discussion section, copied the link and tried to access it. Same problem - server error.
Try going to the home page, then scroll down to the Discussion section and click on the topic. Hopefully that works!
I don't know what the problem is - at first I thought maybe the admins deleted my thread.
I'd love to see that - it must be spectacular.
Of course when the eagles do it its simply breathtaking. Its almost like they are doing a sort of dance. I've only seen it live once but I'm sure you could probably google it.
dailymail.co /news/article-1214139/Pictured-Three-eagles-lock-talons-plunge-ground-mid-air-battle-fish.html
Google "eagles locking talons" for more photos. Apparently this is a mating ritual.
'This happens like you can see in a fight over fish and also in courtship - they hook their talons for a couple of seconds and stop flying while they let themselves fall down close to the ground before they unhook the claws.'