Find something that makes you smile.

This year has given us all some time for introspection. Well, that or video games. And if that’s what makes you smile, go for it. We each have different needs.

Pink peonies

My garden makes me smile. Looking out at the flowers, stopping to smell the peonies (which smell like roses!), admiring the sunflower that has sprung up in the keyhole bed… particularly after losing all the sunflowers I planted out back to some hungry critter, and unsure whether the front yard sunflowers will survive whatever’s leaving holes in the leaves.

But I can’t complain too much about the critters… I just smiled at a rabbit hopping through my back yard. And have you ever watched a woodchuck run? It’s like a low to the ground penguin waddle, with hips shifting back and forth as it leaves a trail in my grass. Of course, that may be who ate my pea seedlings. It’s hard to tell, I’m not spotting the rabbits or woodchucks in the raised beds.

Keyhole garden with prominent sunflower (no flower yet)

At a guess, it’s birds eating my strawberries, but at least that’s the actual fruit. If the sunflowers had grown to full height, most of the seeds would have been consumed by the birds. The peas probably would have been shared between us and the woodchuck.

The cats June and Diane sitting on a cat rug

And then there are the indoor critters, sources of amusement and frustration. I walked in to these faces this morning. I was immediately suspicious. This was after breakfast, so they weren’t expecting food, and the third cat, Arwen, wasn’t in sight. Arwen is the main troublemaker, the one who figured out how to open the crockpot over Memorial Day weekend, landing a paw in my chicken soup. (Knowing it was possible, Diane then followed her example.) As it turns out, Arwen was lounging in the bay window, and I still have no idea why these two were eagerly awaiting my return from the garden.

Pork chops with cherry sauce, peas, garlic mashed potatoes with chives

I also happen to enjoy food, eating it and preparing it, given enough time. And it’s a mix of things I grew up with – like omelets, which Dad would make on Sunday mornings, grilling on my Big Green Egg – a gift from Dad, or making a pizza from scratch. We’ve developed a Friday night pizza habit, and while the multigrain crust is pretty much the same each time, the toppings vary from week to week, and sometimes I switch from tomato sauce to pesto.

This is by no means the entire list of things that make me smile, just a few things that came to mind. What makes you smile?

The world watches in horror as the United States attacks itself.

With around-the-clock news and social media, the world was watching as the United States (among others) federal government floundered epically in the face of COVID-19. The world saw armed protestors rally against their elected officials, because their need for a haircut or a meal out is apparently more important than preserving lives.

The world was watching as the news came to light that an African American man, Ahmaud Arbery, who was running through a residential neighborhood, was killed by two armed vigilantes while their friend filmed the attack, and the local prosecutors sat on the case for over two months before arresting the attackers.

The world watched as a white (now ex-)police officer kneeled on the neck of George Floyd, an African American man, ignoring his cries for help and beyond the point when he became unresponsive. Three other officers, also since fired from their jobs, allowed this murder.

And now the world watches as the response to peaceful protests against systemic police brutality against minorities is… systemic police brutality. Reporters have been arrested and assaulted, including being shot with pepper balls. A CNN reporter was arrested – on camera – while visibly wearing his press credentials. And they’re seeing the protests turn into riots each evening, as the crowd shifts from the legitimate protestors to the rabble-rousers.

What the world isn’t seeing – I couldn’t even find this on our national news sites, much less international ones – is the clean-up effort, as volunteers flock to the Twin Cities. These people, the helpers, are the ones to watch. They’re the ones who understand that they live in the community and need to help each other. (It also lends credence to the accusation by Minnesota’s governor that most of the damage was done by non-residents. Who would show up the next day to clean up what they destroyed?)

Watch the police officers whose immediate response is to condemn the murder for what it was, and are trained to de-escalate situations instead of intensifying them. Watch the officers who listened to the protestors and joined them, recognizing the validity of the complaints. These are the officers who signed up to serve and protect everybody. These are the officers we need.

It’s what George Floyd needed – if just one officer of the three watching had done something right, his murder could have been prevented.

How does my garden grow (spring 2020)?

We are quickly shifting from spring to summer here in Chicagoland, though it varies by day which we’re enjoying. My first round of seeds has been planted everywhere I had planned, a couple starter plants purchased where seeds didn’t germinate, for the annual herbs up front, and my new garden bed. What’s more exciting is seeing tiny plants popping up across the various beds… and in the composter. Wait, what?

On the left, a garden tower with marigolds and petunias. Top right is the herb garden; middle right is tomatoes and squash; bottom right is garden bed with marigolds and petunias.

Yes, there are tiny squash plants in my open composter, just like there were last year. Those are probably acorn squash or carving pumpkins… it’s hard to tell at this stage.

My garden tower is filled with marigolds and petunias purchased through the Boy Scouts. The sheer quantity of individual plants included in their flats is insane; I filled the garden tower with half of each flat, and was left wondering what to do with the rest.

The star-shaped bed in front is my herb garden, with mint, chives, and cilantro carrying over from past years. I added parsley, sage, and rosemary into the points, and small (they only grow to about 6 feet) sunflowers in the middle, just behind the ninja gnome. There’s also mint popping up in the mulch… and the other points… I’m working on that.

In the back yard, my carrots failed to germinate in the keyhole bed, so I bought a couple tomato plants and a bell pepper. While I was watering them this week, I noticed the acorn squash and honeydew sprouting, along with the mystery squash in the composter. Based on what I can see at the moment, some of those mystery squash will probably end up in the windmill-shaped bed (not pictured) I set up last fall. One of the three squares in that bed has nothing germinating that I can see at the moment. One of the other squares is filled with okra, with all sixteen plants poking out.

The garden bed pictured in the bottom right is the old, cracked bed frame that I mentioned in last week’s post. It seemed like the perfect place for the rest of those marigolds and petunias. The empty space at the head and foot, also known as the “built-in trellises”… that’s where the big sunflowers have been planted. Big meaning they can grow up to fourteen feet tall. Past experience tells me that they tend to topple once the flower blooms, weighing too much for the roots to support. Shortly before that happens – if I’m on the ball – they’ll be secured to the trellises. Hopefully I’ll have some lovely photos to share later in the season.

Last, but certainly not least, is the small selection of fruit in my yard. The raspberries and mulberries came with the house; the raspberries are flowering, and the mulberry leaves are emerging for the season. On a more exciting note, the strawberries I planted last year near my grilling area have a tremendous amount of flowers, so I’m certainly looking forward to those.

When life gives you lemons, make lemon meringue pie.

I know, that’s not the traditional saying, but I generally march to the beat of a different bagpiper. I think it’s safe to say that 2020 has provided a significant number of lemons to every day life, and there’s only so much lemonade you can drink. So I like to look for something that takes a bit more effort. After all, life went to the trouble of giving me something.

The latest lemon to hit my life was when the support rail of my bed broke last week. It wasn’t unexpected, as it’s the second time one of the wooden rails broken, but the first time was a tiny break near the bolt. This is a full-fledged, half the length of the bed break.

Broken wooden support rail in a bed frame.

I suppose I could tell a funny story about how it broke… an epic battle between Arwen and Cassandra, which the bed lost. But it wasn’t that epic – Cassandra was holding Arwen, and fell back onto the bed when the cat struggled to escape. I heard the crack from the next room.

My lemonade approach would be to order new support rails, or finally get around to ordering a new bed, which I had been looking at for a while. I can honestly say I wasn’t surprised that it broke; the previous break was a couple years ago. I was more dismayed at the timing, since shopping is a bit difficult at the moment. I have ordered a new bed, figuring it’s a good use of stimulus money.

But what about the bed frame? I can’t exactly donate (even if places were open) or give away a broken bed frame, even after gluing it. That wouldn’t feel right. Our spring trash day, when we can put bulk items out at the curb was cancelled… and if it hadn’t been, was actually the day the bed broke, so the break would have been after the pick-up anyways. And to be honest, it’s a reasonably nice (if broken) bed… a pretty wood color that was originally a crib, converted to a toddler bed, and now a full-size bed.

And then I realized what my lemon meringue pie approach would be. With the feet planted into the ground, the support rails will be the right height for a raised garden bed. The size is just about right to reach into every part of the bed for gardening and weeding, possibly with pavers, or even by splitting apart the support slats from the bed itself, and rejoining them as walkways. And the head and foot of the bed are effectively built-in trellises.

Of course, this takes time to set up. Even though I’m not digging deep, I submitted a dig request to mark the utility lines, just to be sure. I need landscaping fabric to reduce weed growth, and a mix of dirt and compost to fill the bed once that’s all done. I’m looking forward to planting sunflowers in it this year, as the spot I’ve chosen is remarkably sunny.

I bought a furnace.

I can’t say that’s a phrase I ever wanted to use. A furnace certainly wasn’t on my top ten things to shop for list. But I knew it was coming.

I had hoped my boiler would limp through one more winter. Last winter, it gradually lost water over a period of three to four weeks, with no obvious leak. That implied the leak was somewhere in the pipes to the radiators, but those pipes are buried in the foundation throughout the house. I learned how to bleed the system – drain the water and the build-up of air into the garage work sink to allow the water to replenish – buying functionality for another pair of weeks, until the room temperature variances started again.

As with all home improvement projects, I did my due diligence and requested estimates from multiple companies. Ultimately the one I chose was not just because they included a maintenance package and removal of the boiler, but because their sales representative explained what he was looking at in the house and attic, and what they needed to do for each piece of the puzzle.

Unassembled pieces of ductwork along with my stuff in the garage

Switching from a boiler and window air-conditioning meant there was no ductwork in the house yet, so we spent four long days with people crawling around in the attic and hammering away in the garage. I pulled what little I store in the attic down, moved furniture around in the garage, and parked outside for a week in December.

When they were done, I had a working furnace, a smart thermostat, and more importantly, peace of mind.

And an air-conditioner. Because I have ductwork now, and it will be far more efficient than window units.

Thoughts on The Long Earth

I just finished reading a book about traveling between parallel worlds. It was an amazing book, and at some point down the line, I’m sure I’ll share the review of it here. While reading it, it struck me how clever Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter were in creating a mode of travel for The Long Earth that was so clearly available to the masses.

When access to the means of travel, in this case, across the multiverse, is controlled by a corporation or by price, the story will be about a select group that can travel. In The Long Earth (the name of both the first book and the series), the plans for the “Stepper” were released online, and involved mostly items that are available at your local hardware store. And a potato to power it.

If you ever had a potato clock, you can appreciate the simplicity of it with at least a vague understanding that you can power something with a potato. Or pair of potatoes, for the clocks. The Stepper plans were deliberately accessible and available to everybody.

Another twist in The Long Earth was that humanity only evolved on ours, referred to as Datum Earth. No need to wonder if you’re going to meet yourself, or an evil version, on the next Earth over. People stepped either east or west, with the nearest Earths, as measured in steps from Datum Earth labeled “low”. Some people went higher, building new homes far from the civilization they knew, exploring the new frontiers.

And some people found they didn’t need the steppers. Interesting adventures were had by all.

Thoughts on Bridge 108

I’m fortunate in that I’m provided with many good books to read. This review was originally published in the January 1, 2020 issue of Booklist.

Award-winning author Anne Charnock begins Bridge 108 by introducing readers to Caleb, a twelve-year old from climate-ravaged Spain, living illegally in England as one of Ma Lexie’s assistants. He found his way there with Skylark’s assistance, not realizing that he was being trafficked and enslaved. A spur of the moment decision leads Caleb to freedom and on an adventure to find a better life for himself, with the added possibility of locating his mother, who he was separated from before meeting Skylark. As his world turns upside down time and time again, he gradually realizes that his parents’ dream of escaping to England – legally – was naive, causing him to reflect on the people who have aided or hampered his quest for a better life. This coming of age story sees Caleb sampling multiple jobs in a dystopian world, striding solidly forward in his efforts only to have them come crashing down due to outside forces. The potential reality to this late twenty-first century setting, with drought, wildfires, and closed borders, makes Bridge 108 both appealing and frightening. 

Three meals and a workout at Centr.com

One of the many generous offers that appeared online during this stay-at-home time was a free six-week membership to Centr.com, a fitness website run by Chris Hemsworth’s team. Yes, that Chris Hemsworth, better known to many as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Centr can be accessed via a web browser or their app; the daily planner shows the same selection either way. There are recipe suggestions provided for three meals each day, at least one workout (some days more), an article to read, and a podcast or meditation to listen to. Any item on the planner can be swapped out by searching through the appropriate category and selecting a different one for the day.

The sign-up process allows users to select their fitness level and goals, and meal plan choices of Regular, Pescatarian, Vegetarian, or Vegan. The introduction also mentioned that you can make adjustments as needed, either due to dietary restrictions (for example, recipes that includes bread list Gluten Free as an alternate) or limited availability of ingredients.

Clockwise from the top left: Chilli mushroom & eggs toast, Dukkah salmon (& bok choy, not pictured), Greek chicken & lemon soup
Clockwise from the top left: Chilli mushroom & eggs toast, Dukkah salmon (& bok choy, not pictured), Greek chicken & lemon soup

The workout selection is pretty varied, from boxing to pilates to HIIT to dynamic yoga, and some insane training that Chris Hemsworth puts himself through. The recipe selection is equally varied, and frankly, quite tasty. I had a chai-spiced oatmeal the other morning, and there’s a variety of smoothie recipes available. I’m definitely enjoying the added variety in both my workouts and meals.

Spring is… oh, it’s snowing again.

What can I say, it’s Chicagoland. But it still looks like spring out there. My grass is green and will need mowing soon. My strawberries – added last year – are starting to revive. My hyacinths look lovely and smell better. And I’ve already started weeding.

Hyacinths (along with some leaves and weeds) in the front garden bed

OK, I’m not too thrilled about that last one, but it comes with gardening. Some of the weeds are things I planted, like the peppermint that wants to go everywhere in and around the star bed. Others, like thistle and burdock, which came with the yard, will probably come back soon, though in smaller quantities than when I bought the house.

And then there’s the vegetable garden. If you’re new to gardening, you may be deciding which seeds to order. I gather a lot of people are – my usual source, Territorial Seed Company, has stopped taking orders to catch up because of the unusually high demand. Due to compulsive organizing tendencies, I placed my order in January. In fact, I have peas and salad greens sprouting already, and I keep checking to see if my radishes and carrots are showing signs of starting.

Everything else that I want to plant, well, I’ll have to wait for the rest of spring to arrive.

The same garden bed, 2 days later, covered in snow with a couple hyacinths barely visible.

Thoughts on The New Improved Sorceress

This fabulous urban fantasy was hard to put down, and I am looking forward to its sequel. The review was originally published in the December 15, 2019 issue of Booklist. Online access to Booklist’s reviews is currently free; if you’re looking for ideas on what to read, that’s certainly the place to go.

In The New Improved Sorceress, the second book of the Wayward Mages series, Sara Hanover presents a realistic urban fantasy as college student Tessa Andrews adjusts to a maelstrom stone embedded in her left palm and all of her magical friends. This collection of supernatural friends includes her ghostly father, trapped in the basement; a centuries-old phoenix wizard sharing a young man’s body; and Hiram, an Iron Dwarf. Hiram requests Tessa’s help locating a magical gem, the Eye of Nimora, and the entire group chips in to help with her quest. In addition to her quest, agents from The Society (of wizards) attempt to recruit Tessa to a specialized college, she plays field hockey on her college team, and even attends classes. Further complicating her life, a book on Dark Arts imbues Tessa with magical powers of her own. Hanover references the previous book, The Late Great Wizard, enough that this sequel can be read on its own. Fans of Libriomancer and other urban fantasies will enjoy the gritty reality interspersed with magic. Any reader who has wondered what a normal person would do with magical powers will be delighted with this action-packed story.