May. 26th, 2013

jacey: (blue eyes)
My son in law just ran the Edinburgh Marathon in 3 hours 9 mins. Whoo-hoo! Congrats Ian Kenton!
He's been running for about 4 years but this was his first competitive marathon after training for 6 months. We thought he might not manage it since he's been fighing off the remains of a chest cold all week, but he did and ran it in a fantastic time!
jacey: (blue eyes)
Originally posted by [livejournal.com profile] maryvictoria at Alma Alexander – appeal

Originally published at Mary Victoria. Please leave any comments there.

The US health care system isn’t all that, as we know. It charges you for dying.


There must be a Kafka story resembling this somewhere. Or at least, Kafka would have written the tale, had he been alive in our times, in the land of the free, home of the terminally ill. To confront one’s own mortality is one thing. To let a loved one go, quite another.


But to be charged $20000 for it, after a mere two days, is close to unconscionable.


Please read this appeal. Even if you can’t spare a dime, pass the word along. Alma is a storyteller of the first order. This time, unfortunately, the story is true.


THE STORY OF THE WHITE RABBIT


jacey: (blue eyes)
The weather was so wet last year that we never dug out or planted the raised beds at all. The only thing in the kitchen garden was a bed full of strawberries planted the previous autumn, and either the rain ruined them or the slugs and snails got to them before we did. Also, disappointingly, we had not one piece of fruit on three apple trees a plum and a pear.

But today we managed to have a garden day and four out of the five raised beds are back in business. I had to seriously clean out the strawberry beds and found that there were masses of runners that had set themselves, so we now have two beds of strawberries and, thanks to a neighbour's greenhouse-grown plant-lets, a bed of brassicas (broccoli and two types of cabbage). BB has put up frames and the butterfly nets will go over them SOON because the year before we lost the whole crop to cabbage white caterpillars. BB dug out another bed and it's ready for peas and beans. If it seems a little late in the season, you have to remember that we are 1000 ft above sea level and we have a short growing season at the best of times.

Found many huge, brown-shelled snails inside the raised beds. Note to self: consider charging snails for flying lessons next time.

Just one raised bed to dig out now., though I'm a bit unsure about planting root vegetables until we can cage the beds from the local cats. We have about ten cats in the neighbourhood that think our raised beds are giant litter trays and cat crap amongst root veg is not particularly inviting. BB has bought wood and wire netting, but we need to make it as secure as Alcatraz to keep the tenacious b**tards out. Neighbours please note: If I wanted cat crap in my vegetables I'd keep a cat myself.

I've also got half a dozen sturdy tomato plants in the porch, two of them with the first truss already in flower and since the neighbour also gave me half a dozen well grown lettuces I've potted them and intend to grow them on a windowsill. They're almost ready to eat now! Another couple of weeks should do the trick. It's not worth giving the slugs the opportunity for a feed.

But the fruit trees are barely budding yet. There are a few leaves on the Bramley apple, but the other two apples, the pear and the plum think it's still February.

Tomorrow, if my back will still bend and my feet hold me up, I'm going to shove the bedding plants (mostly pansies and violas) I bought a couple of weeks ago into the pots in the front garden. My winter hanging basket has done very well. As soon as the snow melted the pansies revived and are still blooming happily. I may not need to replace it for summer at this rate.

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