I had every intention of going to work yesterday, but when the time came for me to leave the house I was waiting for a load of laundry to finish. So I e-mailed my boss and told her I'd be in later than usual but until then I'd work from home.
I got to work on a project and, a few hours later, I was still at home and got to thinking that if I went to work now, I'd have to scrounge up lunch. Which would be a pain. So I stayed home until after lunch, and by then, of course, it seemed silly to walk all the way to work for a few hours of presence in an empty library. So I finally e-mailed the boss and said I'd just work from home the rest of the day.
"Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' into the future," as Steve Miller and his band famously sang.
Fortunately I got quite a bit of work done -- in addition to some garden photography! See the hoverfly on one of our dianthus flowers, above?
One of our self-seeded poppies has bloomed -- the first poppy of the season! We have several poppy plants and all of them came from seeds that sowed themselves last year. I love poppies and how fertile and persistent they are.
Our borage is still blooming, as well as carrying big stalks of hairy seed pods. We'll probably have about a million borage plants next year.
Our blue iris sent up its first blossoms, too. I cleared a lot of ivy from that part of the flower bed a few months ago, so the irises are getting a lot more light and air, which hopefully make them happier.
All in all, it was a very domestic day. I did a little bit of reading and, of course, walked the dog. We only walked around the neighborhood, and I saw that the cyclamens outside a closed shop on the corner and the primroses in a pot on the steps of the tennis club were so dry they were just barely hanging on. I filled a watering can and carried it back around the corner to "water other people's plants," as I told Dave. I am a busybody! But I'm helping these businesses, right, that are closed during the coronavirus? That's what I tell myself, anyway.
Now, today, I really will go to work. I gotta take advantage of this opportunity to get out of the house!
Why do today what you can put off for tomorrow? The flowers (and photos)... beautiful!
ReplyDeleteReply: "No problem Steve. Just do what you like buddy. Hey, we're people - not slaves. Why come in on Tuesday? Just take your dawg for a walk and check out your yard. This work thing is overrated anyway. Peace and love man. We'll see you when we see you. Take care."
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean by the "slippin" statement. How can I be so bored and yet time just keeps flying by. We are in the other half of May already and this whole working from home thing just keeps dragging on. Your garden must be bursting with color.
ReplyDeleteI love that you're a plant busybody - that's the best kind!
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to have some autonomy, isn't it? Poppies just LOOK happy, don't they?
ReplyDeleteI love poppies but they don't seem to grow very well in my garden. I like that name - plant busybody. And I like that you care about other folks' plants too. Thank you. You have a super day, hugs, Edna B.
ReplyDeleteYou can't have too much borage, though a million plants might be approaching the 'too much' tipping point.
ReplyDeleteNow that you've watered the neglected plants you will feel happier when you walk past and see them starting to pick up.
Well done you, Plant Rescue Person!
Alphie
Nothing wrong with try to save a living thing.
ReplyDeleteI love your dedication to saving plants. carrying water to plants their owners have forgotten about strikes me as a very buddhist thing to do. I still have one poppy plant blooming but the other have gone by long ago.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to your saving plants mission. Every dying plant outside of Rite Aid needs a home and someone to water them. I am a sucker. But, I do not have your green thumb and generally I bring home a dying plant to die all the way.I like this staying at home thing, finally used to it, Suits me and my lazy dedication to lazy. Stay well out there!!!
ReplyDeleteI understand going back and watering the plants. There is a plant outside of a pot in front of a hoarder's house that we pass by everyday. I know the recent rains have helped it a bit, but the sun is coming. I feel guilty every time we walk past on our early morning walks. It's a big plant, not one that we want to plant here. It would be crazy to try and carry it home... but still... it's going to die.
ReplyDeleteYour neighbors whose plants you watered will be grateful.
ReplyDeleteI love that you water other people's plants. You are a good neighbor SteveReed.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a measure of your empathy that you water "other people's plants" that would otherwise die. There's something so sad about plants that are struggling to survive, eh?
ReplyDeleteLove the dianthus. I wish the mid- to large-size dianthus would overwinter here. The wee ones do, but not the larger ones. Not that I've found anyway. Only the little ones I see in the shops are perennials.
Mitchell: Ha! I really did INTEND to go to work, for what it's worth!
ReplyDeleteYP: Well, it's kind of like that at the moment, since we have no students! I do have things to do, but I can do them at home just as easily.
Sharon: It's weird, isn't it? I guess there are fewer markers to help us see that we're moving forward. Everything is sameness.
Bug: Ha! It really is silly, I suppose, but I can't help myself!
Ms Moon: They do! They're the happiest flower. Or one of them, anyway.
Edna: Yeah, they don't grow everywhere. It might be too cold where you are.
Alphie: I feel the same. I am so impressed with that borage.
Mary: Exactly! Why not help them look better?
Ellen: Remnants of my years as a Zen practitioner. LOL
Linda Sue: The problem is, there are TOO MANY to save. Every time I go to the store I could come home with a plant!
Robin: Well, we can't save everything. We also have to recognize our own limitations. Right?
Catalyst: Actually, they probably won't even notice. But that's fine -- the plants notice!
37P: There's nothing more depressing than a pot full of dried, wilted plants.
Jenny-O: I just bought this one in the spring, so I'm not sure it's going to overwinter either. We have an older one that's lasted a couple of years, but it hasn't bloomed yet this spring. (Possibly because I cut it back in February or so.)