Apparently we've had another named storm -- Alex. He brought us heavy rain yesterday morning and again all evening and into the night. It's pretty rainy even now. I'm not sure what determines whether a storm gets a name or not -- a certain wind speed, maybe? But I'm happy to have all this moisture.
We're at that time of the year when the garden is pretty much being left to its own devices. Everything is on the downslope, so I just go out now and then to see what's still blooming and take note of the slow yellowing, slumping and deterioration. It's very freeing! I don't have to lift a finger!
Olga and I went walking in the cemetery during the relatively dry afternoon. We stopped back by the mosaic so I could get a better look at Baby Jesus -- several of you thought he looked demonic in my previous picture. I wiped some schmutz off his face and photographed him again. I think he looks pretty respectable now, don't you? He certainly has a healthy head of hair.
Aside from our cemetery outing I spent virtually the whole day on the couch, plowing through a New Yorker and doing some reading online. There was an interesting article about space debris -- there are thousands, if not millions, of objects circling the earth left over from humankind's various space missions. Some of them are pretty big, many are just a bolt or a fleck of paint, but they can all do catastrophic damage should they collide with a satellite or the International Space Station. There are people who track all this stuff, much of which has its own numerical designation, to prevent those collisions. Wasn't space junk part of the plot in the movie "Gravity"?
I'm sort of disappointed in our patio chrysanthemum. It's blooming really well but the color is so meh. It's a sort of dead beige. When I bought it the flowers looked like they were going to be dark reddish, but it turns out that's just the backside of the very outermost petals.
Oh, and look what came for me in the mail! A personalized postcard from Katharine, whoever she is, reminding me to vote in the upcoming election. This is a thing now, to send postcards to overseas voters or those in critical swing states -- I've heard of people volunteering to do it but I've never received one before. This one looks like it's commercially printed but hand-colored. Katharine, rest assured, my ballot is already in the mail. (And the last time I checked the tracking, on Thursday, I believe, it was in transit through New York -- so it's already in North America. I'd check it again but the number is at work so I'll have to wait until tomorrow.)
We were not satisfied with dumping plastic in the oceans, making innumerable creatures extinct and destroying virgin forest, we had to take our bad habits into space as well. "Space - The Final Frontier - Our mission - to fill it with crap!"
ReplyDeleteIf it was the same storm, devastating floods in France.
ReplyDeleteHow good is the human race! Not only do we litter our planet, we litter space as well.
The post card doesn't tell you how to vote, but I think it is implied.
The frightening thing is how quickly we've managed to clutter the world up. I'm 74 and can remember when all this was not about. Hardly any plastic and no space travel (well, only in the comics) and we never ever thought it would become reality.
ReplyDeleteI try not to think too much about the future its too depressing.
By the way, I quite like the colour of the chrysanthemums.
Briony
x
I never wished to have lived in a right-leaning state until now. Your vote REALLY makes a difference (that damned electoral college). The pot of flowers look beautiful from here, but I can understand your disappointment. By the way, I've read that storms in the UK only get names if they're big enough to cause an amber or red alert (or if they come from the US and have already been named).
ReplyDeleteYou're right. Baby Jesus does look better now. Those eyebrows though...
ReplyDeleteTry to think of the mums as yellow. Ish.
I had not heard of people sending those voting post cards. That's a great idea. I should get my ballot later next week. I hate thinking that space is every bit as cluttered with junk as earth is. We really are a messy species.
ReplyDeletespace junk. if they know where all that crap is why can't they clean it up. send up a giant magnet or a huge net, like seining for fish.
ReplyDeletethe summer things are winding down here too but with cooler weather we get new blooms from fall things. plenty of work out there for me. this is the time of year to move stuff and plant stuff.
Good job cleaning up the Baby Jesus. I love that you used the word "schmutz" -- it reminded me of my childhood. Oy, my mom cleaning the schmutz off of my face before I headed out the door for school.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're tracking your vote. So important this year, like no other. My neighbor sent out voting postcards just the other day.
We may get rain here in fiery California next week. I hope so.
Another Day Walking Olga Is A Good Day - Carry On My Man
ReplyDeleteBig Hugs
Your time will come (again), Steve, a storm to be named after you.
ReplyDeleteAlas, in the storm alphabet, names starting with Q, U, X, Y, Z never feature. So no Quentin, no Xavier, no Yussuf, and no Zorba or Zeus (the latter if ever there was one to cook up a storm). Neither will there ever be an URSULA. I'll have to make do with gently trying to breeze life into others' stagnant tea cups.
Talking of stagnant yet in flux: I love autumn. Not least for its mellow earthy colours. There is no mistaking it for the season of, yes, bounty in harvest, yet largely decay. A reminder of death. I grew up in a part of Europe where (unlike here in England) there were very clear cut seasons. Autumn/fall would come to an end when the benign sleepy winter put a blanket of thick snow over that what had gone before.
How touching you using the word "Schmutz". Makes me feel, almost, at home.
U
I think the Baby Jesus looks just fine. Thanks for cleaning it up a bit. I like the brighter mums too. You have a super day, hugs, Edna B.
ReplyDeleteMy friend filled out 200 cards of that nature, she had to pay for the postage and reckoned that that was better than sending money to candidates. That is a lot of postage!
ReplyDeleteBaby Jesus looks reasonable, the mosaic is a lovely thing,Babies with that much hair , it is said, give the mother indigestion. Could be true, Erik had a ton of hair at birth and i was EWwwww all of the time.
The little mums are charming in a wedding shabby chic sort of way. I like them just fine. Raining here too, though we had one day of sunshine that made me drunk with glee!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI really like the mums color. I have never seen them whitish/tinted beige before so I think they really brighten up a blah gray day. Really pretty.
Space Junk is really scary and there should be a way to clean it up as well as our planet. I am off to the drug store and a few other places. Big Hugs to you and Olga,
Space junk-yet another thing to worry about. I like the plant-it has a delicate beauty. In desperate need of some bedding when it had all been bought, we got these orange begonias. They are the most garish flower I have ever seen and are doing very well in all the rain! They are behind a purple verbena, and the orange and purple are particularly horrible combination!
ReplyDeleteBaby Jesus does look less demented. I've never been a fan of the mums, I don't like the way the smell. Of course, even if we bought them the deer/javelina/rabbits/alien beings would eat them. Glad you and Olga were out and about again.
ReplyDeleteYes, I rather like the chrysanthemums just the way they are - they are growing in a very neat, tight bunch that looks like they have been topiarised. (Is topiary a verb?)I have never heard of them referred to as "mums" before, but that is a logical contraction.
ReplyDeleteI got a personalized postcard yesterday to remind me to vote. It was from someone who is a Democrat as all of the local and state and national people were listed from the party. I have my ballot and will vote in person on a Saturday this month at a local library.
ReplyDeleteYes, the demon child is no longer demonic. I guess that works with a lot of kids - they just need a bath.
ReplyDeleteI feel kind of guilty that I haven't done any sort of canvassing or post card writing. I mean, writing a post card is the easiest thing for a conflict-avoidant person to do!