Lawn Health, Plant Health, My Health

I mowed the lawn again yesterday. Here's the finished result -- our high-summer garden looking its neatest. As you can see, I left a rectangle of unmowed grass once again at the right, allowing the daisies and other wildflowers to grow. I've gone back and forth about doing this in perpetuity. If I give it neatly defined borders so that it looks intentional, I think I can live with it, in the interest of giving bugs and other critters a home.

This is why I left that area unmowed. See those tiny plants? I wasn't sure of their identity; I thought they might be primulas, which would be cool, though I had the vague sense that was probably too much to hope for. Sure enough, my plant identifier app tells me they're teasels. I'm not sure we really want teasels in the middle of the yard, but then again, why not? It might make for some interesting landscaping next year.

Let's check in on some plants you may remember:

This is that sorry-looking hydrangea I found next to a trash can near Fortune Green in May 2022. As you can see, it has bounced back and even given us a flower.

And here's the buddleia that had been dumped out of its pot on Hampstead Heath back in 2019. It's in the background of the top photo here. It's quite large now and hard to photograph in its entirety because it's living amid a tangle of other plants, including our fig and our ornamental plum tree.

(Speaking of buddleia, I had an interesting exchange with Mrs. Kravitz yesterday. We have another large buddleia growing next to our fence. She asked me to cut it down because it obstructs her view from her terrace into our garden! I resisted saying, "That's the point." I did tell her I had no intention of cutting it down, though.)

Finally, here's a plant mystery I just don't understand. Remember several years ago I bought this sad-looking canna lily? Three years later, it's still sad-looking. This spring I put it in a much bigger planter (which has been partly colonized by some honesty and a few weeds, as you can see), gave it good soil, put it in direct sun and it's still a tattered, stunted little nub. I think something must be wrong with it. It has some new growth so I'm waiting to see what happens with that.

I read this article in The New Yorker about a pair of aesthetically-motivated art thieves and decided to buy the book that it's based on, by author Michael Finkel. In a surge of enthusiasm I bought his two earlier books, too (which are discussed in the same article). All of them sound really interesting. They should be here on Wednesday but I probably won't get to them right away, given the stack of stuff I already have to read!

Also, I went to the doctor yesterday to check up once again on my persistent cough -- which I've had for years but which has been bothering me more lately -- and an itchy spot on my nose that won't go away. The doctor basically said we've done all we can do about the cough. I've had plenty of imaging tests and they've all been clear. It seems to be related to acid reflux, and the only thing that helps is taking lansoprazole (Prevacid), which I recently restarted -- so I'm just going to keep up with that. I'm also cutting back on my evening gin & tonic and/or wine, which I'm sure affects it and which I probably needed to do anyway, to be honest. He said the itchy spot doesn't look like anything but to come back in two weeks if it's still there.

Also, he said I weigh 88 kilos, which would be 194 pounds! Can that possibly be true? I have never been that heavy in my life. My normal weight is something like 185 pounds. Obviously I need to get out and walk more!

It's great being in my mid-to-late 50's. 😒