my queendom and what's going on...

where to start?  it is almost TOO tempting to rant about my intense feelings of disappointment in our congress and sadness over what's become of our country.  shame comes to mind.  i will, however, not give in to that temptation.

spring, beauty, new growth are showing up around here.  the greenhouse continues to give us an abundance of salad greens.  my tiny kales are filling up their eggshell first home... and some have been put out into the cold, wet ground and are doing well under their circumstances.  the bad news is the huge invasion of aphids and ants in the greenhouse.  thought i had the answer with a bag of lady bugs.... but they betrayed me!  i released them from their net prison into an ideal environment of sun, warmth and a huge supply of food... and the damn little buggers jumped ship.  i still see a few on the plants in amongst the aphids... but there were hundreds!  where the bloody hell did they go??  my backup plan was a preying mantis cocoon and it's just hanging there among the greens and i'm still waiting for their appearance.  i don't want to spray poisons in there to get rid of pests.  did try a citrus based spray, which did totally nothing!

they appeared to be trying to increase their number... or maybe just having a bit of an afternoon fling.  (is this one of those NSFW  things?)

and in the kitchen, the hoya plant is having one of its infrequent and gorgeous blooming events.  it has a very faint, very sweet aroma... love it!

here we have a souvenir of a small get-together a few weeks ago here at dome central.  perhaps i should feel shame and embarrassment about my lack of interest in housekeeping/cleaning/keeping the dust at bay.... it made me giggle!  i'm thinking it was my great-nieces, and whoever started it, there's an additional signature from Anna when she visited from Boise.  Maggie and her VCF (very close friend) Jake from Brooklyn came out for lunch (they even brought the lunch!!!), Maggie's girls, and Judy, Robin and Amelia also came.

Jordan and Maisy in a tree..

Maggie and Jake.  Jake will be moving to pdx this summer!

the latest agricultural adventure here is the planting of an olive orchard.  these are the small ones for crushing into olive oil.  there are 2 or 3 Kalamata trees, too, tho and those are the ones i'm more interested in.  i just don't think i'll still be around to see much olive oil production.

Meika had another adventure with Steve the vet.  Jim took her in for her post-op visit and to have a runny, goopy eye checked.  Steve found a small growth under her eyelid and lasered it off, which required anesthesia... the first shot didn't work, so he gave a 2nd and by the time she got home i think she was feeling the effect of both shots.  took her a long time to get over that!!  but she was soon back to her sassy, opinionated self.




so, there ya have it.  trying really hard to find my zen place.  have had Andrea Bocelli playing for the last 2 hours and even with Amazing Grace, still not there yet.