Windowsill report and other observations

The last nopalxochia flower has opened. The show will probably be over Monday or Tuesday. Well, it started with wee buds in mid February so I've had a good long run of it.

The last 'exotica' scape has one fully open and nother about to open. It only has two flowers. The 'gervase' seedpod has almost certainly aborted. The stem has gone brown just below the pod, and the rest of it is withering. I have two more seedlings about to open downstairs that that will be that for this year's hippeastrum parade. No class of 2010, but my winter/spring windowsills are crowded enough as it is, so it's probably all for the best.

I found that Facebook has created a privacy enhancement. It may have done so some time ago but I didn't notice it. I can create a friend list and restrict a post to that list or exclude that list. Given that my political views are decidedly not in synch with my "industry" -- academe and nonprofits -- it will be good to be able to snark there and exclude my colleagues, some of whom go so far as to refuse to speak to Republicans.

It's not much of a garden...

2010-04-13_01backyard
Originally uploaded by lb_philly.

...for most people, but for us it's a huge accomplishment.

We were sitting out back this afternoon and Roy wondered why we hadn't done this earlier. After all, we've lived here for 14 years. Well, first we had the community garden to occupy us. Then we had a huge dog and a tiny backyard, so this is really the first year that we had the motivation.

This afternoon, we clawed out the area between the two bushes. We had thrown all kinds of concrete rubble etc there. But today we cleared that out and I put in some pansies. The pachysandra currently in intensive care will go there later.

Doesn't the red maple look happy?

Jerusalem

When I first heard this, I thought the setting was by Sir William Walton, then by Sir Edward Elgar. It's neither, but it certainly is quintessentially early 20th century English. Words by William Blake.

We've only ever been to one Proms concert, but we got the box directly above (or maybe it was below) the Queen's Box. A memorable experience, even if it was a night of all American music -- Bernstein and Gershwin and such -- instead of anything quintessentially English.