21 June 2005 ... Progress Report

Happy Solstice Everybody! The longest daylight here in the north, and the longest nighttime in the south. Here, the sun is rising at 5:30am and setting at 9:00pm. So thats 15.5 hours of sunlight, hopefully most of it will be covered up with clouds!

The Plant Report

The Purple Explosion leveled off at ~38 purple Petunia blossoms. And then it exploded again... 65 petunias and the Verbenas and Nemesias started coming back as well! The poor little white Bacopas are holding their own underneath all the purple-ness.

My garden, on the other hand, is rather pathetic. I put down another layer of wild flower seeds, but they didn't grow at all. I was up to four pea plants, but then a cat buried the littlest one. I replanted it, but it's pretty droopy.

Last weekend, apartment maintenance spread weed killer in our back border area. My big potted ficus also caught some of the poison which killed quite a few of his leaves. The really sad thing is that the ficus was just starting to come back to life with so many baby leaves... I was worried that they would all grow out deformed, but actually most of them are okay. I'm still pulling off yellow leaves, but I think the ficus is going to make it.

And yesterday, maintenance has chopped down everything, in the back and front yard, with a weed wacker. The back border area is completely devastated, and over half of the front yard is gone. Nothing left but dirt and exposed roots. It's terribly sad.

The Art Report

So far I've only skipped two days of drawing since June began. But I have gotten a little bit bored. I always draw realistic animals and I would like to add some more creative elements. So, I drew some flowers. And I still don't feel very creative. eh.

The Green Report

I spent some time in the organic section of our local grocery and found some of the most wonderful things. :) I've gotten the Tofutti cream cheese before, and this time I also got some of the flavored sour cream, yum! And found Earth Balance butter which is "100% Vegan", I like it when they tell me these things on the label. And a package of flax seeds and flour, going to make some bread soon! And I paid the big bucks for a jar of almond butter.

The only thing I didn't find was nutritional yeast... but maybe I will use that as an excuse for a run at Vegan Essentials. :)

A squirrel in our back yard, I went out to give him some seeds to eat, but he ran away. A deer walking by on the sidewalk in the front. I told her to be safe on the roads, hope she's okay...

The deer reminded me of this Mutts comic... I cried when I saw that in the paper.

A Nigerian saying:
Not to know is bad. Not to want to know is worse. Not to hope is unthinkable. Not to care is unforgivable.

Please go vege!