5.07.2020

how fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks

Way back when, a hundred years (or a few months, depending upon how you perceive time these days) ago, I used to take walks, as a break from work. I would head out for a 15-minute mile through downtown, or a longer lunch-break in one direction or other. These trips would often involve a circuit through the park by the waterway that was so much a part of my growing up. These photos are from July 26, 2019. (I like ducks. They look orderly, but behave irrationally - and their noisy quacking makes me laugh.)
It is a strange thing to have the urge to take photographs, but to be subject to a stay-at-home order. There are only so many pictures that I can take of my own houseplants, feet, and critters in the yard. I question the sense in driving around (aimlessly) to satisfy my artistic longing, though. This does not seem to be the right time. Therefore, anyone paying attention should not be surprised if the photographs that appear here are either from my archives or relatively limited by current circumstances.

Those circumstances could change fairly soon, though. This last weekend, I potted my Peruvian daffodil (a.k.a. spider lily) bulbs, which had been wintering in the basement like tiny, backward South American snowbirds. Somewhere between their arrival and initial planting last summer, when there were ~10, and now, they have tripled in number. I was astonished! But, hey: what do I know about horticulture anyway? Needless to say, I ran out of big pots, and potting soil, and patience for potting plants, all well before I was out of bulbs. Creative adjustment made it work for the time being. I also potted a couple of tiny tomato plants that had been gifted to me, and some pea seeds. I do love fresh peas.

Those potted plants should be available for photographing within a couple of weeks, I should think. (Assuming that they turn into anything at all.) They are all in the gazebo for the next few days, since we're hovering on the edge of a frost warning right now (ack!). It stays sufficiently warm in there to keep them happy and to save me from needing to drag them all the way back into the house. I hope that the daffodils flower this year - they do not in their first year planted, but the foliage is pretty so it is not much of a sacrifice regardless. 
However, I went a little nuts in the last couple of days ... and the results may turn out to be fantastic or horrifying. We will just have to see how it goes. I planted an absolute boat-load of hummingbird and butterfly seeds in the back yard. I mean, like, thousands. I guess to say "planted" is an overstatement. They were strewn. (Is that a word? It looks weird.) I threw them in various places that might benefit from the sudden arrival of wildflower like plants. No, I am not a scientist, and I have never done anything like this before. It is entirely possible that nothing will happen except that a couple bucks' worth of seeds will blow away or be eaten by birds. Or, on the other hand, I could end up with a dismaying overabundance of flora overtaking my sort of neighborhood-appropriate back yard. We have a mix of weather for the next few days, with rain predicted on Sunday. Fingers crossed for something to come of this.

[the title quotation is by Dorothy L. Sayers, from Gaudy Night]

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