be brave, my sage little toaster!

books
last read: A Great Deliverance (Inspector Lynley #1) by Elizabeth George. Falling anvils, trauma porn, eight different mostly extraneous subplots, an eye-rolling love triangle, and unfounded resolutions to major conflicts. But still, somehow, there's the core of a good story underneath it all...if you dig. *annoyed sigh*

currently reading: City of Stairs (The Divine Cities #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett. Believable women characters, canon queerness, a compelling mystery, and a fascinating 'verse. I am totally home for male authors who give me such excellent lady protagonists.

Kilauea
I have been watching Kilauea's eruption off and on for many, many years now, sometimes having a webcam going in a permanently pinned tab. The latest shift into active lava flow has me thinking Thoughts about volcanoes and my experience with them, which is more extensive than I'd consciously realized, and checking in daily with the progress of Madame Pele's new ground.

house
So many things! First, the wire shelving unit arrived Thursday, so I put it together, placed it in the bedroom window, and wrapped white curtains around the three interior sides so the blinds can stay open without giving a view of my bedroom. Hooray instant mini-greenhouse! This also meant repurposing the furniture that previously held the bedroom plants, so I've been slowly working on rearranging and reorganizing the loft. I donated a bunch of stuff and carted much more to the dumpsters...and there is still so much still to go. (Also, I found some pants from 15 years ago that fit and predate the skinny trend, so they don't even have any spandex in them. Score!) I have started having delusions of emptying (i.e. donating most of what's in) the closet under the stairs so I can use that space for hiding other things.


dirt
This photo of the pothos growth is only a few days old and there are already many new leaves. I credit the heat and the vertical growth habit. Pothos don't produce mature foliage (with slits and windows) until they climb up something.

Highs are quite a bit above normal, so the rattlesnake have about burned up (such a tasty first harvest), and I don't know if the zukes will manage to produce anything more before the killing heat sets in. It may turn out to be a long, long summer.

The lemon trees, after a year and three months, have multiple branchlets and thorns! Changing their dirt last month was an A+ and entirely belated decision. I've learned so much.

I picked up a one gallon Japanese Aralia (fatsia japonica) on sale and potted it up in the giant pot that formerly held the 20yo philodendron. The fatsia seems extremely happy. (Fatsia advice: put them in the biggest pot you can, leave them in the shade, and ignore them. Dry tropical shade is their heaven.)

Today I discovered fire ants living in the esperanza pot, woe. Not sure what to do about them, since pouring boiling water into a planter is not okay. Pouring in gallons of tepid peppermint tea may do the trick, though. Hmm.


healthstuff
I had a blood draw this morning ahead of a followup for the anemia, and some of the iron numbers have already improved! Hooray supps! Meanwhile, PT continues, and I'm finding it easier than expected to do the work. The constant discovery of a new exercise aggravating a totally separate body part is annoying, but trying various workarounds is at least interesting. And I'm stronger. The data confirms it.

yarning


The scarf, before I sewed it into a loop, measured 102 inches (259 cm). I did not cut the yarn, only wove in the two ends.