Some election results are still being counted and too close to call!  But the more votes that come in, the better the dem candidates look.  Of course the irrational nutcase in power reversed his intention to concede the election, and started up his usual raving about fraud and revenge.

What an incredible moment in our history; somehow democracy still works enough to come through.  No, it’s still by no means perfect, but there’s hope waking up in the morning, that the people can prevail.

OK, back to gardening, but not a whole lot, with all the other things to get done.  I raked the compost area leaves into the leaf pile, and I raked the woods path again.

I did come up with more improvement ideas, but they’re still in my head for now.  One is: turn the two large raised beds, which up until now have been mostly a failure, into flower beds!  First they’ll need lots of rest and rehab.

See, I can balance politics and gardening!  Both involve learning from mistakes and aiming those lessons at the longterm solution.

It was a perfect sunny 70º in November, t-shirt weather, and I got a lot done.

I ordered four kinds of natural mulch for specific projects.  First I mulched the front garden extension.  Then I cleared around each of the lilacs, and mulched them.  I also mulched around the lambs ears at the corner of the walk.  With what was left of two bags, I mulched the eucalyptus tree and the strawberry plant(s).

I dragged what was left of the gourd monster onto to the 3 sisters mound.  Now it looks much better by the strawberry area.

I’m trying to counterbalance keeping things wild and native, while going for a mini-MOBOT aesthetic.  I shall make it so.

To recap…erev went well, then Stacey got to be initiated into The City Museum experience, while I went home.

Last night I “slept” over, i.e. didn’t sleep much.  The kids were all out at the annual Friendship Dance, at Kirkwood.

This morning, coffee fix in hand, I zombified into the garden and got one of my projects done.  I made another stab at enlarging the front entrance garden.  I used multi-layers of cardboard and paper bags, watered it in, then covered it with leaves.  It looks pretty nice this time.

Then, drumroll, behold!  An ephemeral penis fungus was in erection mode in the strawberry patch!  So climactic!  And I got photos to prove it!  I even dragged Avdi over to witness it, before it went limp!  (I just call it penis fungus for obvious reasons; it’s really appropriately named Phallus rubicundus, or red stinkhorn, both good descriptions!)  I was so excited!  Garden porn!

Then I came home to collapse from all the excitement, or lack of sleep.

You and I are not escaping back to homey garden reveries that easily!  The election gave us a shot of hope and a shot at restoring some justice and rule of law, and that energy is not going away soon.  I’m staying alive for this shift of power from trump to the people, and even if my only contribution is writing about it and being part of a community that fights injustice, I’ll start with that.

Behind the scenes, I continue to do my tiny part to restore our small island of rental property to eco-balance and health, not to mention aesthetic tranquillity for the mind.  I hope the therapy of it ripples out to others to enjoy and escape to.  It’s an inexact science, because nature always takes the lead when you allow it to.  That’s the beauty and mystery of it all.  So I’m also staying alive to see the garden’s latest incarnation in spring.  A lot has gone into it.

When you’re younger, you get caught up in the art of survival, especially in these latter days.  Sometimes the turmoil doesn’t allow you to sit back and dream of better days, let alone breathe.  Time gets swallowed up in hustling to work, pay bills, feed mouths, and occasionally grasping a few moments of release.  Before you know it, you’re me!

Looking back, and speaking for myself, I see a long series of foolish, purposeless choices and chaos, amounting to not much accomplishment, with some bright exceptions.  It can take a lifetime to recognize your misguided priorities, and correct them.  I’m very belatedly in that process now!

It can also take a community to guide you back to right values and behavior.  Most of the credit goes to my son, extended family, and friends.  They helped me get back on track.  Now I have things to live for, and much to be thankful for.  Every minute I stay alive is a bonus.  I’m living for the day when all of us have a shot at life beyond just surviving, because our leaders lead by service and example.

So don’t look back, except to learn from our mistakes.  Don’t stop looking forward to hope of living in a more balanced, interdependent world, not just barely existing under fascist racist warlords.  And grab ahold of your life now and make it count,  whatever that means for you.

Even if it’s just gardening for the future, serving in ordinary ways, and rambling on about power to the people!  (Because I’m basically a nervous coward about expanding out of my comfort zone!  This too shall pass.)

Lo and behold, garden photos as predicted!  And they’re beautiful, if I do say so myself.  So much happy.

It’s supposed to go down in the 20s tonight!  I covered the most vulnerable seedlings with sheets, leaves, and plastic prop tray covers.

You can see I made up for lost time with my great new camera.

Guess what new device I have!  (HINT:)

The place is The Cheshire Inn Fox and Hounds English pub, where we drank good Scotch to celebrate the blue wave, sat by the fire, and met a new friend, Beth.  The atmosphere was very warm and cozy; you just wanted to stay a while and converse.

We also have the first photo of our new tree at night, a redbud.  More on her later.

Also of course the famous old huge Amoco sign.

As predicted, more garden scenes to come.

I think I’m exhausted from all the celebratory emotions (plus dazed from all the traz to make me sleep).  I still can’t believe it happened, but glad I lived to see at least a blue wave (or bluenami, as they say).

Looking more closely at polling percents, and Black women leaders’ reporting, it’s clear that this was mainly accomplished by large numbers of Black, Hispanic, POC, and queer turnout.  They’ve been fed up a lot longer than whites, and understand that this crisis requires solid organization and activism by communities and leadership to fix what’s broken.

OTOH, white Bible-belters across the MW, disillusioned by their cult leader, chose not to show up at the polls, so hell yeah!

You knew (well at least Jess predicted) that eventually I would get back to garden news, so here’s the latest: today we have a new tree in front!  It’s the free native tree from Webster Groves, a redbud.  And it wasn’t a tiny sapling, as I had pictured; it was an actual tree!

Fortunately, I hadn’t gotten too far digging the hole when the city person showed up to do all the work!  (I missed that memo.)  I dedicated the tree (with beer) and named her “Amani”, a traditional poetic Palestinian name representing a family’s hope for the future, like tree branches reaching out.  It seemed appropriate.

When I get my new phone (imminent) I’ll post photos!  That doesn’t mean I’m getting off my political soapbox just yet.  Just keeping the balance.  After all, metaphors!!

Last night we postponed our Avdi and Mom date, because he was feeling really unwell.  We may try again this evening.  If my new phone arrives by then, need I say more?  So many celebratory things to drink to and record!

Somehow I managed to get this one screenshot over to photos, so belatedly…

Sooo…. Mississippi is trying to join the whole south in turning blue, and hangs in the balance with dem. Colom leading by a few dozen people.  Think about that for a minute.  And Tennessee was going the same way, but just missed by not much.  Tennessee! This has been the pattern of this whole astounding election.  The country has turned, because of trump.

The House has gone way blue, not just halfway.  The Senate has a respectable dem majority.  This will have repercussions into 2028 and beyond.  Even De Santis, governor of red holdout Florida, described this election as a “near-extinction level event” for republicans going forward.

The bottom line issues pushing even republican and independent voters across the country to vote blue were trump’s broken promises about the economy (unsurprisingly), trump’s arbitrary Iran war and its economic repercussions on the US, and dem candidates who addressed middle America’s actual concrete issues: cost of living, fuel, healthcare, farming, manufacturing, and repugs getting rich off of average Americans’ suffering.

The struggle to survive cuts across almost every demographic.  You can’t think about other ethical issues when your family is living in a car because the rent is unaffordable, as in places like Detroit.

It’s unforgivable that it took us 250 years to elect Black, Latino, and Indigenous Americans and women to governorships.  But elect them we did!  In fact it almost looks like women are taking over!  You have midwest farmers, workers, and veterans voting blue for the first time.  Dude, Ohio!  And the whole South has risen again, only incredibly blue for the first time in forever.

Experts from both sides are acknowledging this as a wakeup call, not just a periodic pendulum swing.  It’s up to Dems now to get off their smug asses and actually do something to make life for everyone more livable and sustainable.  This country fucked up from the very beginning, when persecuted colonists defeated their British overlords, then immediately, hypocritically turned on the original nations who lived here, and enslaved African hostages to do their dirty work.  Those victims have struggled and died to this day to reach the so-called liberty and equality we’re supposed to be all about.  As have immigrants under trump.

Now’s our moment to salvage what’s left of our country and get it right.  Yes, there’s a backlog of justice and accountability to be executed.  Alienated nations and allies to be coaxed back.  Issues of human civil rights to be addressed at home and abroad.  But first and foremost, there is the neglected obligation to serve the American people, restore some semblance of security and wellbeing, walk the talk.  This is our chance.

“all you sittin’ in high places

the pieces gonna fall on you!”

The Hooters, “All you zombies”

Having been glued to election results all evening, I’ll just say: cautious optimism has been replaced by exceeded expectations.

Dems have won back the House and Senate.  States and counties that were hell red have flipped to blue.  Even the South and Ohio have risen to the occasion!  Some very forward-thinking people have won repug strongholds.  It’s all really happening; I want to believe!

But this is just the start.  Now dems have to get their act together, or the win will mean nothing.  And repugs will certainly become even more repugnant and vicious than ever.  So I have my hopes tempered with realism.  Still–this is amazing.  Amaze amaze amaze!!  Sanity still exists.

WE VOTED!!  Everything else is not of much consequence.  Now we wait to see if it made a difference and can start to turn things around.  It was friendly and uneventful at our location, although there has been some Repug interference at others.  I can’t take a photo of my sticker, but trust me, nothing could keep us away from this one.

There are leaks of ominous secret military war measures being escalated behind the scenes, more than the usual threats, while trump dementedly rants and raves about irrelevant distractions.  I’m hoping that a positive election outcome is enough to deter or control a dangerous clandestine mobilization by these madmen.

I think it’s finally turning October on this November day!  It’s been rainy, cool (67º), and breezy, but still very pleasant out.  My kind of weather.  Even S and Loucious, normally allergic to the slightest drops, were out there playing for a short while.  The leaves are finally turning, but mostly just yellow and brown.  The winter cover daikon radishes I planted in the back half of the veg garden are bursting forth enthusiastically.  I’m curious to see if they bore down through the clay cement as advertised.

Here’s a photo from a year ago today.