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.

Not to be outdone by my delinquent phone, my car battery went and died because I accidentally left an interior light on all night.  Jess was kind enough to come try to jumpstart it, and a nice neighbor at the apartments came and helped, but they couldn’t revive it, so she gave me a ride to Avdi’s and back home later.

Over there, Halloween was happening.  N had decorated the yard appropriately, but dammit I couldn’t take pictures.  Loucious and I gave out treats by ourselves, including doggie treats, while Avdi took S trick-or-treating.  It was very quiet, but very neighborly.  The other kids were in and out with friends.  I had even dressed the part, and enjoyed the unaccustomed participation.  It had rained earlier, and was warm and perfect out.  To think, Halloween in the north was always cold and frosty.

Another bygone photo of yesteryear.  This hasn’t really changed, either!

I’m a bit at a loss without photos to remind me of my latest garden encounters, but it forces me to appreciate them more in the moment.

Also, looking back at photos from a year ago reminds me that things weren’t all that different this time of year, much the same flowers were still blooming, aside from some new additions; but also that I’ve worked hard to improve upon or make better use of our surroundings.  It’s hard to tell, this time of year, until all the changes debut in spring.  It’s always a continuous process.

By fall, I can determine which parts of the garden need help or a change of usage.  Soil has been exhausted and won’t grow certain plants without serious first aid or a vacation.  Areas have become shadier, or need to expand into the sun.  It becomes clear where more trees could be planted.  Some locations suggest a whole new, improved approach.  The garden informs you if you pay attention, and directs you how to assist.  There’s a method to its seeming madness.

I’ve learned to really appreciate fall here in Missouri.  It’s like the converse of spring, only longer.  You just want to stay outside and observe and soak it all in.

It’s also a stark reminder (to me, at least) that not all people here are as privileged as we are to enjoy such surroundings, or even a roof over their heads.  Indeed, just that statement alone is classic white privilege.

If you pay attention, the wind rustling the trees of suburbia is full of the cries of ghosts of nations and tribes who were murdered or enslaved by white savages in their unholy mission to crush the earth.  They cry out for retribution and justice.

This is the same earth, only more uncivilized and devastated than ever.  Some desecration can never be excused away.  If we don’t start the healing and restitution ourselves, the earth itself will avenge itself on us.  I really believe that.

Vote.  It’s a start.

Why do all the good guys keep dying and the evil undead keep on being undead?

It’s been a sad year of loss, and now it’s Sir Patrick Stewart.  Some people should not die!

Generations have loved Next Gen and its godlike hero, Captain Picard, because he was so human and superhuman at the same time.  He wrestled with universal perplexities and conflicts that we all deal with here on earth, and we engaged along with him and his crew.

We just lost Walter Koenig, Chekhov of ST1, leaving only Shatner and Takei of the original crew.  When Leonard Nimoy, Spock, left this world for good, it seemed impossible and wrong.  That’s how it feels with Patrick Stewart.  Stars going supernova, leaving us even more in the dark.

I’m living for the day when the evil undead in power get theirs.  As they must.  At least the world won’t seem so off-balance.

Today’s exciting but nonexistent photo would have been Tricyrtis–toad lily.  I nursed this plant back from oblivion, and it’s finally blooming exotically.  I was so happy to see it, and so sad to not be able to photograph it.

I had some other great non-photos, like leaves floating in the pool reflecting the sky, so it looked like leaves floating in sky.  And so many others you’ll never see.  Like the phallic fungus!

Here is Tricyrtis from one year ago this month.  As they say, nothing new under the sun.  Although, I sometimes wonder about under the sea…

Only a ‘shroom freak could find this thing I witnessed fascinating.

Apparently I caught a couple of Ravenel’s Red Stinkhorn in the brief first 15 minutes of phallic erection before it collapsed!  It lives in the strawberry patch, where I’ve managed to create the perfect mycelium medium.  The fungus/mushroom has a long thin, bright pinkish-red stalk, and a shiny black bullet-shaped cap, which stinks and attracts flies, who eat the slime instantly.  Then the thing goes flaccid and limp.  You can actually watch it in real-time!  I didn’t know whether to feel excited or horrified!  I tried and tried to catch a photo, but my phone would not comply; maybe it was too shocked.  Who says gardening is boring?

So naturally the only photos I could con my phone into taking were a eucalyptus leaf that had changed color (the plant has turned into a tree!), and the half of the veg garden I had hand-cultivated and sowed with a cover-crop of winter daikon radishes.  First I moved a pile of debris from the back of the veg to behind the trampoline, and cleared that path off.  Then I hoed the remaining loamy compost-y soil into the back half of the veg, a beautiful blank slate for the seeds, and raked and watered it in.  These large tough radishes will bore down into the clay layer and then freeze, leaving the soil aerated and loosened.  Brilliant, if it works!

The weather is still perfect and conducive for getting the last of my fall jobs done.  It’s warm, dry, sunny, and breezy, with leaves gently drifting down to form a natural mulch and winter critter shelter.  Eventually I’ll rake them into adjacent beds for winter mulch and compost.  Nothing gets wasted or thrown away, just as it is done in nature, for good reasons.