Thanks to local Ohio gov COVID mandates, instead of lines of unwashed masses at the Medicaid office, I was able to walk right in, have my documents scanned right away by a nice lady behind a shield, and get out unscathed in a few minutes.  Now I just wait a couple days to find out if I’m poor enough to get approved for Medicaid, so I can sign up for affordable health insurance that will cover major dental reconstruction. This is now my life as an old person!

Since so much time and headache were saved, we made an impromptu visit to the Narrows Preserve.  But of course once again I had forgotten to bring my phone, so I can’t post photos of the amazing, incredible mushrooms that happened to show up that day.  Wouldn’t you know it, we had our first sight of these huge white globes, masses of the vivid orange “shelves”, some round copper-colored ‘shrooms, and tiny round peach dots on a log.  My descriptions don’t do them justice.  Maybe next time I’ll remember my camera, and be lucky enough to find some specimens to post.

It’s just as well, because my old computer is aging and decrepit along with me, so it takes days(!?) for it to upload my photos to WP, instead of seconds, so it’s a major pain in the ass.  Conveniently, my old printer/scanner is also failing.  So after dental expenses I guess I’ll be replacing all the above.  Hopefully before I myself kick the bucket altogether!  Blah.  (Hence, “blahg”.)

Also without my camera, we had another “reunion”, this time at Siebenthaler’s Nursery, where I got a few plants, including one of my favorite native ferns, maidenhair.  I’ve managed to crank out a photo of it happily enjoying the rain in what will hopefully become my fern and native woodland ephemerals garden.

I’m going to include some “before” photos of our house and garden, to illustrate what I’m up against.  I’ve begun to clear some of the masses of exotic invasive honeysuckle, etc., and plant natives, nativars, and non-invasive perennials in their place.  I realize I’m compromising my own natives purist policy, but trying to keep to its spirit of restoring native habitat biodiversity as much as possible, given the limitations of the situation.  I’ve also hung several bird feeders from trees to encourage more birds to return to the area and find a safe haven.  And of course I have a little herb garden outside the back porch.