Happy Sunday!
I am pleased to report the new bunny fence seems to working. Plants have leaves that havenât had leaves in weeks. It also successfully keeps Samson out, who has taken a liking to eating flowers.
Hereâs what else is new in the Funkyard:
We got our first radish, which may turn out to be our only radish. We have other radish plants that look like theyâre growing fine, but donât seem to have made radishes, just leaves. One bolted (flowered). I Googled it, and the internet tells me that once itâs 80 degrees or so, the plants invest in flowers and not tasty bulbs for my salad. So maybe we planted them too late? Perhaps. But itâs definitely over 80 every day now, so maybe weâll pull them up and plant something else in their spot (and try radishes again in the fall).
We also got our first sunflower. We planted mammoths, which supposedly can get up to 12 feet tall. Theyâre about 2 feet tall right now.
I trimmed our redbuds a bit where they were overhanging and shading our tomatoes. It hurt me to cut any branches off my new favorite trees, but it had to be done. They also had a LOT of dead branches, so I lopped about a gazillion of those off, too. We just got new loppers, which are amazing, and I really enjoyed climbing the trees. Now we have a giant pile of sticks for the fire.
The previous owners really let their fencerows and garden beds fill in with whatever came up, so there are 4-foot-tall honeysuckles, mulberries, honey locusts, and more scattered everywhere. Iâve started removing them, chopping them as low as possible and painting the stumps with Roundup brush killer (which the Missouri Botanical Garden said would work on honeysuckle, so Iâm hoping that applies to other weedy shrubs!)
Samson is bigger every time I look at him. Heâs almost 35 lbs. (And honestly, since we last weighed him yesterday, he probably is by now.) He crested 30 about a week and a half ago, and was just over 20 when we got him (just under a month ago). GIANT DOG, INCOMING.
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Next up weâre making a hanging garden for our strawberries out of a pallet (that the previous owners left us, among much additional trash wood).
Funkyard species count: 135 (119 logged). New arrivals: Lightning bugs, crickets, tiny cute sweat bees, and poison ivy (boooooo!).
Iâm reading âAmerica Has a Drinking Problemâ in The Atlantic. A deep dive into why we drink and since when and what it means. Super interesting. Also: â'Wakanda Doesn't Have Suburbs': How Movies Like Black Panther Could Help Us Save the Planetâ in TIME from Kendra Pierre-Louis. A must-read if youâre tired of doom and gloom and âclimate change will bring the apocalypseâ vibes. Itâs not that.
Weâre watching The Irregulars season 1 (Netflix). Sherlockâs world, but Sherlock isnât the main character. Weâre a few episodes in, and so far hooked. Also Army of the Dead (2021, Netflix). Very gory, very entertaining.
Weâre playing soccer. We signed up for a co-ed league that may or may not start this week (itâs unclear). Andy and I rode our bikes (for the first time in 5 years) until we found a mowed field and practiced this afternoon, it was lovely. (Andy is a soccer player; I am not. Pray for me, we donât know how competitive this league is.)
Weâre listening to, um, music. I want to listen to more music. Please reply to this email or leave me a comment with your most recent favorite âno skipâ album â that is, an album where every song is good and you donât skip any tracks. (Can be old or new music, but bonus points if itâs new-ish!)
Weâre eating jalapeno poppers for dinner, because we are healthy.
This week I wrote my first book review! Hereâs what I think about the just-released Technically Food: Inside Silicon Valleyâs Mission to Change What We Eat by Larissa Zimberoff.
OK team, thatâs all for today. Have a great week!
Take care please,
XOXO,
A
P.S.
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đ» A radish, a sunflower, a firefly, a bee
I find âno skipâ albums to be a rare breed. Alas, Iâve recently been obsessed with pretty much every song on the Highwomenâs debut album - âThe Highwomenâ (creative, I know).
For something to dislocate your hip to, certainly give Jessie Wareâs latest album âWhatâs Your Pleasure?â a listen. It marks the return of Londonâs discotheque queen as she navigates back to her roots!
Other than that Iâd keep your eyes peeled for Kacey Musgravesâ new album rumored to release later this year. Thereâs certainly no better example of a âno skipâ album than 2018âs âGolden Hourâ - my go to for long trips on the road!