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Happy Sunday!
I am pleased to report the new bunny fence seems to working. Plants have leaves that havenāt had leaves in weeks. It also successfully keeps Samson out, who has taken a liking to eating flowers.
Hereās 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 theyāre growing fine, but donāt seem to have made radishes, just leaves. One bolted (flowered). I Googled it, and the internet tells me that once itās 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 itās definitely over 80 every day now, so maybe weāll 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. Theyāre 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. Iāve 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 Iām hoping that applies to other weedy shrubs!)
Samson is bigger every time I look at him. Heās 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 weāre 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!).
Iām reading āAmerica Has a Drinking Problemā in The Atlantic. A deep dive into why we drink and since when and what it means. Super interesting. Also: ā'Wakanda Doesn't Have Suburbs': How Movies Like Black Panther Could Help Us Save the Planetā in TIME from Kendra Pierre-Louis. A must-read if youāre tired of doom and gloom and āclimate change will bring the apocalypseā vibes. Itās not that.
Weāre watching The Irregulars season 1 (Netflix). Sherlockās world, but Sherlock isnāt the main character. Weāre a few episodes in, and so far hooked. Also Army of the Dead (2021, Netflix). Very gory, very entertaining.
Weāre playing soccer. We signed up for a co-ed league that may or may not start this week (itās 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 donāt know how competitive this league is.)
Weāre 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 āno skipā album ā that is, an album where every song is good and you donāt skip any tracks. (Can be old or new music, but bonus points if itās new-ish!)
Weāre eating jalapeno poppers for dinner, because we are healthy.
This week I wrote my first book review! Hereās what I think about the just-released Technically Food: Inside Silicon Valleyās Mission to Change What We Eat by Larissa Zimberoff.
OK team, thatās all for today. Have a great week!
Take care please,
XOXO,
A
P.S.
ā šš»
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š» A radish, a sunflower, a firefly, a bee
I find āno skipā albums to be a rare breed. Alas, Iāve recently been obsessed with pretty much every song on the Highwomenās debut album - āThe Highwomenā (creative, I know).
For something to dislocate your hip to, certainly give Jessie Wareās latest album āWhatās Your Pleasure?ā a listen. It marks the return of Londonās discotheque queen as she navigates back to her roots!
Other than that Iād keep your eyes peeled for Kacey Musgravesā new album rumored to release later this year. Thereās certainly no better example of a āno skipā album than 2018ās āGolden Hourā - my go to for long trips on the road!