#no more temporary tomato cage

[jedi-bird]

My little baby avocado is 9 months old and just got his permanent pot. There's no way I'm going to be able to get a bigger pot than this nor move it once it gets bigger. At less than a year old, he's already taller than most avocado trees are at three years. Now I just need to get some rolling stands for the larger pots and work (yet again) on tidying up the yard and rearranging the pots.

[harrypotterbrainworms]

Books and Punches

Summary: Unfortunate circumstances cause some lucky events when Neville gets his book stolen in the hallway.

Pairing: Neville Longbottom x Male Reader

Key: (Y/N)- your name, (L/N)- last name

Word Count: 1527

"(L/N)! Keep up! You have to swing and not fall!" Marcus yelled at him from the ground as he tried to take a swing at the Bludger, missing and almost falling off his broom. "I'm trying, Captain. I'm really trying, but I can't get a grip on it!" He shouted as he came back down to the ground failing to play. "You can do it!" His Captain cheered on a little more as he landed with a sigh. "I can't do it. I tried out for seeker, you know I did. I just can't get this right" He said defeated, if he could get this right then he would be stuck another year without being on the team.

"I'm sure with a little more practice you can be on the field for the next game" Flint reassured him as he patted his back firmly, a small pant coming from the shorter boy as the pressure hit him. "You can't just let Malfoy do what he wants, I'm sick of it." "I'm sure he'll be out by the end of the year, bud" He said trying to cheer the younger boy up. He crossed his arms with a small pout on his face and he turned to face his captain.

"Well, I'll be back then too." He was quite sick of all the bribery in the Slytherin House, there was so much money being thrown around to gain status and he didn't wanna stoop to that. "You can't just quit quidditch!" Marcus yelled as (Y/N) started waking toward the exit of the pitch, not wanting to hear how he'll "get in next year" or how "it's a temporary thing". "Yes I can, I'm not going to play unless I'm seeker. So if you want to stop playing around and taking bribes, you are more than welcome to get your prized seeker again." He said, turning around giving his Captain one last look of distain as he walked off.

He sulked quietly around the courtyard as he kicked small rocks around in the dry fall grass. "Stupid quidditch team, stupid Slytherin, stupid git." Whispering to himself while walking back to the common room to change for class.

"Hey you alright, (Y/N)?" He noticed Neville in the corner of his eye, causing his breathe to escape his lungs. "Y-Yeah I'm alright, just quidditch drama." He stuttered out in an attempt to seem at least a little cool, even though he was as tense as a metal board. "Malfoy still on your back, you should've got that spot (L/N)!" He said to his classmate with a little air punch of frustration, making him laugh a bit. The tension moving out as they talked more. "Yeah I should've, but that little git is so good with money. New brooms?! I could've that in a heartbeat if it meant getting seeker, but he's too fast" He ranted while Neville just smiled and nodded, always happy to listen to his friend talk about whatever they needed. "You'll get it next year, don't worry" He smiled widely up at (Y/N) causing him to blush a little. It was nice to have someone like Neville around. "Yeah... Thanks for letting me rant to you a bit, Longbottom. I'll see you in class!" He waved his classmate goodbye as he headed toward the Slytherin common room. He blushed heavily watching Neville walk off to go sit somewhere to read.

He was a little happier after talking to Neville, maybe even a little braver for the year to come. He changed out of his quidditch gear, quickly getting ready to rush to class as usual when he heard some commotion in the hallway.

"Hey! Give back my book, Malfoy! I need it for class!" Neville was trying to retrieve his book while Malfoy was throwing it between him and his goons. "The Young Wizards Guide to Herbology? Sounds like "girl" magic to me, Longbottom. Would be a shame if-" Draco read the cover out loud, but was interrupted by his house mate appearing behind him.

"Hey, Idiot! Leave Neville alone!" He said as he grabbed the book from his hands and walking over to the very tired Neville. He looked like he was about to cry which upset (Y/N) more. "Hey! You can't just-" The blonde bully tried to speak, but was cut off again.

"Here, take better care of it next time." (Y/N) said softly to the shorter boy in front of him, handing him the book. "You can't just take something from me like that, my father will-" Draco tried to continue his usual speech of pureblood nonsense. "Hear about this blah blah blah, you can't just take people's books." The taller boy interrupted him once again causing the blonde's face to go a shade of deep red.

"Of course I can, especially some girly book like that. He needs to learn that real wizards-" He said angrily, not getting the memo and being interrupted again. "Do what? Learn to be an annoying prat?" (Y/N) hissed out, every word laced in thick venom. "You can't talk to me like that!" Malfoy crossed his arms, looking ready to throw a tantrum of universal proportions. He didn't wanna get out talked by a half blood. "And? What are you gonna do? Make daddy curse me?" He teased the blonde further, striking a nerve with this particular statement, causing Draco to have the biggest scowl on his face. "Don't ever talk to me like that! Stu-" He pulled out his wand ready to strike, but the other boy was fast as lightning.

"Expelliarmus! You could seriously hurt someone like that!" He shouted at the blonde, but before he could do anything he felt a solid hand hit in the face.

His expression changed completely as he got slapped by Malfoy, it wasn't playful teasing anymore.

They both went into each other, hair pulling, scratching, punches, slaps and more. A loud voice snapped them both out of it as Snape stood towering above them.

"Both of you! My classroom no-" (Y/N) didn't understand why the last part of his sentence sounded so fuzzy, but he soon realised he had gotten a very nasty last punch from Draco.

"That's what you get, mudblood!" He heard Draco say before the blinds on his brain shut off, leaving him unconscious.

He felt a weight on his chest and people walking in and out of the room he thinks he's in. The ringing in his ears making him groan as he sat up.

"You're awake! Thank Merlin, you were out cold" He heard Neville next to him, but he hadn't opened his eyes yet.

"Here, Madam Pomfrey told me give you this when you woke up" He handed his friend a small bottle of foul looking liquid which tasted worse than it appeared- making the boy cough. "Thanks. I didn't know Malfoy could throw such a punch" He laughed out a little, rubbing his temples as he strained his eyes to the bright sunlight streaming through the windows.

"If you're feeling alright Pomfrey said you could head to the great hall for lunch and don't worry someone explained to Snape what happened so you only have a week of detention" He rumbled out in his usual manner then handed me some books and notes he'd taken for me in the class we have together.

"Thanks a lot, Neville. I really appreciate you being here- you really didn't need to" (Y/N) said blushing a little as he looked through the neat looking notes that had somehow had spilled potion mix and tea over it.

"It's the most I can do" He said, then looked away like he wanted to say something. He wasn't sure exactly how to though.

"D-Do you wanna maybe, just perhaps- I don't know."He trailed off, trying to find the words in his brain.

"Come on, Longbottom. I promise I don't bite" (L/N) reassured him even though his heart felt like it was going to burst right through his rib cage.

"DoyouwanttocomesitwithmyfriendsandIforlunch" He rushed out all in one go quickly looking down while he awaited an answer.

"Of course I do" The other boy said softly noticing the uneasiness radiating from Neville, pushing down his own anxieties for a moment.

"Cool. Yes, very cool and-" He said, relaxing a bit before straighten himself out a bit. He looked a lot more confident seeing (Y/N)'s soft smile.

"Do y-you wanna come and see what I've been growing in Herbology, I-I think you would really like it" He looked the other boy right in the eyes anxious for an answer. (Y/N) smiled so widely as he nodded, who knew getting punched in the face could help him get a date with the cute boy in his class.

Neville smiled just as wide as the other and could barely wipe it off as he waited for his friend so they could head to lunch.

"Thanks a lot, again..." He said awkwardly before trying to mirror the bravery of the boy next to him, quickly giving Neville a peak on the cheek before they exited the hospital wing.

"Wow." Was all Neville said, holding his cheek before becoming as red as a tomato.

"Come on Longbottom we'll be late" He looked back at him nonchalantly as he walked towards the great hall...

(A/N): Thanks so for the love on my last post, I hope you enjoyed this one. I can’t wait to write more, don’t forget I take requests so don’t be scared to leave me one.

Have a lovely day!

,Corvus

[puttingfingerstokeys]

Hat Trick

in which Johnny Cage is... himself. Featuring the Shaolin Rowdy Boys. Formatting is for losers. 

faraday cage implied, shaolin rowdy boys too obviously.

Prevented timeline

“Yeah, yeah, your hat’s cool an’ all, but honestly, Raiden’s got you beat,” declared Johnny Cage, wrapping a towel around broad shoulders, mopping the sweat off his brow. Kung Lao shook his head and clicked his tongue.

“Lord Raiden’s hat is not a weapon,” he said as Liu Kang walked into the SF locker room area. The Shaolin monks had been asked to come and provide special training for the new batch of recruits and they had just finished for the day.

“It does not need to be,” Liu Kang reminded his friend, sidling past Kung Lao to the locker he was borrowing. Sweat glistened upon his muscular back and Johnny made a conscious effort to keep his eyes on the man with whom he was conversing. If Lao noticed, he said nothing. He was not blind. Even well into their fifties, all three men were at the height of their strength, power, and if you asked Johnny—no one did; it was a bad move in general if one did not have time—looks.

Johnny shot Liu Kang a set of finger guns, brow cocked. “See? He’s got it. Dude shoots LIGHTNING!”

“Correction,” supplied the humbler of the two monks, his fist full of clean clothing, “Lord Raiden is lightning.”

Johnny waved this off as if to say “tomato-tomahto”.

“Anyway, what I really wanna know is how he keeps that lid on,” Johnny Cage continued, stripping his clothing off thoughtlessly and tossing it in the “dirty” bag. This, at least, he had learned—long ago, he had learned this, in fact, when Cassie was just a kid and she complained that his dirty things did not belong in the duffle bag with his clean things; something about cross contamination or “just plain gross” or something—and had held to for many years. What was once an unruly jerk, to put it mildly, had become a responsible father… mostly. He still had his idiosyncrasies.

“He is a god,” said Liu Kang, shrugging and moving past Kung Lao once more, opting to strip closer to the showers. Johnny, he knew, liked to strut. Neither of them begrudged him this, however, as it was his home territory.

“That’s a shitty explanation,” said Johnny, shooting Liu a look as the monk disappeared around the tiled corner to the showers. Lao and Johnny thought they heard a low chuckle before the shower started up and steam began to roll from that doorway.

“Do you have a better one?” Kung Lao asked, closing his temporary locker, fist also closed around his clothing. He too intended to disrobe elsewhere. Johnny by  now was in compression shorts and nothing else. It was about to be nothing, period, as one thumb hooked over the elastic. The word “CAGE” was embroidered on the waistband and for half a moment, Kung Lao wondered who had put it there for him, like a child who forgets his clothing at a friend’s home. It then occurred to him that Johnny Cage was a very wealthy man and had clothing lines—multiple—with his name stamped all over them. Vanity, Kung Lao thought, making a face of disapproval.

“Yeah, I do—I’ll just ask ‘im.”

Kung Lao had heard and seen much when it came to Johnny Cage and his obvious interest in the god of thunder. He and Liu Kang had agreed to keep it between themselves, though if anyone could not see it, they were blind as Kenshi… though he had seen it as well—something about the man’s heartrate when the god was nearby. This, however, was for some reason right up there with the time he had heard Johnny Cage refer to Lord Raiden as “thunder tits” with no consequences.

“You cannot just—”

“PFFTH not with that attitude,” said Johnny and then shouted—his voice echoed violently in the tiled room and Kung Lao winced, “HEY—Raidude, you on this frequency or whatever? I got a question!”

Kung Lao, fully expecting nothing, jumped again as a muffled clap of thunder once more rent the now-steamy air. Whatever it was had occurred outside, naturally, but was loud enough to pull Liu Kang’s attention and he poked his dripping head around the corner, long hair draped about his shoulders, a quizzical look upon his face. “Was that…?”

It was.

Ducking slightly under the economized entrance of the locker room, the god of thunder entered without pomp, circumstance, or ceremony. “I have an answer, Johnny Cage, and I am grateful that you did not whistle this time. It is… abrasive.”

“Of course it is,” Kung Lao grunted under his breath. Raiden regarded him momentarily and the monk covered himself, though he was not nude. Liu Kang’s head stayed where it was, though he seemed to want to shrink back into the showers. His cheeks were red and it was not necessarily from the heat. In fact, of the three mortals, only Johnny Cage was not blushing.

“Hey, I said I wouldn’t, right? Anyway—whatever, I got a question… Your hat,” he said, gesturing toward it. “How’s it stay up there?”

Raiden touched the brim briefly and looked puzzled, brows knitting, as if he had never considered this. The two monks watched, wide-eyed. Johnny gestured.

“So, can I knock it off?” He figured he would at least ask this one. Sucker punching a god was both dangerous and difficult, even a friendly one.

“You may attempt.”

If Liu Kang’s sharp ears were not full of suds and deceiving him, he would have sworn upon the jinsei itself that Raiden’s voice contained a hint of genuine amusement. They watched as the god of thunder even dipped his head, ever-so-slightly, to make the blow easier. Like lightning, Johnny’s hand shot out and both monks remembered suddenly why he was a valuable ally. The hit was charged with just a little of what he called his shadow energy, to give a little more impact. The hat did not move.

“OW.”

“All right, all right… you’re not fuckin’ with me; I get it.” Johnny waved it off, as he waved much in his life off, until something about the hat caught his eye. “Hang on.”

Raiden straightened; this time, open amusement played across his face. Johnny held his wrist and anticipated a bruise, even with the shielding of his power. He watched as Raiden raised a hand to the ornate jingasa and lifted it effortlessly, bringing it downward for Johnny's inspection. All three sets of mortal eyes were upon it, as if anticipating something mystical to occur. Kung Lao was kicking himself for never considering asking the god about his clothing, but then… when had the occasion arisen for such a conversation? It had not in fact arisen just now, either. Johnny simply did not care. Sometimes, Lao envied him this.

With deliberate slowness, then, knowing how dangerous it was to get close to Raiden. Certain proximities were safe, but those were much more intimate than he was comfortable attempting with two other people in the immediate area—and he did not yet know this secret, anyway. He laid his hand on the hat and felt the buzz of electricity through it, from the god of thunder.

“Is this…?” His voice softened, such that Liu, with the shower on behind him, almost could not hear. He did, however, hear it and the tone in which it was delivered. Kung Lao was already edging toward the door to the showers and ended up buffeting his friend out of the way and back into those showers, to give the other two some space.

“Your gift? Yes.” The answer was simple, might almost have sounded casual or pat, if anything Raiden ever said could sound that way.

“Did you… put that thing on just ‘cause I called?”

“It is one of my most precious possessions, Johnny Cage; thus, I wear it frequently.” Raiden replaced the beautiful jingasa and straightened. “If I cannot further satisfy you, I have matters to which I must attend at the Sky Temple.”

Johnny could think of some serious, further satisfaction, but kept it locked away tight, in a deep, dark corner of his mind and heart and shook his head. “Hate t’see you go, big guy,” he said, once more shooting finger guns at something that should not be finger-gunned, “but I love watchin’ you leave.”

“Indeed.”

And with that, the god of thunder, Earthrealm’s protector, departed, first through the doorway of the locker room and then via a bolt of lightning. Johnny stood for several moments, hands on hips, before shucking his shorts and sauntering into the shower area only to see Liu Kang and Kung Lao, huddled close together, clearly whispering. The whispers echoed, but were also stifled by the water. He rolled his eyes and ignored them, wondering when they’d see what everyone else saw. Idiots, he thought, ah, but they’ll get to it eventually.

[livelovelaug-h]

Imagine running into joe at the DMV after meeting him at Anavrin

Joe x reader ofcc :: second part to "imagine meeting a cute guy at Anavrin "

Before

Joe's pov

Y/n, this is why you're not for me.

[BELLS TINKLING in Mooney's]

Once upon a time, I believed in love.

Sure, I'd been hurt before, but I'd learned from that, and I wanted to fight for a fresh start.

The real thing this time.

So, boy meets girl, boy knows this is something special, and he thinks, "Let me do everything I can to make this right".

So, I did.

I was brave.

I was vulnerable.

I won her the old-fashioned way.

I tried to do everything right for her.

I knew you have to do anything for love.

So I did. I did whatever I had to, whatever it took.

"I love you, Joe." Beck said.

"I love you too." ....

"I heard about you and Candace."

But Beck she did not trust me.

So she started asking questions about the past.

"Candace? I think they dated."

But I can't say I was shocked when it didn't work out. "Who's Elijah? I ask Candace.

"Give me my phone, Joe."

"He's not your brother, I know that."

"I don't love you. I never have."

She started digging for stuff that should have stayed buried.

I picked wrong. I made mistakes.

[GLASS BREAKS.]

- Love had made me blind.

And now - love turned to poison.

BECK:"Tell me I'm crazy. Tell me you didn't kill Peach." She sobs. "Tell me you didn't kill Peach."

And when love dies, it really hurts.

- The bottom line is

she couldn't love me back.

[BECK SCREAMS.]

And our love died.

I thought that was the end.

A sad story.

A broken heart I'd have to heal from to love again.

But no, there was more hurt in store.

Candace.

"I think we have some unfinished business to talk about."she says.

"Yeah."

And so I realize this is what I get for trying so hard.

I can't love again.

I can't risk it.

It's too dangerous. The only fresh start is a start without love.

This is what it's come to.

I'm a troubled man changed by the things I do. True, but it's funny how Love has taken me to dark places. But Los Angeles has gotta be as dark as it gets. When you're running from someone who thinks they know you, the best place to hide is a city they think you hate because, well, I do.

I'm closing my heart, like an out-of-business bookstore, and I'm here for the moment where everyone is too into themselves to ever connect with another person. It's the worst city in the world and the last place I wanna be, and that's perfect.

It's temporary.

Regroup, get some cash together, figure out next moves, go. Never look back.

It's a chance to get back to who I really am: - a quiet guy, who just wants to lead a quiet life. I've done time in uglier cages.

Do not fixate on any one person.

Later ~~

Hello you.

No, fuck, no, I'm not doing that.

I'm not gonna try to figure out who you are, why you look so concerned about the state of that heirloom tomato.

Now

I see you working at the kitchen. You look so hot I could just "uhh" you moan "that feels good joe say my name." I fantasize us having sex.

What's wrong with me? I don't do this.

Not anymore.

I don't fantasize to some impossible version of a woman I barely know.

It's not good. No.

It's hard to have a fresh start, y/n when the past is on your mind.

~~~

"Hi, I need a driver's license."

" ID and proof of residence? "

"Yep, it's all there." She types for what seems forever.

"Is everything okay?" I ask.

" Slow system."

Some woman in the back yells "that is completely unacceptable."

MAN: "Ma'am, come up to the window, please."

"Just wait, I'll fix this."

I know that voice.

"Sir? This woman has an appointment.

Just like I just had an appointment.

You just helped me five seconds ago."

What are the chances?

"she has to come back with somebody that can speak whatever she speaks."

"Arabic? I mean, it's pretty common."

"Excuse me, does anybody speak Arabic? - Anyone?"

" I can."

"Thank you, sir, please."

"Nobody's gonna skip you, right? Thank you, everyone. See? Someone who can help. Wasn't that hard to ask."

"Some people, huh? Okay, this is all in order. You'll step over there to take the written test." The lady says handing me my papers.

"Okay, thank you." I say to her & smile.

"Will." You say as you walk towards me.

"Kismet, right? I mean, what are the chances? I don't always cause a scene. "I promise." you laugh and it's cute.

"That was pretty impressive."

"Good, because I actually frequently do cause a scene."

"Well, I have to take this test."

"Well, you got this. Here. For luck." you kissed my cheek. What was that???. I'm in heaven. You walked away out of my sight.

EMPLOYEE: "Next in line, please step forward."

Are you really who you seem to be? Could anyone be that light and fearless? You know, I didn't because I promised myself I wouldn't, but now it would be weird not to, right? You're kidding me.

Are you the only woman in Los Angeles not showing off for strangers? Speaks well of you, but does make it trickier.

Unfortunately, I know exactly what I need to do.

~~~ your pov

I hope kissing him wasn't too forward. What was I thinking?? But I liked it, and I think he did too. He is driving me crazy. He probably doesn't even like me back. What if he's already dating someone? Ugh.

[angeldesaray]

Stitches

AN:  TONIGHTS EPISODE.  NUFF SAID.  STILL SCREAMING.

WARNINGS:  LANGUAGE INCLUDING IN THE GENERAL INFO RIGHT BELOW.  FLUFF.  ANGST.  AAAAANGST.  HURT/COMFORT.  PTSD.  TRAUMA.  BRIEF FLASHBACKS TO TORTURE AND DEATH.

Characters:  SAM FUCKING WINCHESTER, GABRIEL (Forgot to say mentions of Lucifer, Dean, and Ketch)

Pairing:  SABRIEL MOTHER FUCKERS

WORD COUNT, IDK, I AM STARTING THIS AS SOON AS THE EPISODE IS OVER AND WRITING TILL ITS DONE, DON’T JUDGE ME!

Sam learned the hard way he had to treat Gabriel with the utmost care.  Of course, he’d already been watching his every move, having seen the state the archangel was in from the moment Ketch pulled Gabriel around the corner.  But even that wasn’t enough.

Gabriel was trembling.

Gabriel.

The same Gabriel who Sam remembered walking with a jump in every step--every other step when he was serious.

The same Gabriel who nearly always had a smile on his lips, at least faintly curved upwards, a twinkle of mischief in his eyes.

The same Gabriel who’d been powerful enough to stick Sam in a never-ending time loop, or both Sam and Dean in TV Land.

The same Gabriel who’d sacrificed himself to save Sam and Dean, willing to fight and being murdered by his brother.

Sam didn’t really want to admit what he was seeing in front of him, the almighty, laughing archangel brought to...this.

But though Sam hardly saw any of the old Gabriel besides a ghost of his appearance under the filth and blood, he was still the first forward.  While Dean and Ketch had run off to prepare the spell, Sam had been the one to go to Gabriel.

Fuck the spell--this was far more important right now.

When Sam initially approached, Gabriel instantly backed away as far as he could, nearly tipping the chair over as he was approached.  In that moment, as Sam locked eyes with Gabriel’s wild ones, now devoid of mirth and replaced with fear, even now when he was safely away from Asmodeous...

Sam saw himself.

Sam saw Hell.

Carefully, Sam lowered himself closer to Gabriel’s height, his expression that of utmost concern.

“Gabriel.”  Sam had to pause and clear his throat, too much pain in his voice on the first try.  “Gabriel, I’m not going to hurt you.  I just want to help...but you need to trust me.  Can you do that?”

Gabriel held his defensive position in the chair, still shying away from Sam and holding absolutely still, staring at him with those wild, stranger’s eyes.

But at the same time they were eyes Sam knew, which made it all the more painful.

Finally, something shifted, and Gabriel very carefully put one foot down off of the chair, though he remained cautious, tensed as if he was liable to take flight at any moment.

It was good enough for now.

Refraining from touching him, Sam backed away to give Gabriel some space, gesturing back into the library Ketch had been waiting in with Gabriel before the Winchesters had returned.  “Why don’t you...take a seat in there and I’ll...go get something to...”  he made a weak gesture towards his own lips to show he was talking about the stitches, but couldn’t get himself to actually say it.  “...to help,” he eventually finished.

Gabriel, looking like a lost, mutilated kitten, shuffled towards where he’d been told to go, and Sam had to turn from the sight with a sharp intake of breath, hurrying out of the room to find a first aid kit, or at least something to get rid of those damn stiches.

Those had to be the first to go.  They didn’t belong there, and just the thought of anyone doing that to Gabriel made Sam’s blood boil.

To see it...

He couldn’t stand to see them there a moment longer.

The first aid kit was, of course, in the bathroom--at least that’s where he kept his small personal one.  He took the time to make sure there were small medical scissors for stitches, shuffling past the gauze, sleeping pills, and painkillers to find them.

Sam happened to look up in the mirror as he threw what he didn’t need back under the sink, freezing in place as he saw himself in the mirror.

Where had...

Sam raised a hand he hadn’t realized was shaking to wipe away the tear he hadn’t realized had escaped while he thought of the husk of an archangel waiting for him in the library.  Seeing himself, however, caused the temporary numb of the shock of seeing Gabriel alive--but not really--to wear off.

And with the fading of the temporary numbness came the feeling.

The small collection of supplies he’d gathered tumbled into the sink with a clatter, and Sam found himself bracing against the sink with both hands as he leaned forward, breathing heavy as he stared back at the face in the mirror.

But he wasn’t seeing the man standing in front of the mirror.  He was seeing Gabriel’s wild eyes, perhaps the same Sam had cast towards Dean when he’d been tormented by visions of Lucifer and Hell to the point his mind just...broke.  He saw the stiches keeping Gabriel from--God--from screaming in pain, and heard his own screams as Lucifer cut and burned and did whatever the hell he pleased while Sam was trapped in the cage.  He saw the blood that coated Gabriel even now from who knew how many injuries, afflictions, mutilations, and he saw the blood slicked hardwood with the claws of hellhounds gouged into the planks and the prone body of his brother, his own blood causing the hooks and needles Lucifer wielded to slip, slide, miss their mark, and make Lucifer have to start anew in cutting up Sam’s flesh the way he preferred.

Sam saw Hell.

Sam saw himself.

Breathing heavy and slightly choked, Sam leaned over the sink, taking shallow breaths before he shoved his collection of supplies out of the basin, pulling on the sink’s nozzle so cold water shot forth in a harsh spray.  He thrust his hand under the water, splashing it onto his face, his neck, threading his fingers through his hair to alleviate the heat that burned through him.

How long had Gabriel been alive?  How long had they been unaware that he’d been held captive in Hell, clearly tortured by Asmodeous.

Gabriel had sacrificed himself for them, and what had they given him in return?

Sam looked back up into the mirror, water dripping steadily from his chin and the tips of his now damp hair to the basin, the counter of the sink, the floor.

Now was the chance to make up for not being there, for not realizing sooner...

Gabriel sat waiting for Sam in the library.

With that thought, Sam blindly grabbed the towel that rested near the sink, drying his face and hair, making sure there was no evidence of the brief...moment...he’d just had before he gathered the supplies once more and made his way back to the library.

Gabriel sat, shrunken and disheveled, defeated, at one of the chairs at the long table in the middle of the room, haunted eyes staring blankly down towards the floor.

Sam swallowed the pain at the sight, forcing himself forward as he set his supplies on the table in front of Gabriel.  The archangel jumped, startled by the sudden sound and Sam’s sudden reappearance, the fear back in his gaze.

Sam kicked himself for not announcing his return in a soft voice, taking care that he moved slowly and without any sudden noises.

“Let’s...get those off of you, first.  Okay?” Sam asked gently, pulling out the chair next to Gabriel and turning it so that he could face the archangel.  Gabriel continued to eye him warily, like he was waiting for some sort of trick--

Sam’s heart clenched so painfully he had a hard time breathing for a moment, fighting the storm of emotions inside him so he could be stable long enough he could help the broken angel in front of him.

Sam reached over and picked up the scissors, his hand freezing in midair when Gabriel made a sound of fright at the sight of a sharp object most likely meant for him.  Sam held out his empty hand in a gesture of peace.

“It’s all right!  I’m just going to get these stiches off of you, okay?  I swear, I’m not going to hurt you, Gabriel.  I swear.  I just want to help you,” he pleaded, leaning forward slightly and holding Gabriel’s gaze, hoping the archangel could see the sincerity in Sam’s eyes...

...the understanding.  The mirrored look of hell in his eyes, but faded, as Sam had repeatedly pushed those feelings down, down, and down, over and over again so they never rose to the top, so he didn’t have to deal with it.

He’d told Rowena as much, how he’d never truly dealt with what happened to him.

And Dean was thought to be the Winchester with all the repressed feelings.

Whatever Gabriel saw in Sam’s eyes, the angel slowly turned to face Sam, leaning forward in a silent offer for Sam to do as he would, a helpless vulnerability that hurt Sam far more than it relieved him that Gabriel was going to let him help.

Sam raised a slightly trembling hand to Gabriel’s lips, feeling the torn and abused skin underneath from the stitches.  Again, he felt heat, hellfire, Lucifer, blood, slicing, tearing, shredding, pulling--

Mirrored gazes filled with Hell met, and the man with the demon blood steadied his hand to break the first chain that bound the angel before him in his broken vessel.

Forever Tags: @gingersnapped13 @broken-angel-withashotgun @serpent-princess @casifxr @bisexualdolphinthings @jackklinee @shortthane @quiet-tomato-feels @destielsangelss

[back-and-totheleft]

Total Recall: 10 Best Oliver Stone films

He’s won 10 Golden Globes, nine Oscars, and four BAFTAs during his long and illustrious career — but Oliver Stone has somehow never been the focus of his own Total Recall, so we decided to change that in honor of this weekend’s Savages, an intriguingly cast drug drama based on the Don Winslow novel about a pair of pot farmers racing to free the woman they love from a Mexican drug cartel. Given his lengthy filmography, you know Stone’s got some good stuff in his filmography — and the cream of the crop is right here in this week’s list.

10. W.

The most recent chapter of Stone’s presidential trilogy, W. served George W. Bush — who was wrapping up his second term while it was filmed — with a somewhat muted, surprisingly sympathetic biopic that traced his occasionally haphazard rise from political scion to oil baron and back again. While Josh Brolin earned near-universal praise for his work in the title role, critics found W. as a whole a little harder to take, citing its laconic pace and insufficiently hard-hitting approach as particularly troublesome flaws. For others, however, it proved a warm, fairly witty farewell for the GWB years; as the Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips put it, “The film may be ill-timed, arguably unnecessary and no more psychologically probing than any other Stone movie. But much of it works as deft, brisk, slyly engaging docudrama.”

9. COMANDANTE

For a lot of Americans — especially those who grew up during the early years of the Cold War — Fidel Castro is less a world leader than a shadowy boogeyman whose thirst for brinkmanship nearly triggered World War III. But whatever his sins, Castro remains a longtime veteran of international politics and a subject worthy of investigation — hence Oliver Stone’s Comandante, a 93-minute distillation of the three days he spent filming the Cuban leader in 2002. While a sizable number of critics chafed at Stone’s aggressively friendly attitude toward his subject, others saw something of significant, albeit flawed, value; as Alan Morrison argued for Empire, it is “An opportunity frustratingly squandered, but one which still makes for fascinating viewing thanks to Castro’s natural charisma. Errol Morris would have nailed it.”

8. WORLD TRADE CENTER

Oliver Stone is known for his willingness to entertain conspiracy theories, his leftist political leanings, and his fondness for lurid cinematic violence, so when word got out he was planning to direct a movie about the September 11 attacks, some people were understandably nervous. But like any other director worth his title, Stone understands his role as a storyteller, and World Trade Center — starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Peña as a pair of real-life police officers who were caught in the wreckage after the buildings fell — has no room for politics or conspiracies. Its clear-eyed dedication to the people first affected by the attacks — and the selfless bravery of the men and women who worked to rescue the living — was appreciated by critics like David Denby of the New Yorker, who wrote, “The world may not make sense anymore, but Oliver Stone, a warrior still, celebrating courage and endurance, has, in his own way, come home.”

7. NIXON

In the years immediately following JFK, Stone took detours into war epic territory (Heaven & Earth) and social commentary (Natural Born Killers), but he wasn’t finished with the White House yet. With 1995’s ambitious Nixon, Stone gave us Anthony Hopkins as the disgraced former president and Joan Allen as his wife Pat — and while the 192-minute political epic failed to generate much heat at the box office, both Hopkins and Allen received Oscar nominations for their work in the film, which follows a non-linear path through Nixon’s life and career, taking viewers from his California youth through his resignation. “What it finally adds up to,” argued Janet Maslin of the New York Times, “is a huge mixed bag of waxworks and daring, a film that is furiously ambitious even when it goes flat, and startling even when it settles for eerie, movie-of-the-week mimicry.”

6. WALL STREET

Smart, sleek, and eminently quotable, Stone’s yuppie jeremiad Wall Street gifted Michael Douglas with what arguably became the most iconic role of his career: He was simply perfect as the oily, morally adrift Gordon Gekko, and although Gekko’s signature proclamation that “greed is good” would go on to haunt Douglas, he was an emblematic character for an era in American history when it became acceptable to not only dedicate your life to the naked pursuit of wealth, but to attain it by any means necessary. Stone, who co-wrote the screenplay, based the character on a number of stockbrokers — including his own father — and Douglas embodied Gekko so well that he ended up winning an Oscar for his work. “Like the rest of Stone’s oeuvre, it’s about as subtle as a sledgehammer,” wrote Christopher Lloyd of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. “But his filmmaking style is like heavy metal: When he hits the right chords, nobody plays with as much power or brash energy.”

5. TALK RADIO

A rare starring vehicle for monologist/playwright/character actor/cult hero Eric Bogosian, Talk Radio found Stone behind the cameras for a loose adaptation of Bogosian’s play of the same name. Inspired by the real-life assassination of Denver DJ Alan Berg, Radio centers around Dallas radio personality Barry Champlain, whose deliberately provocative style (and decidedly non-Red State political views) make him a target of hate mail and bomb threats even as his show is poised to achieve national syndication. Saying it “has the loony intensity of those impassioned conspiracy theorists who look out at the world and see patterns of corruption spreading in all directions,” the Washington Post’s Hal Hinson declared, “it’s another of Stone’s wake-up calls to America.”

4. JFK

A two-time Oscar winner and controversial, career-rejuvenating smash hit for Stone, JFK reconstructs John F. Kennedy’s assassination and then spends most of its epic 189-minute length sifting through the wreckage, treating the killing as a murder mystery that New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) doggedly attempts to solve at any cost. With an impeccable supporting cast that included Sissy Spacek, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, and Gary Oldman, as well as a screenplay that challenged long-held assumptions about Kennedy’s death, JFK reignited interest in the assassination, eventually leading to new legislation that ordered a reinvestigation and promised that all documents related to the killing would be made public by 2017. And while many critics agreed that the movie could have benefited from a more rigorous approach to the facts, it remains, in the words of the Washington Post’s Desson Thomson, “A riveting marriage of fact and fiction.”

3. PLATOON

The first installment in Stone’s so-called Vietnam trilogy, 1986’s Platoon took a hard look at American involvement in the Vietnam War — and earned Stone Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars and the Golden Globes in the bargain. Taking a grunt’s-eye view of the war, it puts a human face on the conflict, pitting Willem Dafoe (as Sergeant Elias, mentor to Chris, the young soldier played by Charlie Sheen) against a fellow sergeant (played by Tom Berenger) in a dreadful battle for the platoon. It is, as Roger Ebert wrote, “A film that says…that before you can make any vast, sweeping statements about Vietnam, you have to begin by understanding the bottom line, which is that a lot of people went over there.”

2. BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY

He earned positive reviews for his role in Rain Man, but to many scribes, the Tom Cruise of the late 1980s was little more than the pretty face out in front of critically savaged hits like Cocktail — likable under the right circumstances, but lacking real depth. Oliver Stone saw something different, trusting Cruise with 1989’s Born on the Fourth of July — and Cruise repaid him by delivering the most harrowing performance to that point in his career, committing so deeply to his portrayal of paralyzed Vietnam vet Ron Kovic that, according to Stone, he came close to injecting himself with a solution that would have incurred temporary paralysis. Not all critics loved Fourth of July, but even those who had issues with the film were forced to take notice of Cruise’s performance — and for Vincent Canby of the New York Times, the end result was “the most ambitious nondocumentary film yet made about the entire Vietnam experience.”

1. SALVADOR

Stone’s films have received a combined 31 Academy Award nominations (and counting), but he picked up his first for his co-writing credit on the screenplay for Salvador, a 1986 war drama about a rather unlikable American journalist (James Woods, also nominated for an Oscar) who’s burned so many bridges that his only professional recourse is to head to El Salvador with his unemployed DJ buddy (Jim Belushi) to try and find stories in what they initially regard as a relatively inconsequential war. Like a lot of films that try and shine a light on war while shots are still being fired, Salvador bombed at the box office — but it found an appreciative audience with writers like Rob Gonsalves of eFilmCritic, who called it “One of Oliver Stone’s best films, and absolutely James Woods’ best performance.”

-Jeff Giles, Rotten Tomatoes, Jul 5 2012 [x]

[jodybouchard9]

Flower Garden or Vegetable Garden? You Needn’t Choose

Willowpix / Getty Images

To my husband, a garden means a sort of outdoor refrigerator, ideally stocked with enough fresh vegetables to rival a Whole Foods.

But to me a garden is a design element that welcomes you home. If you’re lucky enough to have a front yard, it’s the best kind of mixed metaphor. It’s a canvas you get to paint with colors that go off like time-lapse fireworks as seasons change.

“What about planting some Big Boy tomatoes over there?” my husband asked the other day, gesturing grandly toward a spot where my heirloom gladiolas were in bloom.

“Sweetheart,” I explained gently for the kazillionth time, “we already have an edible garden.”

“Ha,” he said, in a tone that struck me as pointed. “That sliver of shade next to the driveway?”

“Darling,” I tried again. “We grew great strawberries there last year.”

“Six strawberries,” he said. “We need a real victory garden. We need to grow more food.”

Victory gardens are in vogue this year. Again.

“Whenever the country goes through uncertain times, people decide they want to grow their own food,” said Charlie Nardozzi, a consultant for the National Gardening Association. “We’ve seen this trend before, both in world wars and in economic downturns.”

This spring, with many people out of work and sheltering at home, growers and online retailers nationwide have reported an increase in sales of edible plants, seeds and garden products, Mr. Nardozzi said.

Some people are doing it to save money, or because they have time on their hands. But the biggest reason people are yearning to grow food is “it makes them feel they are doing something to contribute to their own sense of security.”

Unfortunately, it’s hard to be a farmer.

“One reason I don’t do it is my biggest crop was six strawberries,” I confessed to Mr. Nardozzi. “I’m basically a failure as a farmer.”

“That’s a common feeling and one reason a jump in interest in food gardening is usually temporary,” Mr. Nardozzi said. “After a year or two, people give it up because they weren’t successful.”

“But my husband is really pushing the victory garden idea,” I said.

“If you want to be successful, don’t set unreal expectations,” Mr. Nardozzi said. “Start small.”

Brilliant—instead of a victory garden, we would have a partial victory garden.

It was a relief to hear I wouldn’t have to sacrifice my roses to rows of radishes. But what’s the best way to start a partial victory garden?

I called urban gardener and activist Ron Finley, whose own edible garden in South Central Los Angeles is so bountiful it spills from his backyard to the narrow strip of land between the sidewalk and the street. (A few years back, local officials told him it was illegal to plant there, but Mr. Finley won that fight.)

I figured anyone who could get bananas and artichokes to grow in a curb of hard-packed dirt could solve my problem.

“Don’t worry, most people don’t know anything about gardening,” Mr. Finley said. “Last week I gave someone a fava bean and he actually said, ‘If I plant this bean, what will it grow into?’ I said, ‘It’s a fava bean, what do you think it will grow into—a pineapple?’ ”

Mr. Finley recommends planting vegetables and flowers together. “It looks good, and it tastes good,” he said. “The bottom line is everything you eat that comes out of the soil—from figs to peaches to zucchini—starts as a flower. Everything is a blossom before it becomes food.”

Co-planting edibles with ornamentals has been popular for centuries, dating to Elizabethan times, when villagers who were allotted tiny plots crammed in enough food, flowers and medicinal herbs to sustain their families. Thus was born the rambling cottage garden.

Today, planting a cottage garden is still one of the easiest ways to grow food, said Marty McGowan, a garden designer and organic farmer on Nantucket. Mr. McGowan said his favorite formula when he designs gardens is to plant a mix of 30% vegetables and 70% flowers.

“A true cottage garden might have tomato plants growing in cages, which I think of as structural enhancements, or arugula with little blue flowers at the front of a border,” Mr. McGowan said.

He also told me I won’t have to replace any flowers to grow food: “Just add edibles here and there. Fennel’s feathery foliage looks great, and you can snip it when you cook.”

For people without gardens, Mr. McGowan suggests planting beans in a container and letting them grow up a trellis or over a balcony railing: “It adds romance.”

After I got off the phone, I found my husband in the front garden, eyeing my roses.

“This would be a great spot for watermelons,” he said wistfully.

“I agree,” I said.

He looked at me suspiciously.

���You’re willing to sacrifice flowers for food?” he asked.

“We won’t need to,” I said. “We’ll just train the vines to grow along the edge of the path.”

“Sounds pretty,” he agreed. “And six watermelons is a lot.”

The post Flower Garden or Vegetable Garden? You Needn’t Choose appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

[angisam]

your wild side

tumblr(english)   1 / 2  / 3 / 4

tumblr (español) 1 / 2 /  3 / 4 / 5

WARNING: this chapter includes a scene that can cause discomfort to sensitive (I guess those who suffer from aicmofobia, belonephobia for example)

Tag: underfell au , wolvesfell au, bad language, violence, fight

character chapter: underfell!Papyrus , wolvesfell!Sans,

chapter summary: Sans has a bad idea. Papyrus tries very hard to recover his brother. FAIL.

AO3

the english isn’t my first language, i hope is ok writting.

Chapter 5: spaghetti  

words: 1635

The first thing he noticed was that it felt warm and nice. It was covered with a soft blanket. Slowly and lazily he opened his eyes without knowing very well where he was. I look around her trying to remember her latest memories; The last thing I knew was that I was in the woods ... with the other monster- !!. After remembering the fight began to have anxiety - no no no. They CAN'T catch me again! "He got up and heard a slight tinkle, as he looked down, he noticed that there was a chain, took off his comfortable blanket and took a few steps back, the chain was stuffed around his neck, Paw found that there was something around him. He was beginning to panic. I could not pass this up again!

He sat for a while looking at the floor but at the same time trying to relax. With a loud sigh he raised his head and tried to take a closer look. He was in a cell, the bars were made of wood. Insufficiently wide enough to pass.he could see that outside the cell there was a hallway to the left although it couldn't see the bottom of it. At the other corner was a chest of drawers with three large drawers. And inside the cell there was only him and a plate with food. After the discovery, he raised his ears with all his attention on that plate. I was hungry. The last few days he had hardly eaten anything he had focused on finding his herd with no success at all. But when he went to the plate he felt a small tug on his neck. The chain was long but the delicacy opposite was far from reaching it only for very little, even if he stretching the paw he can't arrived.  

What did that monster want from him? nothing nice probably . His gaze once again focused on the chain and followed the rest until he saw that the other end was lodged on the wall with an hook ... maybe he could do something.

Papyrus closed the door of the shed and looked up at the sky for some answer by leaning his back on the door. -What am I going to do now? How do I fix this, if I dont even know how it happened? "He gave a last sigh, starting to march toward his house. He did not feel like is a good idea telling anyone about it, who knows what would happen, until he had the better controlled  the situation. Sans would simply stay in the shed. checked him. Although every day monsters crossed by their house to go to and return from Waterfall with the possibility of being heard, it didn't matter much, long ago the shed was reformed to be a temporary cell with which to lock problematic people in Snowdin or for humans? Who knows when it would appear one ?, it can't be said that it gave much use but it was useful in some moments like this so peculiar, nevertheless would prefer to have it in house more secure and much more controlled but until his brother didn't give his Would collaborate couldn't do more.

He dropped to the couch pulling his head back once sitting reflected on everything, his brother didnt even recognize him ... wasn't even sure he could understand when he spoke to him, it seemed that he had become wild could perhaps tame him? Or at least make him stop grunting every time he saw him. Maybe he could get her to trust him again with food, after all, and apparently Sans had been feeding on no-magical food, he had to eat something suitable to replenish magic, and there was a good chance he understood that he was not his enemy, or At least it would be a start. He entered the kitchen and began planning as if it were a high-profile mission of great importance. What he prepared should be nutritious and that will help Sans to remember to be, could work .... His expression changed to bitter as he remembered what could be truly "suitable," the greasy garbage that his brother and those in that dump dare call food.- NEVER! About my dust!- There must have been something more symbolic .... Like ... spaghetti! It was literally the first thing he cook in his life was for a week just preparing pasta and tomato sauce to improve his master recipe. His brother was eating hard pasta, salty food and burnt sauce for seven long days it is impossible for him not to remember such a thing.

With a smile on his skull he began to get  ingredients and prepare the water for the pasta. For a moment he rephrased whether to make it as vomit as in his first attempts, but he reminded himself that the goal was to eat the dish not to hate him more than he was now hate him.

After spending two long worried days and an extra plus being confused, Papyrus was finally relaxed, it was really the only thing that made him really smile and make him happy after having a day (everyday) of shit. It was pleasant to disconnect and think that nothing bad would happen while he cooking.

After an hour in the kitchen (or about that) and steaming plate and succulent pasta was ready for anyone to lay the tooth. he grab the plate and take it out of the house, to the shed, when he enter he notice that something wasn't right. Sans was still unconscious, lying on the ground in the same posture as when he removed the ropes, it was a great advantage that during the whole trip did not wake up but it had already been four hours since the fight, well maybe it had not been that long As if to worry, but the Great skeleton was rethinking the problem. he jerked your head and he into on the cell, the door had a much safer lock but in this case I simply used the knocker on the door of the cell. Papyrus left the plate close to his brother who gave clear signs that he wasn't comfortable, his body was contracted, a clear signal that he was cold, and it seemed that he didn't sleep well.

the skeleton returned to the kitchen with the idea that later would check  him again if he were still unconscious, for now your current objective was to prepare a recipe that he have long seen but couldn't find the time to try it, he look at the round and big clock of the kitchen; 4:17 AM, he was tired but Asgore knows that sleeping would be impossible as much as he wanted. He went to the fridge and started to get the ingredients they needed. I have been trying to figure out how to do this, but I do not know what to do. The plate I could simply keep it tied up like before, he would have to find a way to handle it more easily without becoming the bad guy. He left the cage and approached the large chest of drawers. He opened the first drawer and pulled out a coiled string of good length (but short in his own way) and rummaging further he found the string where the string was, the drawer was full of instrument like padlocks, strings, chains, And especially wives. A pile of three blankets lay on top of the same chest of drawers. The blankets were practically so that the prisoner did not die of cold, to make reports on the death of crooks was something totally odious. When he had everythinghe  needed he returned to the cell again and began putting the red leather necklace to the monster and then the chain that hooked on the wall. On the wall were a couple of more hooks and handcuffs to tie the wrists, who would not be proud to turn a filthy shed into a cell of improvised  to "luxury"? After finishing all the tasks he have sighed and left with the hope that what he had done would not cause much controversy for his brother.

 5:07 AM

He looked at the clock and thought it wise to make an inspection again, took off his apron and returned to the shed.

When he entered,Sans was already awake, lying and huddled on the wall, then noticed the plate of spaghetti. It was still intact where he had left it an hour earlier. Not even showed a sign of a bit shy. It was intact. Sans didn't take his eyes off him, watching for the most imperceptible movement in him.

Papyrus sighed and sat down in front of where the other was outside the cell.

"Remember when I started with the kitchen? You've been eating my mistakes for a week, "I laugh lightly," but I've improved in the last few years, remember? "- the other simply kept his gaze, this was totally ridiculous. A closer look Papyrus discovered blood stains on the ground rather worrying. Already with the restlessness in the body the great and high skeleton went towards the door of the cell. His brother became aware of the other's intentions and put himself in a position of defense, grunting for a change- " STOP A FUCKING TIME WITH THAT!" - halfway down he found that on the wall where the hook for the chain was overly chipped Full of claw marks. Papyrus frowned as he redirected his gaze to his paws. And as the other suspected, he kept his right paw raised where it was observed, as on the tip of a piece of wood, some blood dripped. He had to do something about it, whether or not his brother collaborated.

[jedi-bird]

Avocado didn't like yesterday's heavy rain and since more is on its way, I've used a tomato cage as a temporary support.

[kellyp72]

10 Tips for starting your food garden

Interest in gardening has taken off since COVID-19 has forced most of us to stay at home for long stretches of time. While many people in the US have taken this time to start a food garden and to learn about how to be more self-sufficient, others have found that gardening relieves their boredom and provides other mental and physical health benefits. In the long term, growing at least some of your own food can also help save money and minimize trips to the grocery store. Whether you are new to gardening or have experience growing some of your food, these 10 tips will help ensure that your garden grows abundantly and with few problems.

Tip #1: observe before you plant

What’s the first step in growing a garden? You might think it’s getting supplies or figuring out what you want to plant, but in fact, it’s something more fundamental yet time-consuming than either of those things. Before you dig a bed, plant a seed in the ground, fill a pot with soil, or purchase seedlings from your local nursery, you should observe the space where you intend to grow your plants. As a general rule of thumb, if the food you are growing comes from a leaf or root, it can thrive in a partly or mostly shady space. If the food that grows from the plant comes from a flower (like tomatoes, peas, peppers, and fruits), it will need up to 8 hours of direct sunlight.

Tip #2: soil matters (a lot!)

Proper soil preparation does more than help your plants grow. It helps them prosper and enables them to better withstand stressors like the occasional drought, pathogens, and even garden pests. It does this in part by helping the plant to develop a strong immune system and defense mechanisms. There are many ways to prepare your soil for planting. The best way to start is with a soil test to determine what you already have to work with. You can also purchase commercial soil and add to it. This is called amending the soil. The best thing to add is homemade compost (that way you reduce food waste and feed your soil), or the commercial variety. Pay attention to drainage: most plants need soil with good drainage. Adding perlite helps create a lighter, better-draining soil mix. Other things you can add include finely crushed eggshells, which will (eventually) add calcium to the soil as well as improve drainage. Another quick and easy way to improve the organic content of your soil is to add used coffee grounds. Contrary to popular belief, spent coffee grounds are nearly Ph-neutral and do not make your soil more acid.

Tip #3: consult the local weather report

It’s important to pay attention to fluctuations in the weather, especially when they are severe (like an unexpected frost or downpour). Scorching heat waves, prolonged periods of rain and humidity or cloudiness, or drought can all have terrible effects on the viability of your crops.

Because weather changes can be unpredictable, you might think about container gardening for at least some of your crops, because you can move plants closer to the siding of your home, under eaves or beneath other shelter (such as a patio umbrella) to protect them from the elements. If you have an in-ground garden, covering with garden plastic, floating row covers, plant protectors, a greenhouse tarp, or burlap can provide temporary protection from the harsh elements. Using a soaker hose to water your in-ground plants for long stretches of time to encourage deep rooting (which helps plants withstand periods of drought) are a few other ways you can mitigate the effects of bad weather or extreme fluctuations in the climate.

Tip #4: don’t grow more than you can manage

Many an enthusiastic novice gardener has found herself with a menagerie of plants that have become unmanageable. Even if you have a big yard or plot of land with plenty of sunlight  for growing a food garden, you should start small, especially if you are new to food gardening, have done minimal food gardening in the past, or haven’t grown food in a long time. If you don’t have a lot of time to tend to a large garden, I strongly advise you to begin with a few simple, easy-to-grow vegetables or fruits. Get to know the needs of each plant, and over time, food gardening will be easier to manage, more intuitive, and you’ll spend less time trying to figure out why your crops aren’t thriving.

Tip #5: fertilize according to the soil needs and plant growing stages

While it’s possible to grow plants without fertilizer, it’s not possible to have a healthy and thriving food garden without it. Most growers add homemade compost to the soil or buy commercial fertilizer products in pellet, powder, or liquid form. Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous, (P), and Potassium (K) are the nutrients that are needed in the highest quantities. Other nutrients and micronutrients are needed in smaller amounts. Many of these nutrients (except N and P) are already present in the soil in adequate amounts, especially if you amend the soil with compost. Adding too much of a nutrient that is already present in the soil in normal or excessive amounts causes problems for your plants, including creating deficiencies of other nutrients. It’s best to conduct a soil test to see what nutrients your soil needs; home soil tests are available at your local nursery or garden supply store.

Generally, plants benefit from nitrogen in the early stages of their growth, which helps them produce more leaves. However, adding too much nitrogen will cause an excess of leafy growth and poor production of vegetables. Phosphorous promotes root development, which helps to anchor and strengthen plants. It also increases bloom and fruit production, which happen in the middle stages of plant growth. Potassium, or potash, helps your crops fight off diseases and withstand extreme temperatures. Plants deficient in potash will have stunted leaves and fruit and may be sensitive to drought. A balanced fertilizer will have a 10-10-10 ratio. It’s generally a good idea fertilize your plants once every two weeks in the hot and warm months and once a month in the cold months (if you garden year-round). If your soil is deficient, fertilize your soil before planting.

Tip #6: water consistently and thoroughly

Watering too much or too little will cause your plants to become weak and therefore more susceptible to diseases and pests. There are a number of ways you can ensure that your plants get enough water to keep them growing healthy and producing an abundant harvest. First, you can purchase a drip irrigation system and a timer to water your urban garden. Attaching it to a single rain barrel will keep your small garden watered for up to two weeks. For a garden on a large plot, use two rain barrels. If you have a large homestead, four rain barrels will keep your crops watered for a month if you use a slow drip irrigation system.

If you grow your food crops in containers, you will need to water them more often: every day, and possible twice a day in very hot weather, as containers dry out faster than in-ground or raised bed gardens. Water until the liquid runs out of the bottom of the container. You can also add mulch to your containers or garden bed to help retain water so crops need less watering, but check often to make sure that the mulch is not retaining too much water and attracting slugs and other moisture-loving pests as a result. If so,  you can always use small river rocks or pea gravel as mulch instead.

Tip #7: maximize space by planting up

Your growing space can be maximized for yield if you choose varieties of plants that can be trained to grow upward, like tomatoes, green beans, sweet bell peppers, squash, sweet potato, and even some varieties of watermelon. You only need a few tools to get your plants to grow vertically: wooden, bamboo, or plastic stakes or poles can be used to train plants, securing them with garden Velcro, clips, or even twine (tie twine loosely and in a bow for easy adjustment so it doesn’t cut into the stem of the growing plant). Reposition the plant as it grows, trim as needed, and cut suckers (these are the vertical shoots growing from the roots or lower main stem of the plant). You can also purchase plastic connectors to make a tomato trellis, or if you’re handy, use old wood or narrow PVC pipe and connectors, which can be cut to size using a hacksaw. You can also use thick-gauge wire and needle-nose pliers to make a tomato cage.

Tip #8: plant with friends

Plants like to be surrounded by friendly companions. Companion planting means planting one kind of plant next to another or others that help it thrive. This growing technique can help you grow more in less space. Although there is a lot of debate in the scientific community about the proven benefits of companion planting, most experienced gardeners who use this technique report that it controls or repel harmful insects, promotes pollination, enhances the flavor of crops, adds nutrients to the soil, and helps control weeds. What companions should you plant next to your crops? The answer to that question is longer than can be covered in this post, but a safe bet for virtually any crop is marigolds. Be sure, however, that the marigolds are not being crowded out by their companions. One way to do this is to plant marigolds in separate containers next to your tomatoes, eggplants, or greens, and watch the pollinators (bees, ladybugs, butterflies, etc.) come to visit and do their helpful work in your garden.

Tip #9: use pesticides sparingly if at all!

There are many reasons to minimize your use of pesticides, including the organic variety. The environmental devastation that is being caused by pesticides may now outweigh the benefits of their use (one exception being the use of insecticides to kill disease-carrying vectors, like mosquitos). Some organic pesticides also cause harm to humans and the environment – although there has been much less research on the long-term effects of using organic as opposed to synthetic pesticides.  Whenever you shop for organic pesticides in your local nursery or home improvement store, or make your own, remember that these products may also harm more than the species they are intended to kill. While it is ultimately up to you to decide what kinds of pesticides to use, or whether to use them at all, you should make an effort to minimize their use by opting to grow plants that are as healthy as possible (and therefore better able to fight off disease and insects), using integrated pest management (IPM) techniques such as barriers or beneficial insects, or resolving to share some of your harvest with herbivore insects and other pests.

Tip #10: clean and decontaminate your tools with each use

Digging in different pots of soil with the same tool can be a recipe for disaster if there are pathogens hidden in the soil (as there often are). When you don’t clean your tools between pots, you are transferring pathogens from an afflicted plant (and you may not yet realize that it’s afflicted), to a healthy one. Investing in several trowels (small, hand-held shovels), rakes, pruning tools and spades will help you avoid cross-contamination. Otherwise, give your tool a rinse with the garden hose or dip it in a bucket of treated water each time you move to a new pot to work in. You can also wipe with a damp cloth or paper towel. Disinfect your tools after you are finished using them for the day with ethanol or isopropyl alcohol, household disinfectants (preferably the eco-friendly kind!), hydrogen peroxide, or vinegar. I use a 100% vinegar in a spray bottle to disinfect my tools when gardening and try to disinfect as much as possible.

These tips will help your garden get off to a great start. If you want more details about starting a vegetable garden or making yours thrive, sign up for our free email course, The Art of Food Gardening. Click the image to the right for more information!

[josephkitchen0]

9 Common Homesteading Supplies and Hacks

Nifty gadgets have their place on the homestead but sometimes you just can’t go down that often-pricey path. Don’t get me wrong — I’m a hopeless fan of wonky inventions (think egg flashlights and nut wizards), but even if you have the cash, you might not feel like cramming yet another single-purpose item into your barn or basement. Enter common homesteading supplies and the hack. A time-honored tradition!

Inexpensive and creative solutions to everyday problems might be the most important tools in a backyard farmer’s toolbox.  Here are a few of my favorites gleaned from several years raising vegetables, fruits, and animals on our suburban farm.

1. Zip Ties: Worth Their Weight in Gold

On our property, plastic cable ties are homesteading supplies that have been put into service in countless ways and, despite their low cost, typically last several years, even after very hot summers and sub-zero winters. From building cages to thwarting squirrels and all the many tasks in between, the lowly zip tie steps up to a starring role in various homesteading productions. They come in several lengths, colors, and styles but my go-to model is the 8-inch commercial electrical model — heavy-duty and rated to operate in temperatures ranging from -40 to 85 degrees Celsius, well within our Northeastern United States parameters.

How many will you need? Probably more than you think.

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Zip ties are strong but can also be employed for short-term uses. For example, if you don’t tighten them all the way, you can easily cut them off when they’re no longer needed. Or you can turn them around and use the non-tightening side for loose closures where you want to get in and out, for example, a door flap. Be careful, though. Zip ties are not toys, keep them out of reach of children! They can be very difficult to remove once fully closed.

Sample uses:

Create quick fences and covers – Attach poultry wire, netting, hardware cloth or any material you can stick a tie through to sticks, poles or pipes. I use a hole-punch to create openings when necessary.

Hang objects – Leave a gap in the zip to make a loop. You can make chains of zip ties to add length.

Attach objects – Signs, varmint deterrent lights, etc.

2. Cardboard Box: A Farmer’s Best Friend

All sizes can be handy but whenever a really large cardboard box comes my way, I stash it in the garage with my homesteading supplies for guaranteed future use. I prefer to employ the basic brown, made in the United States version and try to remove all plastic tape when feasible.

Cardboard can be called on for all kinds of quick and lightweight duties.

Temporary walls – Along the lines of cheap fencing ideas, cardboard is really useful to separate or corral poultry when evading capture. (The ducks take one look and know it’s pen-up time!)

Instant weed/lawn suppressor – You could dig it up but wouldn’t you rather get a head start by covering that pesky vegetation with sun-blocking cardboard first?

Animal carrier – With bedding in the bottom and holes for air, a sturdy cardboard box makes a great lightweight container for moving small animals. Whenever we have an injured duck, it’s easier for her to be transported in a box than to have to navigate the openings of a typical pet cage.

3. Sticks: Not Just for Poking

Over the years, I’ve collected scores of sticks in various lengths, widths and wood types. As a newbie, I figured that all sticks were equally durable but a few harsh summers and winters destroyed that fantasy. I still use the faded, split and splintered pieces of hardwood that I first bought for bean teepees and tomato stakes but this spring I graduated to long-lasting locust for what I hope will be the last veggie poles I ever need to purchase. Those locust stakes are now screwed into the sides of our cedar planters where they support our homemade poultry wire cage attached with (what else?!) hundreds of zip ties!

You can also use homesteading supplies like sticks for temporary fencing, trellising, keeping doors ajar for ventilation, digging holes and excavating hard-to-reach coop muck, securing string for edging, flagging objects underneath the heavy snow, hanging covers or shade cloth and many other uses I have yet to discover. Keep a range of weights from bamboo light to locust hefty and lengths up to the famed 10-foot pole. You can always trim to size as well as repurpose broken pieces for many years of service. Your farm dog will thank you for keeping an extra stick around the place, too!

4. The Never-Ending Straw Bale

Many articles, blog posts, and even a book have been written with straw bale gardening instructions extolling the virtues of the ordinary straw bale for small-scale vegetable gardening. I’m here to tell you about its special advantage for poultry owners as well. Every autumn before most folks have even finished their back-to-school shopping, I start scoping out the local farm stands, hoping to be the first to score as many straw bales as possible. Why? Straw (not hay, different item altogether) makes a fabulous slow-release fertilizer that when gathered into a bale (or pieces of a bale) forms the perfect container for next spring’s edible plants.

But that’s not all! My main reason for buying so many bales in the fall is to place them around the edges of the poultry pen for instant winter protection for the ducks. As the straw decays, the bales heat up. They get warm enough that you can feel it when sitting on them in the middle of a snowy yard. That means that not only do they block the sharp wind but they also add a little extra cozy to your coop.

In the spring, the bales will then resume their slow organic breakdown, inviting tasty worms, fungi, and other organisms to join the party. My ducks love to forage in between the bales, especially when the ground is still a bit hard for digging. Then, once the first brassica seedlings are ready to go, I either move the bales in one piece or, much easier, move them in slices to where I want to grow my vegetables that season. It takes all summer for most of the bale to feed the crops and if there’s any left, it goes on top of the harvested plots to protect the soil for next year’s planting.

5. Poultry Fencing

Whether you’re talking hexagonal opening (AKA poultry) or square (commonly known as hardware cloth), netting materials from heavy-duty metal to the lightweight fabric are common homesteading supplies that are enormously useful on any sub(urban) farm. Just like the sticks I can’t do without, I keep a wide selection of everything from raccoon resistant heavyweight wire with tiny 1/4 inch openings to plastic poultry netting, mostly useful to keep out ducks, not rodents. Here are some styles and uses.

Plastic hexagonal – Use this for temporary fencing or veggie cages for anything squirrels don’t like. (Rodents can chew holes in plastic.) It’s lightweight, inexpensive and easy to work with.

Metal hexagonal – Use this for veggie cages, temporary dome covers, aprons for cages where large varmints are a problem. It’s lightweight, inexpensive, and can usually be cut with scissors.

Plastic hardware cloth: Use this for all the same uses as hexagonal but it has smaller openings so it can be used as shade cloth. It’s easy to cut, but rodents can chew through.

Metal hardware cloth: Buy the one-inch and one-quarter-inch squares. Smaller opening hardware cloth for chicken coops is useful to protect sides of pens from raccoons. The larger openings in heavy gauge can be used for overnight accommodations when thoroughly secured and with at least an 18 inches of apron rim around the edge. The interior floor can be dug out and hardware cloth run underneath it as well. Wire-cutters are needed.

6. No-till Composting

Okay, so I realize this is heresy and it all depends on what you use and how you use it but I’ve stopped getting compost from a composter. What?! Yeah, it’s true. Partially it’s because I’m lazy, partially it’s because I never get enough compost from those fancy rotating set-ups to feed my huge vegetable habit. So, two years ago, I began directly tossing kitchen plant scraps (not meat, eggs, oil or cooked foods) into a new garden bed I had been trying to quick-start. In the fall, I then added some very weathered straw bale material and the next year, voila, super successful Brassica, and later that autumn out-of-control squash.

Last winter, I took it to the next level by choosing two off-the-ground planters and trying the same thing. Before the snow set in, I tossed a thin layer of veggie scraps onto the top of the soil and in the spring, gently turned them under, adding a little more potting soil to supplement what got lost in the previous season.

Take a look at the photos. The plants grown in the two no-till beds are going gangbusters. The compost-less beds, not so much. Are there other reasons? Sure. Each soil system is different but I think I can reasonably say that using a little veggie scrap without waiting for it to break down completely into crumbly compost is not a terrible way to get rid of your dinner trimmings. Do not go overboard, mind! You don’t want to create an anaerobic environment; you just want to protect the soil in the winter and add a little nutrient with very little work. 

7. Incredible, Bendable Wire

You would think I’d have learned from my experience with zip ties but no. I started with a couple of crop covers and eventually realized my farmer ambitions outstripped the coverage supply. I sought out an agriculturally rated material and serendipitously discovered handy heavy gauge wire that’s sold along with it. Johnny’s Seeds offers varying amounts, weights, and lengths so of course, I bought the largest box of the longest length (100 pieces may, in fact, be a lifetime supply for a quarter-acre property but contact me in a few decades and I’ll let you know!)

Like the practical wooden stick and other homesteading supplies, a bendable wire can be useful for building lightweight structures such as cages or domes to fit odd-shaped plants (think bush variety pumpkins) or for hanging objects, crafting doors or flaps, flagging items under snow, and, of course, holding crop covers, shade cloth and the like. Best of all, they are made of seriously long-lasting, reusable galvanized steel. Super easy to store, I tie them into bundles and stack in the garage. Who knew a common homesteading supply like a skinny piece of wire could be so useful? 

8. Strange Uses for Your 1990s Pantyhose

I’ll confess here that although I’m rather a fanatic about not using synthetic pesticides or fertilizers in my home or garden, my tomatoes do get some help from a store-bought friend. That said, there’s very little I won’t do to produce a bumper crop of pizza and pasta sauces. Among the weirder strategies I employ is a tip I gleaned from the classic reference tome, Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening by Louise Riotte. In that book, Riotte talks about how lightning adds nitrogen to the soil when it strikes the ground. This is not to say that I think you should go all Ben Franklin in your tomato patch. Riotte’s suggestion is a much milder and safer method of harnessing electricity by using pantyhose tied both to the plant’s stalk and also to a supporting structure, such as a tomato cage. The static electricity generated by this connection is said to promote a bumper crop. Your neighbors may look at you funny but I’ve blogged about this and used this method for several years and have raised many delicious fruits to show for it.

9. More Purposes for the All-Purpose Rubber Bowl 

You know ’em, you see ’em everywhere, you probably own a few of these plentiful homesteading supplies; the ubiquitous rubber pans that come in sizes from two quarts to fifteen gallons. These durable workhorses are indispensable for anyone raising small livestock. Great for food, water, bathing and carrying everything from eggs to straw and beyond.

My favorite rubber bowl hack, however, is the Instant Staircase. I guess you could really call it a coop hack since there are very few duck-specialized houses on the market. This means that to get a duck into a chicken coop you usually have to pick it up and place it inside because those cute little entry ladders are not well suited to waterfowl feet. I considered a wider, longer board but that would be heavy and unwieldy with no guarantee that the girls would want to “walk the plank.”

One cold day in February, I decided to use a couple of large rubber bowls instead. I picked each duck up and placed her on the secure surface then shooed her inside.  It took no more than two nights for the ducks to get the drill. Now I leave the coop door open each afternoon so the girls can go inside when they’re ready. Thank goodness for no-slip rubber!

Quick & Easy Tips Using Common Homesteading Supplies

Your store-bought crop covers seen better days? Tear off the material and reuse the hoops underneath with row cover cloth.

Don’t have room to store another trellis or bean cage? Make a teepee out of sticks and burlap string. At the end of the season, pull it apart for other uses.

Need an entry flap for a veggie cage? Cut a flap slightly larger than the opening and attach one side with zip ties. Reverse a few zip ties (the non-binding direction) and use those to close the flap. This will not keep out super-wily rodents but may slow them down a bit!

Tomatoes grow better fruit when they’re buzz-pollinated. Grow lots of bumblebee-friendly flowering plants near your tomato patch and get ready for the most delicious “love apples” ever.

What are some of your favorite hacks using common homesteading supplies?

9 Common Homesteading Supplies and Hacks was originally posted by All About Chickens

[wingedtyger]

In the Garden

New Post has been published on http://www.silversspace.com/2018/04/in-the-garden/

In the Garden

(If you listen to The Hidden Almanac, you should have done that in Rev. Mord’s voice…)

This is my second year of having a garden. It’s still in progress (we have a gazebo that’s being moved which should provide a lot more shade), but I’m going to ramble about it anyway.

I’m mostly using Square Foot Gardening, although I think the prescribed ratios for the soil are too heavy on vermiculite (you’re supposed to use 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 compost) so I used less this time. I’d like to use coco coir instead of peat moss, but it’s still too expensive and I can’t get it around here.

In the fake barrel is a 100s Sweet cherry tomato from last year. Two of the grow bags are peppers I saved as well, but I don’t know if they’re going to grow. They aren’t doing much. And the last big thing in a grow bag is an eggplant which has been flowering and has an eggplant going.

I’m not sure which variety it is – I saved too, but had to throw out one because of spider mites. F–ing spider mites. I’ve planted garlic (just from the grocery store) around stuff this year because it’s supposed to keep them away. It seem to be working.

I won the tomato behind the eggplant! It’s a Black Krim and I won it in a raffle at a garden show.

I get my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Kitazawa Seed. Kitazawa specializes in Asian vegetables and I get my burdock, cucumbers, and most of my eggplant from them. I really recommend the cucumbers – they’re Soarer, Hybrid and are citrusy and delicious.

Some of my plants, like the tomato in the barrel and the peppers, I’ve gotten from Lowes and Home Depot. (I also recommend that variety – very good tomatos and super productive).

I’ve already killed two sets of seeds, so this time I’m letting the plants get as big as they can in the pots (using a coco coir mix in the pots) before I transplant them. Most things have sprouted, but there are a few things that I think the seeds from last year are no good. I store them in the closet and, while in the winter it’s cold in there, in the summer it gets really hot. (At some point I’ll throw those seeds out).

Some of these seeds are more flowers to go in the bed next to the lemon tree.

I’ve also got a compost tumbler, which is mostly made up of coffee grounds and a small cabinet for my tools and pots.

The blue pots in the back bed are for the burdock. The variety I have has one foot long edible roots and by using the pots I don’t have to dig down very far to get it all. … The burdock is some I’ve killed twice.

The cucumbers are also in that bed, with a temporary shade, plus a tomato, peppers, and turnips. There’s supposed to be shiso and mitsuba parsley as well but… it died.

My most productive bed, so far has more turnips (the leafy corner), petunias, zinnias, sunflowers (the big row), two tomatoes (opposite corners – one isn’t doing well), and a struggling basil (in the far shadowed corner – I may need to move it).

And my shadiest? bed. I’m trying tomatillos this year and that’s in the green tomato cage in the back. There’s turnips on either side, although the one side isn’t doing well. I don’t remember if the other cage is a tomato or a pepper.

The eggshells have since been spread about to discourage pests. The pots beside it are tagetes lucida, aka Mexican Marigold or Mexican mint. It’s a marigold.

Besides the vegetable beds, I’ve also got a few pots on the side of the house across from my window. The big yellow pot is my roommates, along with the top row (she does succulents). The two succulents on the bottom are there temporarily until she can get the beds prepped (the yard is very much a work in progress) and she’s got a plumeria sprouting.

I’m probably going to end up moving the plant in the pale olive green pot in the foreground and putting in another Million Bells flower in a different color. It’s not doing great and I think it needs more room so it’ll go in a bed or something.

The petunia here is a new variety called Night Sky or something like that. In ideal conditions, the flowers are a deep purple with white spots so it looks like a galaxy. In less ideal conditions they turn white, but they turn back.

In the pots are more tagetes lucida, all of them saved from last year, and in the other grow bag is mint. Never put mint in the ground. I’ll be watching this to make sure it doesn’t escape. I have it for mojitos.

Recently, I hung the birdfeeder from my window to provide Cat TV. We have a film on all of our windows to keep heat out and you can’t see through them from the outside. Now, Heidi wakes me up before sunrise every morning to open the blinds so she can watch. …She hasn’t figured out that the birds aren’t going to show up that early.

And Spooky now sleeps on my bed all the time on “her” blanket (it’s my blanket and it’s super soft, but I can share. Also I spread it out for them because it keeps the cat hair off my bed).

We’ve only had a few types of birds show up – mostly house finches, chipping sparrows, and house sparrows. I love the variety of pink or orange on the house finches and I think house sparrows are very handsome.

house finch

lesser goldfinch – they’ve stopped coming to the feeder, but they’re in the lemon tree

chipping sparrows – these were the first ones to show up at the feeder

house sparrow

[banglacalling]

Crossing the Nullarbor, and beyond

Melbourne to Perth and Kalgoorlie, via the Nullabor

Friday 14  A few minor mishaps gave amusements to an otherwise hugely successful day.  Margaret couldn’t find my house and was going round in circles looking for it.  I managed to squirt tomato sauce over my clean shirt instead of the pasty I had for a morning snack.  Margaret panicked when she saw water dripping from under the bonnet of her car - only to be reassured by a kindly young man that it was from the air conditioner.  And we were almost reported to the New South Wales police for not paying for our petrol at a service station at Wentworth, where we stopped for lunch.  We both thought the other had paid, and it wasn’t until we were some kilometres down the road that we realised our mistake.  I found the manager looking at my photo on the CCTV screen and initiating paperwork for the police.  He was very relieved when I returned because he wasn’t looking forward to having to complete all the formalities.  We later considered the problem they might have had in extraditing us from Victoria!  So much for our Bonnie and Clyde run!  We drove the 840kms from Melbourne to Broken Hill in 8 hours and 20 minutes, with stops totaling 1 hour 40 minutes that included a quick visit to the Murray River at Wentworth.  We were able to avoid going though Mildura, thank to Apple Maps, and that probably saved us a lot of time.  

 Air b&b was welcoming and comfortable.  Sifted through a few things to do in Broken Hill, had a short rest, then headed off to the Palace Hotel for dinner.  We had to wait for over an hour for our order as the restaurant was busy -little else was open as it was Good Friday - but the meal was very good.  

 Saturday 15.  We had intended to make an early start to look at the sculpture park but both of us overslept so we had a leisurely start to the day.  Headed off to Silverton where the first silver/zinc mining occurred in the 1880s.  The population of the town was over 3000 at one time but is now less than 100.  We visited the gaol museum which had many mementos of times past.  At one time you could go by rail to Adelaide and Port Pirie and there was a box with tickets set out for different destinations.  There were many service clubs and fraternities - IOOOF, Masons etc.  Old washing machines and mangles which reminded me of my childhood.  Drove through Penrose park with a camping ground and it had caged peacocks, cockies, two sheep and a goat - we were repulsed by these and I wanted to let them free.  We drove to the Mundi Mundi Lookout and enjoyed the view - very desolate.  

 On our return to Broken Hill we called at the Pro Hart Gallery.  I’d never appreciated his art before, but the long (hour and a half) video - we watched about an hour of it - gave an excellent overview of his life, work and personality.  He painted thousands of paintings and was very versatile.  Lovely portrait of his wife, fascinated by insects, people, abstracts - in fact all kinds of life.  Devoted to his wife and five children.  Also a supporter of certain causes, including SIDs from which one of his grandchildren died.  Bought a book of photographs of people mentioning the streets they lived in.  Each person made a small comment about their own life or life in general, and it was a comment by a young woman, maybe in her thirties, carrying young, healthy dog that prompted me to buy it:  “One of the things I’ve learned through broken engagements and multiple dead dogs is that you just have to keep moving.  You can’t let heartbreak slow you down."

 Back to our temporary home for soup and a rest before heading out for an evening talk under the stars about how astrology developed into astronomy - a fall back talk because the forecast was for lots of cloud.  It was to have been a star-gazing evening with powerful binoculars but although the sky was too cloudy for us to see any stars for the first hour or so, gradually they began to peep through and we were able to look through a telescope at Jupiter - but I couldn’t make out any moons or rings, just a round bright circle.  Bought a star disk for the grandchildren, but as we were told the night sky should be clear tomorrow we think we’ll drive back to the Mundi Mundi lookout for some more stargazing.

  Sunday 16.  We got to the Living Desert Sculptures at 8.20, ten minutes before it its official opening time, but the gates were open and we drove to where the ranger was feeding kangaroos.  He feeds them most days but stops when the rain comes. They could be a bit fractious with each other, several of them aiming a good biff at one of his neighbours without provocation.  Many, if not all, had fringed ears. the result of fighting between themselves.  Not as though they had to compete for food - there was enough for everyone.  There were some aboriginal etchings along a short walkway but they were difficult to make out amongst the weathered rocks.  The Sculpture Park was created in 1993.  The 12 sculptures are moving and magnificent - men of many nationalities sculpted from huge rocks brought to the area from nearby, displaying fantastic imagination.  A horse, a bird, the rainbow serpent and motherhood were some of the themes.  

 After calling at home to put our washing in the machine we went to the Regional Art Gallery where there were three temporary exhibitions as well as their permanent collection which had quite an assortment of paintings, some by well known artists such as Nolan, Fred Williams, Pro Hart, of course, but the painting we both liked most was by Emily Kame Kngwarray, beautiful red/pink wild flowers  We explored a local park that we had passed when we had driven into the town of Friday.  There was a fountain with four tall jets of water, so refreshing in the generally arid landscape, both of the country and the town, which is built under the looming hill of overburden.  

 We returned to the MIndi Mundi Lookout at 5.45pm, just as the sun was beginning to set.  The area was full of sightseers, and a few remained with us after the sun had gone to watch the stars appear.  Armed with our star map we were able to locate several of the stars that we had had pointed out yesterday, and on our return to the town we watched as the moon hurriedly rose into the sky, suddenly appearing from behind a tree.

 Monday 17.  Fairly uneventful day.  Our drive to Kimba took about 6 hours, with a short lunch break at a great café at Orroroo where they sold lovely food and cards.  Arrived at the Olive Tree b&b soon after 4pm.  Good place to stay apart from their use of the most revolting air freshener that made me feel a bit nauseous. Walked round the small town, centre of wheat growing.  We had dinner at the local pub, run by an Indian family.  The Shell service station and restaurant were also staffed and probably run by Indian, this time Sikh.

��Tuesday 18 Drove a few kms out of town to look at the sculpture of Eyre.  Then got underway for our short (2 ½ hour) drive to Streaky Bay, stopping for coffee at a pleasant small town.  Spent the afternoon wandering round the jetty and foreshore and reading in the sunshine outside the motel room.  The Streaky Bay Hotel/Motel. We had to queue for a long time for our dinner because the restaurant was so full.  We didn’t sleep well with noise outside our room, and other motorists getting off to an early start.

Wednesday 19  Drove about 20 kms out of town to see the Whistling Rocks and Blow Hole. Beautiful scenery.  Then headed off for Ceduna, 110kms.  Drivers have almost always been good and helpful, apart from one huge caravan puller who we followed for a long distance the previous day and managed to get behind again today.  Luckily we found a place where we could pass quite easily on this occasion.  So far Margaret has done all the driving, which she enjoys.  I don’t! It was very overcast, getting more and more so as we reached Ceduna.  We were walking along the foreshore in the mid-afternoon where we say a storm approaching at great speed.  Although it passed quickly it brought the first of lots of rain, and the evening and overnight it was very wet.  Up to now the country has been very dry, and we’ve had bright blue skies until we reached Kimba.  The change in the weather will bring relief to the drought stricken country.

Thursday 20 to Friday 21.  We left Ceduna in the rain, and Margaret got soaked when she checked the tyres in the last service station we were to visit for a while. But a few minutes later we drove out of the rain and, although often cloudy, we had no more rain over the next few days. The countryside looked clean and bright and lots of green bushes and shrubs.  The Nullabor was named after the latin for no trees, but the second half of the journey gave a lie to this. Although there were few areas of dense or large trees there were often small, stunted ones.  We saw very little wild life, but there was one spectacular eagle sitting majestically on a tree overseeing the distribution of road kill, while a couple of dingos were close by. We turned back to take a photo and one of the dingos was quite unfazed by my taking his photo as he nonchalantly crossed the road in front of me.

The three lookouts over the ocean had magnificent views, particularly the first two.  We stopped off at the Nullabor and Cocklebiddy Roadhouses, both OK.  Meals were sized for the truckies.  Everyone we spoke to had tales to tell, particularly one truck driver at Nullabor who poured out his life story – a sad, lonely one. The road certainly attracts some characters, including one angry truckie that we came across a couple of times being abusive and demanding of the women behind the counters.  And an elderly man with the shortest of red shorts and a long white and scraggy beard who appeared oblivious to the stares that he attracted.  

 We called for a coffee break at Eucla Motel/Hotel.  There was the most beautiful garden and swimming pool – not that we stopped for a dip – but we hope to stop there on our return journey.  We also visited the old Telegraph station at Eucla, built close to the beach where the sand dunes are gradually burying it.  We stopped at the Head of the Bight Whale watching centre, just before the Nullabor Road House, and were told that the nearby sand dunes were moving at the rate of 11 metres a day.  Unfortunately we were too early for seeing the whales that migrate here every year for calving.

Saturday 22   Monday 24    We had an uneventful drive from Cocklebiddy to Esperance, stopping for lunch at Norseman. The Fraser Ranges are close to Norseman and the countryside is treed and pretty.  We called briefly at the Fraser Station where there is camping and you can explore the ranch and nearby countryside from there.  Our arrival at our air b&b at Esperance was something of a disappointment as we had to do a thorough clean of the kitchen before we felt able to cook, and had to request a clean shower curtain as the existing one was putrid.  We found out that the family of the young girl who had been killed a week ago had been living here when the accident happened and our hostess tried to imply that this was the reason that our unit hadn’t been cleaned well enough.  We didn’t buy that argument.

The beaches and seascapes around Esperance are stunning, and we have done some exploring. The Cape Le Grand National Park has some beautiful beaches, particularly Lucky Beach which has been awarded the prize for having the whitest beach in Australia.  It felt as though we were walking on firm salt. There is a caravan selling good coffee on the beach, and this, and the good camping facilities, attract a number of people.  Thistle Cove had a magnificent ‘whistling rock’ standing up high overlooking the beach.

On Sunday evening the local surfers held a ‘paddle out’ to remember the young girl who died.  It was a moving occasion, with lots of local people congregating to participate.  

 Tuesday 25.  Drove from Esperance to Denmark, a long drive.  All the roads we’ve driven along since leaving Melbourne have been in top condition apart from today, when there was a stretch of road of about 100kms from Ravensthorpe, where we stopped for coffee, that was pot-holed and crumbling away at the verges.  It was also narrow in places, and not easy to pass the one road train we came across. On the whole drivers have been careful and sensible but today there were a few who took stupid risks.

Arrived at Denmark’s Ocean Beach at around 3.30pm and after a short rest we walked towards the ocean beach. Our accommodation is very comfortable, clean, and tastefully furnished.  

[hochkompturei]

Organic Pest-Control Techniques

IV XX XXXVII

Here are the major types of products you can buy and how to use them to your best advantage.1. Floating Row Covers This translucent, white, porous polyester fabric acts as an insect barrier, while letting in up to 80 percent of the available light. You can buy either lightweight or heavyweight types—you’ll want to use the lighter one for controlling pests in summer, because it will keep out bugs without cooking your plants. The heavier reportedly traps more warmth and so is better for season extending.

The material is sold by the yard, generally in rolls 4 to 8 feet wide. You cut it to the length you need, then drape it over metal hoops, attach it to wooden supporting frames, wrap it around wire tomato cages, or simply lay it directly on your crops like a blanket. Important: You must secure the edges of the row cover with soil, U-shaped pins (either commercial or homemade ones crafted from wire coat hangers), boards, bricks, or rocks.

Use floating row covers as temporary barriers to get plants past critical stages, such as when they are seedlings or while the pest you are deterring is most active. Of course, you could keep the crop covered for its entire life span, although this isn’t a good option for crops that require insect pollination.

Pests controlled: Row covers are especially useful against mobile pests, including cabbage moths (imported cabbageworms), Colorado potato beetles, most aphids, Mexican bean beetles, flea beetles, squash bugs, and tomato hornworms. Combine row covers with crop rotation if you’re dealing with pests that overwinter in the soil.

Related: 14 Nontoxic Ways To Keep Pests Out

2. Pheromone Traps

Many insects produce powerful smells called pheromones that they use to lure the opposite sex. Scientists have duplicated several of these scents and used them to bait special traps for luring the target insect. But because these “sex” traps attract mostly male insects, they aren’t very effective controls. They’re useful as an early warning that a particular pest is moving into your area. When you find the first pests in your trap, you know it’s time to launch your control strategies, such as putting your row covers in position and applying Bacillus thuringiensis.

Pests monitored: Pheromone lures are available for diamondback moths and moths that produce armyworms, cabbage loopers, corn earworms, European corn borers, tomato pinworms, and cutworms.

3. Sticky Traps These traps—a rigid material of a particular color that’s coated with a sticky substance—are used to catch insects that are attracted to that color. To be effective, the traps must be clean and sticky. Also, use at least one trap (hung at plant height and close to the plant) every 3 to 5 feet.

You can buy packaged sticky traps or make them yourself. To make your own, use any rigid material of the right color (for colors, see below) or that you can spray paint. Cut the material to size (4 ✕ 6-inch rectangles are the standard), and if needed, paint it the correct color. Cover the trap with a plastic bag or clingy plastic wrap, then coat it with a sticky substance, such as Tangle-Trap. (The plastic wrap makes cleanup easy—when your trap is covered with bugs, just remove the plastic and rewrap the trap with a new piece of plastic. Then coat it with more sticky stuff.)

For cucumber beetles, use a mobile trap: Wrap clingy plastic food wrap around a white bucket or other large object, then coat the plastic with Tangle-Trap. Carry the bucket along the rows of vines, shaking and brushing the plants as you go. The beetles will fly up and stick to the traps.

Pests controlled: Yellow traps attract whiteflies, fruit flies, male winged scales, leafhoppers, fungus gnats, midges, male winged mealybugs and leafminers, thrips, psyllids, and winged aphids. White traps lure whiteflies, plant bugs, cucumber beetles, and flea beetles. Light blue traps attract flower thrips, and red spheres attract the flies whose eggs hatch into apple maggots.

Related: Make Your Own Natural Pest Spray

4. Insecticidal Soap Insecticidal soap contains unsaturated long-chain fatty acids (derived from animal fats) that dissolve the cuticle (skin) of insects. Insecticidal soap sprays are commercially formulated products sold specifically for insect control. (Don’t confuse these products with herbicidal soaps, which kill vegetation instead of insects, or household soaps, which are detergents.)

To be effective, the insecticidal soap must come in contact with the insects while it’s still liquid—it has no effect after it dries on the plants. Spray only on pests and try to avoid hitting beneficial insects with the spray. Caution: Insecticidal soap can burn some plant leaves. Test each type of plant before spraying the entire plant. Spray a few leaves, then wait 48 hours. If there’s no damage, go ahead and spray the entire plant. Don’t spray on hot days, and rinse the soap off your plants after a few hours if the plants are receiving a lot of sunshine. If you have hard water, mix the soap with distilled water to help the soap dissolve.

Pests controlled: Insecticidal soap sprays are highly effective against mites, aphids, whiteflies, and other soft-bodied insects as well as the softer nymph stages of some tough-bodied bugs.

5. Oil Sprays Oil sprays work by suffocating pests. To be effective, the oil spray must hit the pest directly.

Use “dormant” oils to kill insect pest eggs and disease spores on the bare branches of trees and shrubs during the dormant season. To treat growing plants, use a lighter-weight, more refined horticultural oil (called “summer,” “supreme,” or “superior” oil). Lighter oils evaporate more quickly than dormant oils and are less likely to damage plants.

To avoid plant damage, don’t spray any plants suffering from moisture stress. Also, don’t spray on very hot days. Test the spray on just a few leaves before you spray the entire plant. Wait 48 hours to make sure no leaf spotting or discoloration occurs.

To minimize potential harm to beneficial insects, limit your spraying to small areas where you can see pests lurking, and leave a couple of unsprayed “refuges” for any good bugs you can’t see. Protect nectar-feeding beneficials by not spraying during peak flowering times and by not spraying blossoms. Spray early in the morning, before bees become active. And if you plan to release beneficials, do it after you apply the oil spray.

Pests controlled: Use horticultural oils to combat aphids, mites, beetles, leaf miners, caterpillars, thrips, leafhoppers, and whiteflies.

Related: Do These 6 Things To Wipe Out Slugs + Snails

6. Bacillus Thuringiensis Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) is a naturally occurring bacterium found in the soil. There are many different types, and some can be used to kill a specific insect or class of insects. When a target insect takes a bite of a plant sprayed with the type of BT the insect is sensitive to, the insect gets infected and stops feeding. Inside the insect, the bacterium releases a protein that causes the pest to die within a few days.

Each type of BT is effective only on one specific insect (or group) and only on insects that actually eat it. However, that doesn’t mean you can spray it indiscriminately. For example, the type that kills cabbage loopers can also kill the caterpillars of the beautiful butterflies you’re trying to attract to your garden. Only spray it when you know you have a pest problem, and only spray the pest-infested plants.

Most formulations of this bacterium are sold as a liquid or wettable powder that you dilute with water and then spray on the plants you want to protect. Some products are sold in the form of dusts or granules that you dust directly on plants.

Because BT usually is effective only against the nonadult stage of pest insects, you must time applications carefully. As soon as you spot the pest larvae, thoroughly coat the affected plants with the spray or dust. (For corn pests, deposit a little of the granular product into the whorl or on the corn silk.) Avoid spraying during the heat of day. BT breaks down a day or two after spraying, so you may need to reapply it if you’re up against a severe infestation. As with all sprays or dusts, always wear goggles and a mask to prevent contact with the bacterium when you apply it to your plants (there have been a few reports of allergic reactions in those who have inhaled it).

Pests controlled: The most common strain of the bacterium—BT var. kurstaki (sometimes called BT var. berliner)—kills hundreds of different kinds of caterpillars, including cabbage loopers, tomato hornworms, cabbageworms, corn earworms, European corn borers, and squash vine borers. BT var. tenebrionis (a new name—until recently this one was called BT var. san diego) kills Colorado potato beetles.

7. Parasitic Nematodes Don’t confuse these beneficial nematodes with destructive root-knot nematodes. Once inside a pest, parasitic nematodes release bacteria that kills the insect host within a day or two. Although these good nematodes occur naturally in the soil, there usually aren’t enough of them in one place to control pests that have gotten out of hand in your garden. But you can buy them by the billions for use as a living—and organic, safe, and nontoxic—form of pest control.

The dormant nematodes are shipped in a moist medium, which you mix with water when you’re ready to apply. When you receive a shipment, put the sealed container in your refrigerator until you are ready to use it (the nematodes will keep there for about 4 months). Try to use them as soon as possible, though; their effectiveness declines the longer you store them. Once the nematodes are mixed with water for application, they are only viable for a very short time. Use all of the mix within a few hours—don’t try to save any of it.

Apply the nematodes to moist soil that has reached a temperature of at least 60°F, either in the evening or when it’s overcast, at a rate of about 23 million nematodes per 1,000 square feet. Thoroughly cover the area with the nematodes, then water them in. Exception: If your pest is in the plant (the squash vine borer or corn earworm), mix up a small batch of nematodes and use a garden syringe or eye-dropper to apply them just inside the tip of the ear of corn, or into the squash vine entrance holes.

Pests controlled: Nematodes attack and invade armyworms, corn earworms, squash vine borers, soil-dwelling grubs (including Japanese beetle larvae), weevils, root maggots, and cutworms (in their soil-dwelling stages)

[http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/organic-pest-control-techniques]