It’s spring up here in the Northern Hemisphere! With spring comes rains, if we’re lucky (sometimes too much rain, if we’re not lucky), and then flowers. Even in the city we find flowers in the oddest places, such as underneath a stairwell.
Even in the city, gardens and farms can grow. More and more cities are turning to CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) groups to repurpose land that once had houses on it. For the soil polluted by industry of the past, non-feed crops like switchgrass are grown for bioremediation and to provide raw materials for biofuels, all without pulling currently arable land out of production for foodstuffs.
So go put on another pot of coffee or tea and then come back and tell me: How does your garden grow?
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jus cogens!
DEZ
Good morning!
morning!
Must be that Linux thing that makes you so fast tw3k:>)
>:]
OT-MSNBC reporting that Ted Kennedy has been airlifted to hospital with undisclosed illness.
too late to plant veggies here in AZ….. will need to wait until fall but my herbs are growing like gangbusters……. have sage, greek oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil, tarragon and get this……. ginger root sprouts are coming up in the pot I planted them in….. woohoo…
On Topic…I don’t have a green thumb, but my forget-me-nots are just beautiful right now. I have failed at more plants than I can list but these babies just took off.
Yes, apparently with stroke-like symptoms. Good thoughts going his way!
Oooh! Nice!
I only have a balcony, so I’m limited in what I can grow. But I do have herbs and strawberries.
Here’s a digg for ya PW…
Talk about gardens… I think I now have all my veggies either in the ground or in BIG pots. Lots of tomatoes and Peppers( from sweet to Habanero) The tomatoes just love this heat we are having here in the bay area…. several have grown close to a foot in height in the last few days!!!
I have a spot in the community garden this year, so between there and my tiny backyard, I have corn, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, burgundy bush beans, zucchini, basil, cilantro, tomatillos, Anaheim chiles, and 10 tomato plants. Oh, and 2 pumpkin plants that are threatening to take over the world.
we put in tomatoes and marigold to gig the bugs yesterday and some zinnias. we have quite many herbs. and a few squash. we dont have much garden room, but we do have three stone fruit trees and three citrus and an avacodo.
very much wonderful bounty.
In answer to your question,
With silver bells and cockershells and pretty FDL maids all in a (numbered) row.
EG’s thread was a great, happy tears and lotsa hugs one to get me in a good mood. Now, the Mister just put on some Blue Grass and my toes are a tappin’.
The Teddy thing sounds pretty serious — especially because of the way it is being covered..
Teddy airlifted from Hyannis to Mass General.
Yummy! Heat is good for ‘maters, so long as there’s also water.
I belong to a CSA Sol Food Farms on the Occidental Ridge Sonoma County.
Another city taking a new approach to shrinking population is Youngstown Ohio
http://growyoungstown.org/
Yup — if it’s something Cape Cod can’t handle, it’s pretty serious.
Yes, that’s one of my links up top. Youngstown wisely decided to clean up what they had and live within their means.
I have these seeds that “someone” brought back from France about 4 years ago from a French Cavaillon (sp) melon that “someone” ate over there…anyway, I planted some 3 years ago and they grew like crazy, producing a bunch of melons…I saved those seeds, and I couldn’t get them to grow the last two years. A couple of weeks ago, I threw some of the seeds into my flower garden, and they are growing gangbusters…go figure…
boy will that news push the wingnuts into a spin……
Will search CSPAN for the video but watched a segment where Teddy was reading his children’s book about his dog going to congress to a gaggle of kids….. anyone could see he is great with kids, knows how to be a grandpa and has a heart the size of Mass….. actually bigger than that….. he talked to the kids and listened to each kid to asked him something….. Not talking AT but to….. sweetheart of a guy just seeing that…
i have been taking a break from 70 hour work week and busting @ss in the garden. Tearing the whole thing up, moved peony bushes last fall, and now am turning whole thing into 4 ft squares. Some is in partial shade and will put herbs there, and will build frames for tomatoes, cukes, (and zuchini? force me to pick before they are the size of battleships.) i need to keep a portion available for snapping turtle to lay her eggs. am going out there with pitchfork after putting in another load of laundry.
Good morning. Been in ye olde yard all morning….making it all purdy-like.
I am one of those people who by merely coming near a plant will cause it to fail. The only thing that I ever managed to grow was a pot plant back in the 70’s. Which the dog ate before it had a chance to get very far.
jus cogens!
I tried to grow one in a pot in a window back then too.
My mom came over – ack- and asked me what it was.
I told her it was mint. Ha!
Heh.
I didn’t know much about gardening before I met my wife. Now that we’ve got a house, I’m enjoying it more and more. Of course, we have a limited growing season here in MN.
funny! i had a pot plant in the closet w/ growlight, and every morning, when i opened the door to turn on the light, the cat would be there for any yellowed leaf i’d remove.
**sigh** back to work!
PW, love this thread. My “garden” here in the fog belt took two weeks of blaing sun pretty hard (and the lumber for the new deck and the debris from the rotting former deck didn’t make things better…). But this week is planting week….winds are finally bringing in cool air. This summer I get to find out if the “San Francisco’ tomatoes really bear fruit.
And Katherine, your CSA is in such a beuatiful place….just spent last week up at Oceansong on Coleman Valley Road. sigh. I think I’m love…with their gardens.
And OT: looks like Teddy Kennedy may have had a stroke. My thoughts go to him and the compound.
They are waiting for a statement on his condition from his office.
Ha, we are just now seeing signs of spring. Long, long, long winter.
I love the scilla called Siberian Squill. They are 4-6” tall with bright blue flowers. They show up early (for us northerners) and are blooming now. When they stop blooming, the whole plant starts to yellow & eventually disappear. If you plant enough of the bulbs in your lawn they make a bluish carpet. The beauty of that is that they have disappeared by the first time you have to mow.
The Arbor Day Foundation did a planting zone map in 2006 that shows a big change from the 1990’s due to warming. Plants are surviving & thriving further north. USA Today has an article with a nifty graphic to see how the zone map has changed. You drag the bar across the the map of original zone map & see the new Arbor Day zone changes. Sorry I haven’t learned how to link. The article is ”Warming Shifts Gardener’s Map” by Elizabeth Weise.
oops sorry. The Youngstown story fascinates me. Youngstown has had a terrible reputation for a variety of reasons and to see this idea taking hold and doing well is wonderful. There is lots of evidence that community gardens grow more than things to eat….even just planting in the media strips seems to make a difference.
Northern Ohio has one of the most successful fruit and vegetable grower/ wholesaler operations selling to restaurants nationwide. It would be amazing if after years of trying to bring back industrial jobs the growth area is farming.
Boston Globe reporting a stroke.
oh TEDDY hang in there!!!,we love you muchly
MASS GEN (Harvard) is prolly the best hospital in the country
what does that mean??
Good morning all. I have an herb garden in pots in front of the apartment. Face north. What else should I be considering?
What a beautiful place to stay.
By the way they also sell at the Sunday Sebastopol Farmer’s Market
http://solfoodfarm.org/
In my own garden, I am planting basil (cuz you never have enough), tomatoes-lemon boys and celebrity as well as brandywines, cucumbers and some form of broccoli and little pumpkins
Good morning OC!
I missed you downstairs. By the time you brought out the coffee, I had headed back to bed.
Hope all is well with you and your pups.
‘morning, demi! the pups are very, very good and cute as evah…
yourself?
Hi PW, and all! I’m sneaking a mo from work – to brag, cuz I have a little garden growing nicely on my front steps. I rent, and the big trees shade the whole place – great on the electric bill, not so good for veggies.
But this year I do have two hydrangeas, doing nicely so far, a lovely little blue-flowered plant whose name I’ve already forgotten, Italian parsley, basil, and chives.
Next week, the herb guy at the farmers market promises to have mint.
And, as the farmers market has opened, I now have eating tomatoes! They;’ll be a little better a little later, but right now, delish.
Love reading this thread – later – back to work!
What pups?
my 2 fully grown gigantic dog “pups”
;-)
this dfh thinks Teddy is the closest thing we have to a Lion in the Senate -
right around the time of the invasion caught him being interviewed by Moyers – and was stunned at his intellectual agility and recall as had always thought of him as the hail fellow well met type, certainly with influence but had no idea of his mental sharpness until then
Always plenty of water and the pots they are in are 10 gallon and so they hold the moisture right all this heat. I have one thats a hold over from last season (Sun Golds) and it is just taking off again… If you haven’t grown Sun Golds you just have to. These little ones never seem to make it into the house… pop one into your mouth and it says sweet and TOMATO boy oh boy they are just great!! We also have oregano. thyme, sweet and Thai basil, dill, chives soy beans, green beans, yellow squash, and Egg Plant… I think there is more but There are so many I can’t remember them all!!!
Well I have to go so you all have a great day and I will see you later here at THE LAKE:>)
I’ve learned lately that it is not a very good idea to hook all 160 pounds of the “puppies” together and try to walk them that way – seperate leashes = better.
turn your apartment around to face south
“Hyannis Fire Lt. Bill Rex told the AP a 911 call came in from the Kennedy compound at 8:19 a.m. EDT A male was transported to Cape Cod Hospital and was transferred by medflight at 10:10 a.m. from Barnstable Municipal Airport to Massachusetts General Hospital. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..co/kennedy
Whoever they are is handling this very very quickly, which of course with any sort of stroke symptoms is the right thing to do.
lol
I’m growing pot herbs in the beating son on on my terrace. They are the only thing that can take it. Most everything is in except the basil. Saving that till last because it’s a no brainer, and there are always tons of it at the farmers market.
Found gorgeous big spearmint plants and they aren’t thriving. Second time. I don’t get it, they’re supposed to be easy. There is a consensus here that tarragon will not thrive, so I’m trying mexican tarragon (not really tarragon, but supposed to taste like it if leaves are chopped), we’ll see. It’s blooming its heart out, form of marigold I understand.
The ones on the south side of my building are only 15 ft from the next building and get almost no sunshine, but thanks for the idea. Also, my AC bills are nearly reasonable since I face north.
last night I noticed he’s ranked 4th(?) most powerful senator.
I finally got my drip system working properly and my containers have never looked better. Everything is in bloom all over the SF Peninsula, everything!
Have any of you ever seen “living walls”? I want one! check out http://www.eltlivingwalls.com. It started with “greening” rooftops, but the walls can be grown in areas like city balconies, etc where there is little soil but you can still green it up. Pretty cool
Impatiens might grow well on the North side in a pot. They can’t take the TX sun and do well in the shade.
You know I really dislike his personal history (meaning his treatment of Joan, etc.) but have recently found him to be an incredible and much needed voice on the floor of the Senate. Maybe this moment is his destiny.
Just thinking out loud here.
Hi PW!
I doubt this is any help, but I’ll throw it out just in case. MN’s GOP governor Tim Pawlenty was in WI talking to Rethugs and they asked him about the veep job.
No one wants to talk much about the veep talk
I thought there might be an outside chance that MN Democrats could use his “day job,” comment to good effect.
Just came in from watering the yard. Um, have I told you all about my grapes? Last year, we harvested so many we didn’t know what to do with them. Gave away a ton. So far only the green ones are growing. Still small, about the size of very large peas, but there are lots and lots of them.
We live on the side of a hill in chapparel and when we first moved here, I drove around the ‘hood looking at what other people had going. Grapevines…
Why swim upstream. Trying to go with flow.
Hi Betsy. How was the evening? I slept in and am getting ready for my day of puttering in the yard, orchid house and fish tanks.
I noticed yesterday that as the sun is getting higher in the sky, your pots are almost in the sunshine. If you put some a little further out from the building they will get sun for a few hours. In the summer in Texas that is all most plants need.
Pawlenty doesn’t seem to be all that engaged with his “day Job”, imo.
Mrs Raven’s roses next to Raven’s memorial.
oh oh oh! I popped off before I read all comments. Didn’t know Kennedy suffered a stroke. I meant that his destiny could be standing up to neo-cons. Jeez. No offense intended at all by my bad timing of a comment.
That has such a soothing feeling about it. What a wonderful restful place.
That is beautiful. What a lovely thing to do.
The roses look fabulous. Do I see St. Francis lurking in there? I love mixing plants in with the metal sculpture things you have there. nice.
That is so beautiful Raven.
damn Raven, that is lovely
Great shot of a great place.
Can you share that other, closer up shot of the roses.
People will really go ahhhhhhhhhhh.
I did.
Purty please?
Last month’s flush of blooms. They’re spent now but a whole new round of buds are about to burst forth.
That was Belinda’s Dream. Resistant to things that bother roses, have never had to spray them with chemicals.
I have one of my favorite roses Cecile Brunner planted right next to the back door, because of the fragrance. In the morning it gives off the most wonderful peppery rose scent.
Even in the city we find flowers in the oddest places, such as underneath a stairwell.
Speaking of odd places, at the old beach house many years ago Mother planted a rose bush almost underneath the stairs leading to the upper living area. Over time, the root stock apparently took over the graft and it then produced both blood red and a lovely pink shade of blooms. (Never knew which was which.) Anyway, after I had neglected to do any pruning for several years, one branch grew up thru’ a slit in the deck boards of the landing and proceeded to throw a bud and bloom. It gave me the greatest pleasure for more than a week to see that silly rose blooming right up thru’ wooden boards….plants can teach the most interesting lessons. :-)
The old deck reached its last life and is slowly being replaced by a new one…….the builders have been threatened with dire consequences should care not be taken for the survival of that rose bush. *g*
Thank you Raven, for sharing that amazing corner of your world.
:)
I’ll bet!
Dang, wang.
Also awful purty.
(I’m talking like that ’cause I’m listening to Blue Grass. I know you like that pickin’ & grinnin’ stuff. I almost said sh*t. :)
Nice roses, Wangdang!
Hey, tolerates partial shade! I have a lot of that.
Mornin’, Gnome. I picked the wrong time to run to the store…
I lub that pickin’ and grinnin’ shit, too!
My “Iceberg” climbers have had a heck of a time with thrips…sigh. I think they’ve died down, but it turned all of the blooms and buds brown; plus they’ve got a case of blackspot…Ugh…What a mess.
Heh! Pawlenty’s pushing MnDOT to get the 35W bridge rebuilt before the RNC hits town in early September. But this means that, even with the new funding for roads and bridges and general transport from the gas tax and license fee hikes, other roads and bridges are suffering badly, especially in places with lots of Democratic legislators.
Grape pizza. It’s one of my typically healthy recipes.
Pie crust baked on a cookie sheet or pizza sheet.
One layer of vanilla pudding, one layer of fresh whipped cream, and topped with grapes! (or whichever fruit!)
For a healthy variation, chocolate pizza. (Chocolate pudding and grated Hershey bar on top!)
Stunning, Raven!
figures.
My hubby commented with dismay on the china earthquake damaging schools and not government buildings. Catching on to the fact that the same thing “could” happen here if “our priorities get messed up”.
Now don’t be too ####### Mr. Dosido. He’s a hardworking dude and I’ve been bringing him along slowly. He has admitted that if he acknowledged how bad it is, he would become too overwhelmed.
Saved to my desktop, ’cause it’ll be fall before I harvest, and I’ll fergit.
Thanks. You have the coolest recipes, Loo.
…don’t forget the Zubaz!
But there’s this feign of an attempt to get “tough on bridges”. Apparently, it took 13 dead and over 100 injured to alert MNDOT to that problem.
Kennedy may be okay…was awake
I know the feeling, get it myself. Sometimes I just have to tune it all out and take a sanity break. Usually in the garden. Imagine that!
Yeah, we’ve got thrips this year, too. Even my friends with the professional orchid house are suffering. I just sprayed the other night with cinnamon oil to see if that would get rid of the pesky little buggers. I only sprayed where it is the worst, because I do have lots of lady bugs helping me out and I don’t want to hurt them.
OOOOH, gardens! At some point I’ll get it enough together to post pix, but I’ve got tomatoes, 2 kinds of peppers, Swiss chard, the lettuces and mesclun which are about to bolt, rosemary, thyme, dill, oregano, sage, parsley and asparagus as far as things to eat, with 2 different varieties of eggplant waiting to be planted (just got them this morning). The jasmine along the side and back fences is still blooming, the hydrangeas have buds, and I’m about to replace the pansies that are gasping their last in the beginning of the heat with moss roses. The 8 different coleus varieties are doing well, and 2 dahlias came back as a surprise from 2 years ago. My first experiment with gerbera daisies is doing well so far, and the rose mallows are growing. You’d be surprised what you can fit into 1/4 acre with a house on it!
Sigh…Zone 5…I’m waiting for Siberian Roses..
hmm, perhaps what he had was a TIA.
Interesting that Obama has issued a statement regarding Kennedy, but not Clinton.
What’s TIA, Toby?
We are participating in a sustainable gardening program through the University of Kentucky. It’s organic and we just received our first produce yesterday. Mostly lettuce, green and asparagus but they were delicious.
Transient ischemic attack.
Really fresh, organic lettuces are completely different from anything that you’ll ever find in the supermarket, aren’t they? When I picked my first leaves I simply couldn’t believe how good they were.
I didn’t know that Nancy Pelosi is in Iraq.
I yanked off all of the blooms and then when the new buds were opening I sprayed a shot into each one. Seemed to work for awhile. I’m not going to fight them…I worry about the other bugs and birds too…they seem to have died down a bit. I found a spider web with a little green mother spider and a bunch of spider babies on one of the roses…I left them alone, because I’m hoping they like to eat thrips. Now, if they eat the roses…they’ll have to move :)
beautiful!
So far as I know all spiders are carnivores (bugivores?). I have gone to a fair amount of trouble not to disturb webs when I see them, rooting for spiders!
Oh, wow! Just WOW! I’m in awe…
probably Clinton is waiting on more solid news… something official.
Insectivores !
Thanks Betsy, Marion. I suck at roses, Belinda’s Dream is the only one I’ve had success with. But I am branching out, so to speak, and trying some climbers. So far, so good.
It is amazing how Mother Nature evens things out. I figure I’m just going to observe.
[head meets desk] Duh… Of course! Brain fart…
Has anyone ever grown New Zealand spinach? It’s a new thing for me this season. Not really spinach, but tastes alot like it and loves hot weather.
Betsy – from south of you — LOL!
I liked bugivore :)
Tonigt we meet by the Inlet to the Bay to say farewell to a friend who drank himself to death. He was an affable and creative person isolated from his family he left his 9 year old dog who loved each other His ex has his pup she rescues animals so has a passle of crits for him to pack with. His liver was gone. He was found on the floor by his bed.
My garden is my best friend. I save my laundry water and make compast tea. I am still growing soil bacteria giving them time in my 3 new raised beds on piers. I love recyling my grey waters through compost tea. I seeded red worms two weeks ago and have them in the compost bin. When the cool weather comes their will be a cold frame to enclose them.
I have met other new neighbors that are wonderful gardeners. They are planning to make rain barrels and similar gretwater treatment systems. We are all organic.
Understanding bacteria’s roll is one of the keys to a healthy planet. It is the part of the system that cleans and rejuvenats. You can make compost tea easily. It is good for cleaning your drains and septics. I reuse my shower water to flush my toilet. Flushing uses a lor of water. Your sink water is a source of nutrients. You can save water bt having a cover over the soil and subsurface drip irrigation. Slow down. Gardening is the greatest. Once the soils are pregnant with fungi and microrhizzae the plants are in their happy home and love giving back to you. I have gorrilla hair under the planters to discourage weeds. I will cover the beds with last years straw. The subsurface drip line is fed by a 5 gallon container of laundry waterwith organic soap. The chlorine is long evaporated that e with the domestic water so it does not kill the bacteria.
Since the correct bacteria are dominant the pathogenic kind won’t be hanging out in my garden. It is a beautiful thing to understand caring for our mother earth. Good values. All the “wastes” are recycled by the friendly bacteria aerated by a $20.00 fish tank aerator with fine bubble stones. The bacteria divide every 1/2 hour as long as here is food a oxygen. Nature is great. All my hoses recycled throw aways. Nothing is wasted. Much energy is saved. Much water is saved as is the cost to treat and pump it. Work smarter live better go green!
Follow-up, not a sequel, to Fahrenheit 9/11.
OK. Enough of this garden talk. I am off to do the real thing! See you guys this evening.
Bye gnome.
((((bigbrother))))
Poetically put!
Sorry, my computer flipped out on me this morning. Couldn’t make my way back.
Hope Kennedy will be okay. Take care. ll
When my father had them, years ago, they did not take them seriously — now, they realize that a stroke is a stroke..the damage can be bad, so they rush people in for treatment immediately, which it looks as if they did with Sen. Kennedy.
How lucky you are to be able to use your gray water. It’s against the law here in Georgia, despite our drought conditions. Can we all spell “STOOPID?”
SAme here, but it’s only illegal if you get caught. I’ve contemplated doing it with the watering can…
CNN: Family members guardedly optimistic that he is doing better and will make a full recovery.
I thought W was moving to Dallas after January 20, 2009 (does anyone know the exact time???) He won’t need the faux ranch any more.
Clinton taking a subdued tone, Old Coastie.
I need to motivate, too. Another georgeous day in Central Texas, too nice to be inside.
Hope we have many more of these gardening threads this summer.
I thought he was headed to Paraguay, to sit on top of one of the largest fresh water aquifers in the Southern Hemisphere.
I read Dallas too. New president in Paraguay…teehee!
I don’t think anyone in this administration sleeps well these days.
Yes, and I have just recently learned that not hospital ERs are equal when receiving stroke patients. At least locally here in the Bay Area, some hospitals are better able to treat stroke immediately than some others and this is a big deal because an ambulance driver may take you to the wrong hospital.
If you have a loved one who is at risk for stroke, it pays to find out ahead of time which facility is better able to treat it and direct the driver accordingly.
Are there warning signs that you are at risk for a stroke? Never heard of any but would really like to know.
Hey wangdang,
I really enjoyed the photos on TexBetsy’s gallery of your meetup. Looks like a friendly group. :)
Check this out.
From American Heart Assn.
Sorry. I thought you meant that there were signs that you COULD have one, not that you WERE having one. Thanks for the info, though.
2008 Cherry Blossom Timelapse from Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-6dQvOSYmI
Marion, I owe you a coke or something….
More on stroke risk factors here.
This may be more along the lines of what you’re looking for.
Now I owe you one!
Sorry, I saw the symptoms of stroke info first, then the risks later. see the linky at 135.
LOL. My computer is so dang slow this might be the first time I beat someone. funny we found the exact same stuff.
Hope it helps someone!
And I owe you both – thanks Dosido and Marion. Someone at the Lake always has answers. Thanks
SO true. My aunt had a stroke in Long Beach, CA last year – her partner drove her to the local hospital. I tried very hard to get her transferred to another hospital in the same system that advertised itself as a “stroke center”. I ended up speaking with the neurology attending who covered both the hospital my aunt was in and the one that advertised itself as a “stoke center”. He said that, frankly, the purported “stoke center” designation for the hospital was “mainly a marketing thing”.
Particular message: if you have a stroke in Orange County, CA and can get to Hoag or UC Irvine, do. I’d choose these over St. Mary’s Medical Center (and I would discourage loved ones from using that or any other Catholic Healthcare West facility for complex medical problems if one of the UC Med Centers, wealthy hospitals like Hoag/Cedars Sinai/CPMC, or major private med school hospitals like Stanford are in the area.)
General message: Major academic med centers (medical schools) are far more likely to have interventional radioloigsts and neurosurgery teams on standby than are smaller hospitals – even well-run smaller hospitals.
In LA, I’d hope anyone with a TIA/stroke could get to UCLA or Cedars.
In SF, I’d try to get to UCSF or CPMC.
You’re more than welcome. And you’re right about the pups here — whatever question I’ve ever asked, no matter how obtuse or boneheaded, I’ve always gotten a helpful, informative answer.
Once grey water is treated with aerated compost tea in a barrel it is no longer grey water it becomes compost tea. That is an important step as good bacteria will release soil nutrients for the plant roots. In my case it never hits the ground as my plantars are raised beds lined with 6 mil plastic, drined with rock bed by a 3″ perforated pipe into a bowl if I over water which is unlikey as no hose water is used in my system. I think it is legal to do that anywhere. Dumping greywater in the soil may clog the pores. Look up Jonathan Todd’s site he uses plant to treat sewage. Search for compost tea and soil bateria and discover a new world of biological wonder. Root zone application should be legal as it is in California called “Zero Discharge”.
Yep. Better than Google or Wiki.
UCLA did not do right by my Dad when we rushed him there with his stroke. It was Christmas Eve several years ago. A bad night to need a hospital staff to be extra on-point I guess. We had to launch an investigation the mistakes were so heartbreaking. Hospital circled their wagons well.
You’re very welcome Twain. Fortunately I found out very serendipitously and not the hard way as Kirk describes. I was in FDL/cspan mode looking for the right numbered channel on the TV. Instead, I found myself looking at a friend and fellow parent from my kids’ school who works in the medical administration field. She was talking to our local government about this very issue. It was quite by happenstance.
Of course I told her good job and revealed what a political geek i am! She was amused that I caught it.
Thanks for the information. I’ve got a rain barrel, but I’d love to stop wasting the other “almost clean” water that goes down the drain.
(((Libby)))
I’m so sorry to hear that.
Talk about getting out of Dodge! Paraguay. Sending daughter to do a reconnaisance mission. Wow… do you think even Bush is smelling justice ahead? I heard the House has the power to send a Sgt. at Arms to fetch Rove if he is in contempt one more time, and there is a special space in the House basement to hold him till he testifies.
Our first tomato of the year will probably be ready to eat tomorrow! We’ve been eating our lettuce and arugula (liberals) but it’s rapidly going to seed now. With the price of tomatoes this year and my kids’ penchant for snarfing them down, we should be saving some money and enjoying much better tasting fruit this year, yay!
I’m sorry to hear that, too, Libby.
Nothing excuses hospital failures – and I don’t seek to. I have learned that for non-emergent situations, many health professionals will schedule elective procedures/care in to avoid:
Thanksgiving through the beginning of January…
and for teaching hospitals:
June through beginnning of August
Oh yes. I’m so sorry you had to got through that.
I’ve been there myself. Not only at the convalescent hospital but at the real hospital a week before he died.
One thing, and not the only thing, we learn is that we have to Self Advocate.
Fight on dogs.
Oh, man! The image of KKKarl cooling his heels in a basement jail cell is just to schadenfreudelicious for words! Of course, the new President of Paraguay won’t see eye-to-eye with W, so that bolt hole may be closing…
Thanks, dosido!
Since then I have heard more and more horror stories about hospitals. After my Dad had passed on I wanted to talk to the Hospital administrator. I had kept an accounting of so many jerk-arounds and mistakes. The administrator’s secretary refused to tell me even where his office was in the building. I was dumbfounded. I was not hysterical. I wanted to seriously communicate … and “they” don’t know how far it goes just to look someone in the eye and express regret for the grieving family.
Sounds a lot like the Bush adm.
My first arugula plant bolted about 3 days ago, and the rest are sure to follow. Some of the leaf lettuces are holding on, but it’s going to be a matter of days before they all go too. I’m nowhere near ripe tomatoes yet, but I’ve got lots of green fruits on our 4 plants, and green bell and Anaheim peppers growing like crazy. The eggplants go into the ground today.
wow. I knew about the paraguay land but not that Jenna went down there etc.
If Don Siegelman cannot leave his state, I don’t think the prez should be going anywhere. And who knows? maybe his visit to SA was really about safe haven with buddy Dick in nearby Dubai. sick.
Thanks, kirk, dosido and demi. I ended up trying to fight the good fight, I wasn’t even suing, from 3000 miles away. The hospital was so uncooperative, the government agency investigating had to fax me a driver’s license picture of the possible male nurse who was chiefly involved because the hospital wouldn’t tell the state investigator who was on duty that night. What was with that? I went the distance and maybe raised some consciousness in my Dad’s name at least.
Well, they see someone like you with a big tattoo on her forehead saying “LAWSUIT” and they run.
I face the same situation in a different context I won’t bore you with. If they would just deal with us as human beings we wouldn’t get so mad.
For a group of creatures who lack locomotion, leafy greens’ capacity for “bolting” has aways seemed like cheating.
Dubai sounds like the haven for the super-rich these days. Super-rich Iraq war profiteers in particular.
Wow. good work libby just for pushing the ball forward some. the organizations really can’t accept that maybe someone just wants to make something better, because then that would mean they did something “wrong”.
Thanks. After so much time, the support means a lot now. I am sorry you had to go through it. That Dorothy Parker line about “What fresh hell is this?” so applies. You are in shock from one indignity and then several more get heaped on.
You funny! One thing I have learned is to try to NEVER let a basil plant go to seed… They’re now everywhere, popping up 30 or 40 feet away from where the nearest plant was last year. It’s a good thing they’re delicious when they’re babies!
Love dorothy parker. back on topic
-DP
Libby, good for you for being there for your dad. I so regret his suffering – and I regret the poor treatment you experienced.
On the teams I served with at UCLA, we acknowledged even fatal errors, and attempted to always sit down and look people in the eye when there was a problem. TO me and the folks I worked with, that’s just part of being human: acknowledging both our fraility and the suffering of those we were attempting to serve.
Although we didn’t do it for this reason, turns out that acknowledging obvious error – and sincerely expressing regret for “bad outcomes” irrespective of cause – actually decreases the likelihood of lawsuits. I never understood the outside “risk manangements” who floated into non-academic hospitals I was in and exhorted people not to admit error or apologize – and I despised them.
I’m really sorry to hear of your experience. Academic med centers are huge communities, in which different teams have very differing cultures and values. I wish the values I experienced in the teams I served there had been manifest in the people you encountered – sady, it sounds as if they were not.
Sorry demi for your loss, too.
Kirk! Ha! I find that you sometimes seem so pendantic. Maybe that’s the wrong word, but we’re talking leafy greens here.
To each his or her own way of Communicating here.
Gopher it. That’s my language. And, make no mistake, I have the capacity to comment here as if I’m writing a thesis. *g*
Yeah, that’s me being passive-aggressive.
Hey guys, this just in
Protests at Boalt Hall graduation
Thanks, Kirk. Knowing you were a part of UCLA and have such altruism helps take some of the sting away from that memory and makes me demonize the place less. We strained to get him there because of its rep. Thanks so much for sharing that perspective. Serendepitous timing!
I thought I had heard all the Parkerisms. Well, you certainly brought the topics together with that one. Did you ever write for Seinfeld?
The rest of us out here are grateful for docs like you. At the teaching hospital where I work, which is also a Level 3 trauma center, slowly over the last 10 years or so they’ve come to realize that not only being honest but also just caring helps.
My docs have privileges at the other 2 hospitals in town (they’re affiliated) and imagine my horror when they received memos from the head of that group (which, by the way, contains a Catholic-founded hospital and still bangs away on that drum) that reminded doctors to take the time to talk with bereaved families. Apparently more than once the attending physician hadn’t bothered to talk to the family after a patient had died. Cripes…
Good for them.
I love the last bit… the faux prisoners then left their cage and went for coffee.
Hi PW and pups.
Just got back from our local recycling center, and dived straight to gardening, since rain is expected.
Since we’re moving some time next year(TBA), our veg. garden is reduced some this year – no canning, and not much freezing planned, and lots of pre-moving chores to accomplish, of course.
Since, therefore, the veggies don’t take up as much space as usual, I’m using the extra corners and patches to set aside starter-hunks of my favorite wildflowers that we’ve been working into our landscape over the years. They’ll thrive in the nice pliable soil, and be easy to dig up for a gentle move to our new place. Of course, we’re leaving most behind here, for the new owners to enjoy.
Anyone out there who contemplates a move to N. E. Ohio late spring/early summer next year – please keep our little spot of heaven-on-earth in mind. We have loved this place and tried to spend our 35 yrs here encouraging the wildlife and prairie plants all around the edges, and 6 of its 8 acres are in natural beech/maple woods, with lots of “volunteer” wildflowers. A huge variety of wild birds live, nest, feed on the property, and they are surprisingly tame after such a long time of close companionship with our family. Oh, did I mention?, a conservation easement helps keep the woods and environs safe and untrammeled, and helps lower the tax rate, as well as maintain the quiet haven atmosphere, even though we have easy access to Cleveland and Akron.
apologies for the sales pitch. feelings are genuine, however.
it’s a great place to live.
kirk – did you get any info on the LB Memorial chain? we’re close to Saddleback and Mission hospitals down here… I know Hoag is supposed to be pretty good but it is far… OldMother is 88 and I worry.
Hee-hee.
They’ll be baaack!
from the actagainstorture email about inviting folks to the protest:
Gotta go. It’s been real. Truly.
“We want to see him fired and disbarred for being a war criminal,” said Anne Weills, an Oakland attorney representing the National Lawyers Guild. “Academic freedom stops when you intend to harm or injure somebody.”
Thank goodness for the NLG.
Bye, loved chatting with you.
We’re a snarky bunch, too! :)
Whew, startin’ to get a little warm out there. Time for some homemade lime-ade.
Old Coastie, I’m ignorant of specifics re that chain.
IN general, the most sophisticated resources are at the richest hospitals (like Hoag) and the med school hospitals (like UC Irvine).
Of course, all hospitals can (and do) suffer catastrophic errors -a nd health care errors are a significant casue of death in the US.
To assess whether a certain hospital chain is or isn’t ideal to meet the needs of a loved one who has a doc, a whole bunch of variables come in:
Where does the loved one’s doc have admitting priviliges?
What are the significant diagnoses the loved one may have? What are the most likely catastrophic consequences? Which local majot med centers have the deepest resources to deal with those consequences?
Sorry to leave you with more questions than answers….
Pesto!
Marion, thanks for your kindness – and bless you and the docs you work with for simply knowing what the administrators have taken so long to catch up with….
Sounds like the patients you serve are lucky to have you.
Yep, and that oh-so-simple but oh-so-delicious salad of sliced tomatoes, slice mozzarella, a chiffonade of basil, sea salt and the best olive oil you can get your hands on. I’m drooling already!
I’m so proud of my docs I could just about burst. As an example of what they’ve been doing, here’s an example of what they’re working to bring about. ICOT is going on now, for 2 weeks.
Genovese salad, mmmmmmm. Don’t forget the balsamic vinegar!
Someone’s hungry, better go feed him….
Wow, Marion – good on your docs!
I’m working on three gardens right now. Around the house we pretty much let everything grow wild–volunteer passion fruit vines are working on engulfing the garage and bottlebrush trees, our cactii are doing nicely–especially the San Pedro. Our roses have all lost their petals, though, and working on rose hips. My wife spends more time than I at one of the Long Beach community gardens–but it’s too damn hot to do anything today. But I’m most proud of my classroom garden. I’m a special ed teacher at a special school, and we just reopened our garden space after a couple of years of neglect. Right now my plot has tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, peas and sorrel. My watermelon seedlings all died though, so I just planted beet seeds. Still, the main thing is that some of my students enjoy hitting weeds with sticks, watering randomly, and digging holes in other people’s plots. And we’ve gotten some community assistance–one of our staff has asked his church group to come by and dig weeds, and we’ve gotten plants and money to by supplies from Descanso Gardens and from the Network for a Healthy California.
Dr. Goldsmith and Dr. Graham started ICOT (the International Center for Otologic Training) in 1995 and the only continent we’ve never had a student from is Antarctica. They spend 2 intense weeks of temporal bone work and lectures, and most go home to spread that knowledge by teaching in their countries. Chip Goldsmith is also working on a new cochlear implant that may lower the cost by 3/4. As I said, I’m so proud to work for him that I could squeal.
That is really wonderful!
I’ll bet you do take special pride in your classroom garden. (I’ll confess that I’ve been known to hit the odd weed with a stick myself!) I’ve worked a bit with adults with Down syndrome and the sense of pride and accomplishment they have in their achievements is a delight to see. My sadness was in that too few people realized how much these folks could do, and do very well. 3 cheers for you, your gardens and your gardeners from Savannah.