Random Wednesday - May 7, 2025

Random Things 

A park update!  I wasn't mistaken when I didn't see any restroom construction.  Park renovations are already taking longer than expected (when do any renovations not?), so they are going to open the park to the public later this month, and build the restroom this summer.  I sure hope they bring in port-a-potties!  A dog park, splash pad, pickleball court, basketball court, etc., as well as the existing playground equipment will draw in a lot more people than the old park did.  

I bought some potting soil and compost the other day.  I've not used this brand of potting soil (left) before.  I'm going to mix it with the compost (usual kind the trash company makes from our green waste).   I finally understand how the compost can be certified "organic" when it's from community waste.  It's the process and output.  If there are non-organic lawn clippings the composting process is long enough most synthetic chemicals are broken down.  Also, the heat of composting and microbes degrade pesticides.  If you wants to grow organic vegetables though, you need to buy products that undergo stricter requirements and are labeled "for organic use."  So, it's sort of organic? 

A crab spider on the right, and what identifies online as a Western Lynx spider.  Lynx spiders because they have cat like speed and agility catching their prey!  Both spiders are "sit-and-wait" hunting spiders, they ambush.

The SpinTop® Mango blanketflowers I bought just a few days have already grown.  I put them in larger pots, and will plant them in the front yard next week when the temperatures cool off.  It's upper 70s and low 80s this week.  I have some other things to transplant too, and one hates its roots up... well, uprooted.  Stays wilted for days, so I don't want to add heat to its struggle.  Some things just shouldn't be transplanted, but this one needed to be moved.

Baby Cat admiring the cat in the mirror.  The mirror is off the sidewalk down the street.  I found it the same day someone asked me to keep my eyes out for a mirror when I went to thrift store!   The cat in the mirror's name is Tacy Bab.

I donated my grandmother's china to St. Vincent de Paul.  My mother rarely used it, and I used it even less.  Let someone who appreciates it use it.  St. Vincent de Paul laid a pretty table with them!  I don't think I'd seen some of the pieces ever used.  Syracuse China, New York, the pattern is Oriental Gold (the trim is gold).

Since I collect salt and pepper shakers I notice them in the stores.  These were at WinCo, and I like that they were sold individually for summer fun!  You could pair up a hotdog with a chef's hat, or a grill with the hotdog, or a bald eagle for 4th of July (there were other patriotic types figures in another container, just not so cute).  I didn't buy any, I collect antique and vintage.