The Wild Life and Times of a Botanical Geek

--I have books! Lots o' books, actually. My family went to our favorite local independent book store to pick up Harry Potter, and it turned into a book-buying binge. My personal stash was a gardening FAQ which looked to be about twelve kinds of cool (and also will be a big help with the vegetables, I think), and a book called "A Great and Terrible Beauty", which looks like it features visions and secret societies and magic and corsets and high tea all in Victorian England. And *then*, since my brother was on a hunt for a book in particular, we went to B&N, wherein I got several little classic books, including "The Secret Garden" and the works of Edgar Allen Poe. The thing about all this is the fact that it's not like I'm looking for something to read. I have about twelve thousand books on my reading list, and this only extends it. And yet I cannot resist. Does that make me a bibliophile? Hm.

--Lots of stuff's been happening garden-wise. One of the female pumpkin flowers is starting to show potential signs of being knocked up--the ovary underneath is getting awfully big. I'm hopeful that this means we'll have at least one pumpkin, but we'll see. I may go ahead out there and take a Q-tip to the flower anyway, just to make sure it's been completely fertilized.

--Apparently the squirrels like purslane. Dad said he saw a squirrel gnawing on its flowers this morning, so he brought it closer to the house in hopes of discouraging them. I didn't realize squirrels would go for purslane. Then again, I've heard tell that it's edible, so.

--Last night's Doctor Who reminded me of one of the reasons why I love the show so--even the minor characters are people you want to know more about. Despite the fact that I think I may be one of the last people to see "Gridlock", I'll go ahead and post further thoughts under the cut.

( Cut! )

I also realized yesterday that when the opening theme comes on, I instinctively start grinning. I'm such a dork.

To sum up my day, it sucked royally. I spent the entire day sweating in the humid heat with a 90+ degree sun beating down on me, wrestling with hoses of various degrees and quality, both empty and full of water, and huge pipes and crappy connectors and trying to water a huge study. It took way longer than expected, enough that I had to work way late. I was covered in sweat and sunscreen and grime and some sort of bizarre grunge that I couldn't quite identify. I'm not sure I wanted to. But anyway, it was bad. My shoulder hurts and my hands are raw and I know I'm going to be stiff as all tomorrow.

But. I've washed the grime off, and the new season of Doctor Who is on, after I patiently waited for 7 months. It is delivering like you wouldn't believe. I'm dying of SQUEE.

All is right with the world again. <3

Thanks to the fact that after planting one of the studies we had a fair amount of bedding plants left, and because the prof wants to get rid of them, I came into possession of a few purslane plants today. They're very pretty--pale green succulent leaves with delicate flowers that are yellow in the center and blend into pink pink PINK. I'm not a huge lover of pink, but it goes so well with the yellow and the green, I can't help but like it. I think, since they're creepers, I'm gonna try and get them into a nice big pot so they can coalesce into one big pretty color mass. My only lamentation is that they're annuals. Foo.

While walking around with them today (as I got them kinda towards the middle of the day, and subsequently they had to accompany me on my journeys), I started having a strange thought: With the advent of trucks and other forms of transportation, and the fact that said trucks are used for transporting flowers, and simply the fact that people move flowers from one place to another, how do bees react to such an ocurrence?

I mean, I'm sure it's a very new thing to them to discover potential food sources moving around. Usually they're quite stationary. Are there rucukses in the hive? Are there discussions along the lines of "OMG the food stalks are moving they have learned the art of ambulation girls we must ADAPT. We must learn to herd the food stalks, thus preventing us from having to pick up and move our hive with them because DAMN that'd be heavy."

And how would a bee give a dance that would accurately describe a moving target? "Okay round dance NO WAIT waggle dance and it's north NO WAIT it's east and it's a mile away NO WAIT it's one and a half NO WAIT..." It would make for a very messy dance.

Although on the other hand, maybe the bee that was performing a dance describing moving flowers would cause her sisters to LAUGH at her and commit her to the bee sanatorium with padded hive cells. Hopefully her roommate wouldn't be the bee suggesting that the hive ditch the happy happy pollen collecting mindset and go carnivorous.

...this is what happens when I'm low on sleep.

OH. ALSO. ONE WEEK. ONNNNNE WEEEEEEEEEK.

Let's see, what's been going on with me...

--My brother graduated high school on Friday. I'm incredibly happy for him. ^_^ Especially since the school system 'round these parts is going to hell in a handbasket. They really need to stop raising the bar so high. Exit exams, senior projects, block scheduling, extra math classes--and they wonder why the dropout rate is increasing.

--I wore my TARDIS shirt today, which ended up getting noticed by a couple of people. I was tickled that there are some in the vicinity that actually got it.

--Did a bit of vegetable tending today, including pinching the latent buds on the tomatoes (as recommended by one of the people I work with to encourage them to flower) and rescuing one of the peppers from the pumpkins. Apparently, while I thought that by planting the pumpkins in front of them, they'd be inclined to move towards the light (and away from them), there was still a rogue tendril that found the pepper and decided it would make an excellent support. So that tendril got cut in a hurry. It also appears that the pumpkins are fixing to flower, which makes me happy. ^_^ It also makes me cringe slightly, because once my veggies start fruiting, the real battle against the insects (and other critters) will begin.

--Speaking of insects, though, I was happy to notice a honeybee buzzing about the thyme today. I'm hoping that means there's a hive somewhere nearby with happy, healthy, not-abandoning bees. ^_^ I've seen a lot of bumblebees around too (they love the salvia), which is nice, but that honeybee really made me smile.

--Okay sinuses, the storm from yesterday has passed through. The pressure in the air has equalized. You can stop hurting now. Don't make me get a headectomy.

Best moment at Animazement Friday:

One of the AMVs during the music video contest utilized the song "Breathe". During the AMV, a trend started in the audience and quickly spread whereby people used their electronic devices--cells, PDAs, Nintendo DS's, etc, as faux lighters.

Super Best Fun Limit Break for Extra Awesomeness: During all this, somebody a few rows ahead, who was cosplaying as the Fourth Doctor, lit up his sonic screwdriver and joined the fun. HEE. <3 <3 <3

Also, apparently the musical this year is about the trials and tribulations surrounding teaching English in Japan. Di, I'm going to be thinking of you the whole time. ^_^

Also also, hearsawho, there is currently a documentary on Animal Planet about developing an elephant herd, and featuring copious baby elephant antics. I think it's called "Growing Up Elephant" or something like that. I hope you will be able to catch it! <3

I'm making mushroom quiche! It's currently baking right now. I hope it'll turn out alright--I'm concerned the quiche filling might be a liiiittle too full for the pan, and I'll have Mt. Egguvius on my hands. Not to mention something about the idea of making quiche is somewhat intimidating to me. Not quite sure what. Either way, here's hoping for eggy and mushroomy goodness!

On a different note, in which we switch into fandom happiness, I've recently been going back with Eien-chan and watching season one of Dr. Who, since I didn't really get into the series until the beginning of season two. While I love my Tenth Doctor goodness, I'm starting to come to the conclusion that the first season has better stories overall. They seem a little more indepth to me, and have a tendency to be a little more involving. I saw "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances" yesterday, and it now ranks currently as my favorite story arc from the first season, and not just because of script hilarity ("Bananas are good!") and gas mask zombies.

"The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" is my favorite from the second season. It has some really wonderful moments between the Doctor and Rose, and there's also fun with religious references and Satan! And also, if there's ever an ep wherein I desperately wanted to see more of the supporting cast it was this one. I would love to see some stories about the crew before the Doctor and Rose came along. Or after, even.