Thunderstorms of all kinds

Over the past couple of weeks, we've had some fantastic thunderstorms. The kind that shake buildings, trigger car alarms, and make your cat sleep on your head. Personally, I prefer thunderstorms to the steady, constant, flooding rain we had in March. And they demonstrate that we are small in comparison to nature and the rest of the universe. It's like nature saying, "Go ahead and built your 1000 ft skyscrapers and ski resorts in the desert. I can strike you down in an instant."

Thunderstorms bring rain, something called micro-bursts, and even mini-tornadoes. But since they haven't resulted in flooding, it's good for the garden. And the garden apparently has been feeling good over the past couple of weeks. Within 7 days of planting them, the pumpkins and the sunflowers have already sprouted. Apparently, I failed to mention that the Good Mr. Dr. has also planted nasturtiums, which have also started to showing their little heads. It's been two weeks of glorious sprouting.

The Asiatic Lily

The rose bush had to be cut back dramatically. But the marigolds and the wild mint are doing really well.

A really happy geranium.

It turns out that the pumpkin seeds should have been planted with a bit more distance in each mound than we did. However, seeds in two mounds have decided to sprout slightly outside of the mound.

Sunflowers, marigolds, and weeds

I continue in my quest to control the rose vines, which seems to reaching a plateau at the moment. No epic battles this week. But I did do some serious grape vine control. You have to make sure that the leaves are able to get sun, and you have to also control the budding grape bunches. For table grapes (sorry, no wine grapes this year), you are supposed to keep it to one bunch for every 12 inches or so. I don't think we'll have too much problem with that.

Grape vines that are being strapped in to get them to grow in the right direction.

One potential grape bunch.

We celebrated the progress in our garden, the start of summer, and honored those who serve in military by inaugurating our BBQ.

First BBQ of the summer.

Steak tips, corn, fruit salad, and beer. Life is good.

The neighbor's cat Smokey joined us. Those of you who were here last year during the big housewarming and graduation party should remember Smokey for his attempt to run into the basement in his search for someone who would give him food.

We managed to resist him, although he did sneak a lick of our plates when we got up to look at something in the back of the garden. You can tell he is not a starving feral cat.

There were also political thunderstorms this past week in Massachusetts. Our state senate passed a blatantly anti-immigrant (and ineffective and costly) amendment to the state budget in a middle-of-the-night backroom deal with the senate president. Suffice to say, I was quite angry and shot off letters of admonition to my senator who voted for it (the coward) and to another senator who I know and work with who voted against it (because she's a right-thinking person). I and several neighbors also attended a rally to protest this amendment, to demand that it be removed from the budget, and to show solidarity with those fighting the even more egregious anti-immigrant/ anti-Latino Arizona laws.

Continuing the tradition of fighting for justice at the Boston Common.

Rallies aside, I still have work to do, so I headed across the Boston Common to get to the Boston Public Library. Two of my neighbors and their kids walked in the same direction when we came upon this:

Each flag represents a Massachusetts resident who lost their life fighting in all wars through the current one.

East Boston kids who joined us for the rally pose with a Navy Captain (that's what he said he was).

In other news, we received notice that the Good Mr. Dr., in addition to receiving tenure, has also been promoted to Associate Professor. Round of applause to him. (clap-clap-clap-clap-woo-hoo!)

In even bigger news, I found my long-lost childhood best friend. She is married, a nurse, has two kids, and all is well with them.

Finally, happy 6th anniversary of legally recognized union to my friends C&B in Natick. I hope that one day, your anniversary is only important as a testament to your commitment to each other, and not as a sign of social progress.