Les Petites Choses

My bromeliad. I hang it next to the fence in the summer and just leave it next to the kitchen sink in the winter. It presumably gets all it needs from the air. I had assumed it was dead but suddenly these pink/blue flowers appeared.

Though the glass table above one can see my feet. I read the account of an early diarist whose first attempts of summarizing his life were to recount the facts of the day. He likened it to a home video concentrating on where the feet are going but one is left wondering where the head is at. And just where is my head these days? Well in a slightly better place than earlier in the week but due to privacy concerns, I will not elaborate.

I've been trying unsuccessfully to outsmart ants. I keep changing the complicated path they must follow to get at my hummingbird feeder. Up shepherd hooks, through 2 potted plants, crossing morning glory vines, down a chain holding a glass globe, down a hook, down a necklace to the mother lode: sugar water. This path is at least 10 feet. Just how do they sense the sugar swinging 6 feet above the ground? Trial and error and then they leave signals for their friends. This hadn't been a problem until this week. Changing how I hang the feeder slows them down somewhat but they regroup and find it again. Today I scrubbed all surfaces down in bicarb to neutralize their formic acid trails. This stopped the flow for about an hour: they must leave water insoluble phermone trails. Right now I seem to have stopped them by wrapping a chain with DEET impregnated towelettes: so far so good. But a new enemy has emerged: paper wasps. These aren't quite as bad as yellow jackets. You can swat them and they don't try to wreak revenge like yellow jackets. Their homes are easy to find so chemical warfare is coming.

Today is the first day of UM home  football games. The population of our town doubles and we have to time our comings and goings carefully in sync with the games. I am waiting for the game to begin so I can gather supplies for our Mom's group tonight. New guilty pleasure: fig butter. I will try to make something with it. Also it should be the last day of the intense heat. Since it was marginally cooler today, I went out for a while just in the shade of my neighborhood. I dripped sweat for an hour after stopping.