baloghblog

Via Greenthinkers:



Highlights -

Diane Saywer: "...Is your pole thinning?"

Black: "It's a shame cars don't run on cognitive dissonance."

While perusing the farmer's market last fall, and buying some garlic bulbs from a nice farmer and his wife I noticed berry containers filled with less than perfect garlic bulbs (a quart of them) for $1. I asked what they were, and he said "they're seed garlic" and handed me a wrinkled photocopy of planting and growing instructions. So I plunked down my dollar, and took home my garlic "seeds". I put them in the ground in an area that we are transforming after the installation of a patios, figuring if the grass seed wouldn't take that late in the season, I might as well put it to use. Here's what has been coming up this spring - 21 garlic plants.



I plan on mulching them this afternoon, to prevent further "erosion" from the hill. I read up on harvesting them, and it looks like by mid July I should be ready to dig them up. When planting garlic, think of them like a tasty tulip. Drop them in in the fall (right side up!) and by summer you'll be enjoying them.

Isn't the definition of an "environmentally friendly" paper towel: a dish rag?



That is all. Back to your regularly scheduled lives.
(pic via Karen Hibbard Art Project)

The tree guys came (TreeLanders) and did a quick and thorough job on our 3 trees. Beautiful evening light now streams in the upstairs and basement windows. We made the right decision.



Now I have to remove the mulched stump pile and put in topsoil and seed and we'll be good to go!

Blogging in January:



Blogging this evening:



No comparison!

Just wanted to give a quick thanks to the Colonel (my Dad), and to Andrew Bozo of Professional Lawn Care and Snow Plowing (my plow man and classmate) for helping me clear out that mess.

If you are in the Syracuse area, and are looking for a good snow-plower, email me and I'll give you his phone number. He also does complete lawn care and landscaping.



Freaking snow.

I've been meaning to put in a plug for this post since I first read it.

are we past peak knowledge?

I was stuck at home today. No not the nor'easters snow on the roads, but the accumulation of it over the past 24 hours on my trees. Here's why:



I will never underestimate the value of a good chainsaw, and the ability to use and maintain it. That reminds me...

Note to self: buy a chainsaw, and learn how to use and take care of it.

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

-- Joyce Kilmer

This is my big backyard tree, which as of next week will be no more. I imagine it will be campfire wood for local campers. I hate to see such a big tree get cut down, but in this case it is old and 1/2 of it is sick, and it is smack dab in the middle of our back yard. I knew it was eventually going to need to be cut down the day we bought the house.

So I figured, hell, this is my blog, and if I want to have a tribute to a big tree. I can do it.

How much is a F*ing yard of this stuff, and should I be telling people to go buy it?

Barneys New York is giving consumers an added incentive to buy its pricey products: The retailer is donating a percentage of all sales to One Percent For the Planet, an environmental organization. Barneys partnered with organic-cotton company Loomstate to launch an exclusive apparel line this spring that includes a $145 organic cotton hooded Henley sweatshirt and a $125 organic cotton halter dress with flower print.

Gag me with a luffa. I am so sick of organic fashion.

Hwerf.

[/soapbox]

It's always a sad day when you have to delete people from your blog roll. There are so many blogs that I have enjoyed reading over the past 2 years. Yes I know, people come and go, but unsubscribing from bloglines is like raiding the closet and having to throw out your favorite old sweaters and shirts - even though you don't even wear them anymore.

Blogging is tough sometimes. There are so many things to do in a day, finding something interesting to comment on is not always at the top of the list. I've been guilty of abandoning baloghblog for weeks at a time. I am sure that there will come a day that I will have to give it up all together.

That still doesn't make me feel better about permanently deleting a link to a writer that I kept up with. Like saying goodbye to someone that you've met at a conference, or on the opposite side of the country or globe, knowing you'll never see them again.

Weird, huh? This sentimentality. However, I can't imagine what I'd do if some of my favorite bloggers permanently threw in the towel. Aaron? Ianqui? Sharon? NYCO? Liz? Atrios? The first-draft gang? Some day I suppose it will happen.

Jeff, has been torn away from his personal blog to "greener" pastures. It's a shame, but I don't blame him in a way. If I could get paid full time for this type of gig, I would find myself in the same situation. Pat was a great writer that hung up his laptop. Liz seems to be working her magic more in the real life than the digital one (hmmm... there could be something said for that.)

There are new writers out there that I seem to find each day. Many are very talented and I hope that they keep up the writing. This blogroll purge needs to stay a once a year (or two?) event...

The Sunday Post-Standard's opinion section regarding the Bigger Better Bottle Bill being dropped (I won't bother linking as their links expire within 2 weeks):

Because he budget deals were cut behind closed doors, the public has to assume the bottle bill was used as a chit in some longer negotiation. What it was traded away for we may never know.

Once again, business interests trump ecological common sense in the NY State government. I have to reiterate that this is a real let down right out of the gate, Governor Spitzer.

See more of Frank Cammuso's brilliant political cartoons here. *including this other take on the BBB