Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

It was down to kool-aid drinkers and next of kin at the trump White House

Reality always wins in the end.

They are all Michael Cohen now.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Too inconsequential to be sued

False Scribes! False Scribes!

… makes me wish i had hoarded more linguine

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Nevertheless, she persisted.

Tick tock motherfuckers! Tick fucking tock!

We can agree to disagree, but i’m right.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

People are complicated. Love is not.

Good luck with your asparagus.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

I swear, each month of 2020 will have its own history degree.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

I personally stopped the public option…

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / It’s Raining And Shitty Out

It’s Raining And Shitty Out

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So here is a video of a METRIC SHITLOAD of big ole bees in my wildflowers out front:

Look how big my trees are getting!!!!

It's Raining And Shitty Out

The wildflowers really are amazing. One handful of them a couple years back, and they come back every year and have even migrated over to the tree on the right. They come in all different colors and sizes, too. Reds, yellows, blues, purples. best perennials ever.

Reader Interactions

108Comments

  3. 3.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    We met our neighbour this week, we thought she was in a care home because we haven’t seen her since we moved in in November, but it turns out she has been caring for her 90 odd year old parents in Oldham. DH and I volunteered to help tend her gardens because it is obvious that she LOVES her garden but hasn’t been able to tend to it because of being away. She was delighted to let us do that (at first she asked “how much will you charge?”) once we told her that there would be no charge we just wanted to help her out she was very grateful, so DH and I are going to get started on the front yard this weekend. Looking forward to it.

  4. 4.

    Gin & Tonic

    Raining here too, but we haven’t had rain in weeks, so I’ll take it.

  5. 5.

    Kay

    I’m in a flowering tree phase. I bought myself this one for my birthday:

    A fantastic new development in crabapple trees, Prairie Fire is resistant to scab, rust, fire blight and even Japanese beetles. The rounded 15-to-20 ft. tree promises an all-season extravaganza in your garden!

    It might be a little too cold here for it but we’re going to find out.

  8. 8.

    JPL

    John, your house is lovely.

  10. 10.

    Omnes Omnibus

    It is sunny here, and I just got back from a bike ride.  No bees in sight.

  11. 11.

    Kent

    I planted mint in my herb garden a couple of years ago.  Big mistake.  It is the Borg plant that is assimilating all others and leaping out to assimilate the rest of my yard.

  12. 12.

    oldster

    Feeding the bees is doing the lord’s work, John. The bees need our help.

    Bonus: the same flowers that attract bees, will also attract hummingbirds.

    We just spotted a ruby-throated hummingbird on some lambs-ears in the front yard.

    Here in Upstate New York! So beautiful to see.

  14. 14.

    Yutsano

    @Kent:  Good luck getting rid of it too. No really. Mint will take over everything without even blinking. And will laugh at your attempts to remove it.

  15. 15.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Kent:  I planted Chocolate Mint and it took over the whole yard, it was relentless.  If I plant mint here it will be in a container.

  17. 17.

    pamelabrown53

    @raven:

    Didn’t you just refinish a porch floor? Will the fallout from the dust storm wreck your new floor?

    Hope that didn’t happen.

  18. 18.

    Geoduck

    This year I left a bag of grass-patch seed sitting out open on my patio and a swarm of bumblebees moved into it. After consulting with the local experts, I tossed it all into the corner of my yard and left them to do their thing. They were nice enough to thoroughly pollinate my raspberry plants before moving on (one way or the other, I gather they don’t live very long..)

  19. 19.

    raven

    @pamelabrown53: I don’t think so, I put the second coat on at noon and I think it’s hard enough that dust won’t be a problem. It kind of comes and goes and the rain chance went from 10% to 50% in the last half hour. JPL is in a thunderstorm area right now.

  20. 20.

    Currants

    John, LOVE your flowers, and bees, and house.  Those trees are getting big—soon they’ll be serious shade trees for you!

  23. 23.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @JPL:  I love living in this neighbourhood, it is all old people (like me) and we basically live in our little village.  We have everything we need up the street, Cafe, grocery, pharmacy, medical centre, Fish & Chip Shop, Corner Shop. We don’t need to leave the area for any reason, unless it is some thing we need to go to the big grocery store for.  Everything else we can get on line.

  25. 25.

    Cowgirl in the Sandi

    Lovely garden John.  I bet your neighbors are glad you moved in.  Can you give any details on what the purple/pink wildflowers are?  I love them and want some NOW

    ETA Thanks Mike S!

  26. 26.

    Jhap

    Funny thing about trees.

    I’ve been planting trees since the mid 80’s.

    And  back then I remember thinking  what can I can I plant that is fast growing and will get big fast.

    Fast forward 35 years later and I’m still planting trees.  Only my thought process now is what can I plant that is slow growing so I don’t have to fuss with maintenance.

  30. 30.

    James E Powell

    That’s the voice of Himself? I’m not sure what I expected, maybe more of an accent, but it doesn’t quite fit with the photos I’ve seen. Am I alone in this?

  32. 32.

    LuciaMia

    I planted mint in my herb garden a couple of years ago

    Oh yeah! You never make that mistake twice. Mint always has to be planted in a container.

    A gardening book once described mint as a friend who’s shy at first and then smothers you with affection.

  40. 40.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    I have to admit I love this place.  Two bedrooms.  Second bedroom is DH’s mancave, but other than that the house is mine.   The kitchen is stunning.  (Well it is now I have replaced the crappy stove the landlords installed, with their permission of course) It is a bungalow so we do not have to worry about stairs.  I am home and I am content.

  41. 41.

    Benw

    @rikyrah: yup. Same for the NBA: flying all the top teams to Florida to sweat all over the place for two weeks is dumb and bad.

  43. 43.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @raven:  The great part is I found the greatest mechanic on the planet in the local area, he is outstanding, and my BIL recommends him too.

  45. 45.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @raven: No it’s a semi detached bungalow.  Lots of the gardens around here are neglected for various reasons, the owners are too old to tend them.  Guess DH and I are going to have a lot of work to do.

  46. 46.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @raven: That is because we are right next to White Lund Industrial Park that is where all the industrial businesses are based.

  47. 47.

    Nancy

    @Dahlia:  They look like larkspur that have naturalized. John’s friends the bees are hybridizing as they pollinate, creating some really interesting colors that you never planted.
    I love Rocket Larkspur.

  48. 48.

    jl

    Thanks for beautiful house and garden pix, gorgeous flowers and congrats on the trees. Don’t seem too close or too far from anything yet, but what do I know?

    Looks like still some room for a couple of pawpaw trees out in the open space to the left.

  49. 49.

    trollhattan

    Rain, huh. [checks calendar] Yup, still June. We’ll see that stuff come September or October or some years, November.

    Sportsball: NWSL’s tournament began in Utah. Two matches today, the entire thing extends into late July, presuming no positive COVID tests. Fingers crossed.

  50. 50.

    WaterGirl

    @Benw:

    This article makes the upcoming MLB season sound COMPLETELY INSANE:

    I’m not sure an article is needed to make a MLB season this year sound completely insane.  I thought that the second I heard their plans.  :-)

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah: I think they are either going to give it up now, or give it up later.  I hope they are smart enough to give it up now because they are taking huge risks with their players.

  56. 56.

    Ohio Mom

    LitleBritdifrnt: your house is adorable and I am automatically jealous of anyone who lives near a beach. Thanks for the tour.

  57. 57.

    Sab

    Whoever told me to use plain old cardboard as a weedblock for cleaning up my side yard: thank you. (Maybe Ozark Hillbilly?)

    Last year after the rental goats were done I went to the liquor store la and begged for all their boxes. I spread them out over a strip of land about 6ft times 50 feet. I covered that with about six inches of topsoil then seeded it with grass seed under straw. I watered it all summer, but that was it for care.

    This year it’s a lawn. No poison ivy. No giant burdocks. No blackberry brambles. Just a strip of lawn between us and the neighbor. What a relief. It has been a horrible no man’s land  for twenty years. The property line runs right down the middle but on their side of the fence so it has always been a question as to who has to or is allowed to maintain it. (Please don’t weed whack the poison ivy. That magnolia tree your yard guy chopped down was mine. etc. etc.)  Now it’s just a strip of grass tjat anyone can easily mow. Yay!

  58. 58.

    WaterGirl

    @Major Major Major Major: It’s terrible here, in the high 80s, with humidity so high they are predicting it to feel like 97 degrees on Wednesday.

    I’m going to have to get up at 6am tomorrow to pick the cherries on my tree.  I should have picked them to day but it’s too freakin’ hot.  I hope they aren’t overripe by tomorrow, but I hate this kind of heat.

  59. 59.

    Yutsano

    @Litlebritdifrnt: We now have your address. We could send you and DH treats you guys can’t get there. I’m not saying I would abuse this privilege…but if you asked things could be arranged.

    EDIT: I wonder if you guys are close to R-Jud. I have no idea where she is so I wouldn’t know. But it might be fun to figure out!

  60. 60.

    scav

    @WaterGirl: Depending on where you are, you may need to expose your poppy seeds to cold before sowing, but you should get flowers the first year — certainly with the annuals! The perennials might be trickier.

  61. 61.

    WaterGirl

    @Ohio Mom: There you are!  Two things.

    Has the site still be wonky for you?  Or was it just that one thread yesterday?

    Second thing:  I have explained / asked questions multiple times re: you not being able to reply, but you have never answered and I see that you still don’t use “reply”.  If you get a chance, can you let me know if you have seen my suggestions in the past and tried them?

    I believe I even sent them by email once, but you didn’t reply, so maybe the email you use for BJ isn’t a real one?

  62. 62.

    Martin

    Since we’re sharing, 75, blue skies, light breeze, 50% humidity, good wifi in my shaded outdoor office. Lot of hummingbird activity today. No bugs other than a few bees and some regular monarch sightings, which is really nice to see again.

  64. 64.

    Marcopolo

    Here’s some news. Earlier today the Mississippi State House voted to remove the current state flag (the one with the Confederate Flag inset), create a commission to design a new flag and to put that new flag design to a vote in a statewide election. Thinking was it would be a bit before the MS State Senate took it up since there are procedures to follow. NOPE. The MS State Senate just voted by a razor thin margin to suspend its rules & take up the bill.

    BREAKING: Mississippi state senate votes by a razor thin margin to suspend rules and take up Flag bill. @WJTV pic.twitter.com/h2TYbkhcEU— Gerald Harris (@GeraldHarrisTV) June 27, 2020

    This flag could be gone by the end of the day.

    I’ve also been reading a bit about problematic names on prestigious universities in the US. It seems a lot of the money that allowed for their creation has connections to slavery. Whocouldanode

    Edited to add that folks much more savvy about this stuff than I am think the straw that broke the camel’s back in MS was collegiate sports leagues saying they could not host championship games in MS so long as the current flag remained.

  69. 69.

    Achrachno

    @WaterGirl: The type John has (Consolida “Delphinium” ajacis) are annuals — if yours are the same you’ll have to plant seeds every year.  If you’re thorough about cleaning up the faded plants, you’ll never get any seeds.

     

    BTW — they’re not really wildflowers; cultivated ornamentals in North America.

  70. 70.

    Achrachno

    @WaterGirl: Lots of annual.  Some species are tiny: look up images of Canbya candida some time.

    Conversely, some poppies are trees in the tropics, though not terribly large ones 15-20 ft. as I remember.

  71. 71.

    cintibud

    @Marcopolo: Wow, this is happening even more “suddenly” then gay marriage. Of course, neither were sudden, many folks worked many years to obtain these goals. But when the tipping point comes, then things seem to be sudden!

  74. 74.

    RedDirtGirl

    I’ve never had a green thumb. I live in apartment in Brooklyn near Prospect Park. But this past week I tended a neighbor’s beautiful backyard garden so she could leave town. I’ve bonded with people’s children, and pets, before, but this is the first time I bonded with plants. What a lovely experience. If I can figure out how to share it, I’ll show you the panoramic shot I took.

  78. 78.

    cintibud

    @Nancy: I love Larkspur. It just showed up in my garden one day and I’ve encouraged them to return every year by shaking out the seeds over the garden when cleaning out the dried plants. I recognize the seedlings and keep them while weeding. Great for the lazy gardener.

  81. 81.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: I always assumed it was a variation from Hemingway:

    “How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.

    “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

    Also aligns with the concept of saltation in biology where evolutionary changes kind of gear up slowly at the margins and then there’s a catalytic event that very rapidly causes significant change. Similar concept for technological advances.

  82. 82.

    Benw

    @WaterGirl: here’s not even the craziest thing, talking about players getting to sick/dead to play:

    “If it’s a utility guy nobody knows about, is that going to shut the season down? Probably not,” he said. “If it’s Mike Trout or someone big on the Yankees? It might.”

    The bench guys are literally Star Trek redshirts in the “plan”!

  83. 83.

    CarolPW

    @WaterGirl: A number of years ago I planted seeds of the perrenial oriental poppy variety Princess Louise, a lovely salmon pink color. I planted them in potting mix in small pots like you would for any seedling. Very small seeds, black just like on the muffins. They go out in the yard very early because they are a spring bloomer and the foliage (very coarse) dies down in the summer. I had sparse blooms the first year but enough to make me happy with the selection. Second and subsequent years are fantastic.

    I paired them with summer blooming ornamental grasses because the grasses come back from their winter trim as the poppies go into their ugly duckling phase.

    New plants occasionally show up in other places in my yard but they do not aggressively reseed. They love hot and dry.

  84. 84.

    SiubhanDuinne

    O/T, somebody on MSNBC just opened his program with “Happy Sunday! It’s a busy news Sunday….” and now I’m totally confuzzled.

    Yay for bees, and your house and the flowers are beautiful.

  86. 86.

    WaterGirl

    @Benw: Sounds like if you’re not a star, they don’t give a shit.  Lovely.

    It’s the way the world has always operated, but geez, they are saying it out loud as if that isn’t horrendous.

  88. 88.

    Achrachno

    @WaterGirl: Well, the common names of both the genera Delphinium and Consolida are usually “Larkspur” and historically (as in, during my lifetime) all these plants were included in genus Delphinium but Consolida was separated on various grounds.  But, yes, Consolida is annual and Delphinium in the strict sense is perennial.

  89. 89.

    Benw

    @WaterGirl: yeah. If a bench guy dies he’s buried in center field, and his farm system call up replacement has 24 hrs to clean out his locker with bleach! /s

  90. 90.

    jonas

    @Marcopolo:I’ve also been reading a bit about problematic names on prestigious universities in the US. It seems a lot of the money that allowed for their creation has connections to slavery.

    Princeton trustees just voted to drop Woodrow Wilson’s name from their prestigious school of public policy. That’s been debated for a long time, but they finally pulled the plug. Wilson championed a lot of progressive causes, but he was a stone-cold racist who set the cause of civil rights back a long, long way during his administration.

  92. 92.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: I’m reminded of the part of Moneyball where they deal with releasing players. 

    Did they just buy a house? Do they have to move their kids from their friends? That’s the job, you knew that when you signed up.

    I’ve mentioned I have a close family member that was a C-level  for a large health insurer. On the way up to the executive positions, you have to do a stint as the HR guy that fires people. For 6 months, all he did was fire people. When Covid comes along, can you cut the workforce by 50%, or do you get stuck thinking about their homes and kids and health insurance?

    It’s training. It’s why the military changed from having soldiers shoot at round targets to silhouettes of humans. After a while shooting a silhouette of a human becomes 2nd nature, so that when you first hit combat and a shadow appears in the distance, you don’t hesitate – it’s just another silhouette.

    We’re really good at making it efficient. Lots of practice. NFL got really good at putting brain damage out of their range of concerns. Not that hard to put Covid in the same compartment of their brain.

  93. 93.

    Haroldo

    @NotMax:

    Again, thanks for the beer bread recipe.  Modified, it’s become a staple in our household.  (Add pumpkin and flax seed, plus Penzey’s ‘Mural of Flavor’.)

    Also, discovered today that you might be a neighbor of Jeff Cotton’s (a/k/a Antenna Jimmy Semens of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band) in Kula.

  94. 94.

    WaterGirl

    @Martin: i had never seen Moneyball.  That’s a great clip.

    Reality sucks.

    It’s the training with police, also.  Black males as targets for shooting practice, talk about them as if they are less than human, pretty soon you don’t seem them as human at all, and you’re just fine with killing a guy with your knee on his neck for 9 fucking minutes because that boy who didn’t know his place pissed you off when he was a bouncer and you worked security.

    A follows B follows C.  ugh.  sigh.

  95. 95.

    hells littlest angel

    @WaterGirl: Poppies are easy. You scatter the tiny seeds and wait. You should see flowers in the first, and every, year. A little water and a little weeding is all they need.

    They don’t take transplanting well, so direct sowing is the only way to go.

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    @hells littlest angel: When do you sow the seeds?  In the fall when they might seed naturally if you have them?  In the summer?  Spring?

    I planted 9 2 years ago, and all I have is one this year.  I planted 9 a bunch of years before that, had 3, transplanted them and none of those made it, except one somehow came back in the original spot.

    That’s why I started to think about seeds.  :-)

  97. 97.

    Chief Oshkosh

    So now the WH is claiming that they weren’t briefed on the bounty that GRU put on US soldiers.

    All right generals. IC. You’re up. Bunt or swing?

  98. 98.

    jayjaybear

    @Marcopolo:Edited to add that folks much more savvy about this stuff than I am think the straw that broke the camel’s back in MS was collegiate sports leagues saying they could not host championship games in MS so long as the current flag remained.

    The Mormons claim that God changed his mind about the unsuitability of black people as priests of the LDS in the late 70s, coincidentally around the time that other schools started refusing to play BYU in basketball because of it.

  100. 100.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: But at the same time it doesn’t have to be that way. Apple didn’t lay off any of their retail employees when they closed stores. They trained them to do phone support from home, and that’s what they’re doing.

    But then Apple made sure they had cash to weather a big disruption – most companies don’t. Even the ones that could get bullied by their shareholders to give it to the shareholders instead. That really needs to change. I really support no bailouts if you’ve used your cash for buybacks or dividends in the last 3 years. That would start to change some behaviors for the better.

  103. 103.

    hells littlest angel

    @WaterGirl: I’ve got a yard full that I planted in April (last frost date here is mid-May). It was over a month before they began to germinate, but 5 weeks later they are thriving. Last year’s perennials were in bloom this year by early June.

  104. 104.

    WaterGirl

    @Martin:

    I really support no bailouts if you’ve used your cash for buybacks or dividends in the last 3 years.

    Yes. Yes. Yes.  There are so many things that could change  I have thought for 3 years that the pendulum had swung so far in the wrong direction that surely it would have to swing back.  Maybe we are there.

  108. 108.

    Nancy

    @Dahlia: 
    You are quite welcome. I save seeds. I first discovered larkspur in the mid-80s. The seeds have travelled with me to two different houses originating from the old house where I found the plants way back when. I looked on Amazon for seed during the everything was shut down times and found a packet of 5000 rocket larkspur.
    Fun times.

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