The garden in late May

It's taking a while this year for the garden to really 'take off'. Daytime temperatures have been mild, around 50-55 degrees F, but at night it's quite chilly, with temperatures around 40-45 degrees. A lot of the plants don't know what to make of it; there has been too much temperature swinging. In late April we had temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees F and a lot of sunny days, and here we are, nearly in June, and we're still struggling with chilly temperatures and mostly cloudy days. That can confuse a garden, especially the vegetables and some of the more sensitive flowers. Some few vegetable plants have died, whereas others (like my green bean plants) have not sprouted yet (I put the seeds right into the soil). Conclusion: seedlings do not like chilly temperatures and therefore do not sprout. So it doesn't help to start plants in the greenhouse if the temperatures drop considerably after the seedlings are transplanted outdoors. Yesterday, I seeded out green bean seeds in the greenhouse again, in the hope that the warmth inside will allow for quick sprouting. We'll see. Otherwise, the perennial flowers have come back, albeit slowly. I planted dahlia tubers for the first time this year, and they are coming up nicely. But as I said, it's slow-going and slow-growing for the garden this season.

I took some photos of the garden this past Sunday; this is my garden in late May.

Allium blooming--the bees love it

Potato plants--Folva type

Strawberry patch starting to flower--one of two patches

view of garden facing Telthusbakken (street)

north view of garden including greenhouse

Heuchera (aka coral bells or alumroot) perennials interspersed with pansies

Quotes about miracles

• Hope... is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles. --Samuel Smiles
• God continues to work miracles in my life.--Willie Aames
• There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. --Albert Einstein
• Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle. --Walt Whitman
• His hands are miracles. I can watch them for hours, transforming wood into something it never dreamed of being. --Katja Millay, The Sea of Tranquility
• It was possible that a miracle was not something that happened to you, but rather something that didn’t. --Jodi Picoult, The Tenth Circle
• Miracles, in the sense of phenomena we cannot explain, surround us on every hand: life itself is the miracle of miracles. --George Bernard Shaw
• After all, I don't see why I am always asking for private, individual, selfish miracles when every year there are miracles like white dogwood. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh
• Since most scientists are just a bit religious, and most religious are seldom wholly unscientific, we find humanity in a comical position. His scientific intellect believes in the possibility of miracles inside a black hole, while his religious intellect believes in them outside it. --William Golding
• When you look at all the miracles attributed to Jesus, they're all about change. --Michael Sheen

The first quote has special relevance for me now, especially this week. An unexpected phone call reminded me of the presence of hope inside me when I thought I had none, and that hope sometimes leads to miracles. They may be tiny--but miracle of miracles, any tiny miracle is about change, about a shift in the universe toward love and away from darkness. That is what I believe. 

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An incredible amount of pollen this year

Spring this year has been a particularly bad one for hay fever sufferers and those who are allergic generally--not surprising when you can literally see the yellow pollen all around you and feel the gritty layers of pollen that have built up on window sills, tables, and floors. It rained heavily today after a windy night with intermittent rain showers. The rain washed some of the pollen off the surfaces to which it has been clinging. The results--pools of rainwater that are ringed with pollen (see photos), and flowers on my balcony that are sprinkled with pollen due to the wind (see photos). But the rain didn't manage to wash all the pollen away. Once again, nature ensures the survival of the fittest. The tree or flower that has produced this type of pollen is a hardy plant and one that most likely adapts optimally to its surroundings in order to survive.

Garden layout for 2019

Here is the garden layout I designed for the 2019 planting season. There's always a new challenge each year--new flowers and vegetables to plant or a new project waiting in the wings. This year we'll be getting back the 2 meters that was taken from us about one and a half years ago when Oslo's city planners started to do necessary road work on the steep road that parallels the garden. The nice thing is that we'll get back a lot of soil, and that means I have a new area of the garden to plan. So I'll be planting trees: magnolia, lilac, and plum. And planting wild ivy so that it will grow up and along the garden fence to provide privacy. I have English poppies waiting to be planted in that area as well. I'll be posting photos during the summer, but for now, this is the planting plan, and I've already planted most of the seedlings that were in the greenhouse. I'm hoping for a warm and sunny summer.

Lyrics to Aaron Smith's Dancin

This song pretty much sums up how I feel about dancing.....

I have such good memories from our 'disco' nights back when we would all meet in Manhattan to go dancing. We could dance for hours. Whenever I need energy and motivation, I go back to those times that are tucked away in a wonderful (and accessible) part of my mind and soul, and I draw them out again to re-inspire me. It almost always works.


Dancin'

Get up on the floor
Dancin' all night long
Get up on the floor
Dancin' till the break of dawn
Get up on the floor
Dancin' till the break of dawn
Get up on the floor
Dancin'

All the time
My baby you on my mind
And I don't know why
Yeah but the feeling is fine
Can't you see
Yo' honey you are for me oh
It were meant to be
Dancin' in the moonlight
Gazing at the stars so bright
Holding you until the sunrise
Sleeping until the midnight

Get up on the floor
Dancin' all night long
Get up on the floor
Dancin' till the break of dawn
Get up on the floor
Dancin' till the break of dawn
Get up on the floor
Dancin'

Dancin' is what to do
Dancin' when I think of you
Dancin' is what clears my soul
Dancin' is what makes me whole
Dancin' is what to do
Dancin' when I think of you
Dancin' is what clears my soul
Dancin' is what makes me whole

Everytime when I look in your eyes
That smile was crying that you were mine
Do you know, your love is true I know
You are the best thing that has happened to me

Get up on the floor
Dancin' all night long
Get up on the floor
Dancin' till the break of dawn
Get up on the floor
Dancin' till the break of dawn
Get up on the floor
Dancin'

Dancin' is what to do
Dancin' when I think of you
Dancin' is what clears my soul
Dancin' is what makes me whole
Dancin' is what to do
Dancin' when I think of you
Dancin' is what clears my soul
Dancin' is what makes me whole

Get up on the floor
Dancin' all night long
Get up on the floor
Dancin' till the break of dawn
Get up on the floor
Dancin' till the break of dawn
Get up on the floor
Dancin' (oh)

Get up on the floor
Dancin' all night long
Get up on the floor
Dancin' till the break of dawn
Get up on the floor
Dancin' till the break of dawn
Get up on the floor
Dancin' (oh)

Dancin' is what to do
Dancin' when I think of you
Dancin' is what clears my soul
Dancin' is what makes me whole
Dancin' is what to do
Dancin' when I think of you
Dancin' is what clears my soul
Dancin' is what makes me whole

Dancin' is what to do
Dancin' when I think of you
Dancin' is what clears my soul
Dancin' is what makes me whole
Dancin' is what to do
Dancin' when I think of you
Dancin' is what clears my soul
Dancin' is what makes me whole


Songwriters: Aaron Smith / Shalyn Walker

Some good dance songs (and dancers)

The dancer in this video Dancin (Krono Remix) is Javi Valiño--such a good dancer.....




And while I haven't been an avid Ariana Grande fan up to this point, I really like her song/video Thank You, Next......




And then we have Ke$ha and TiK ToK......

Is this generation's lifestyle really more environmentally-friendly?

I saw a post on Facebook recently that had to do with an old woman buying groceries who asked for plastic bags, and the young female cashier who reamed her out for not thinking of the environment. The younger woman started lecturing the older woman on the importance of taking care of the environment. The older woman thought for a moment, and then started to list up all of the things that her generation did that were actually environmentally-friendly, but that were never pushed as being trendy for that reason. The following things were mentioned, and I'm adding some of my own:

• paper grocery bags were reused to make book covers for school books, otherwise they were used as garbage bags and were burned in the incinerator
• milk was delivered to the door each day, and the empty bottles were recycled and used again. We even used the thin cardboard bottle caps to make daisies and other decorations
• appliances like washing machines, stoves, refrigerators and dishwashers were built to last. My mother had a Maytag washing machine that lasted for at least twenty years (from 1960 until circa 1980) and never needed service. Nowadays, appliances have a 5-7-year lifespan if you're lucky
• women in my mother's generation used cloth baby diapers that were washed and reused. For a history of the disposable diaper check out this link: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2008/04/brief-history-disposable-diaper/   Nowadays disposable diapers fill up the garbage landfills at record speed. Young mothers take for granted that they'll be using disposable diapers. Ask them to give them up in favor of washable cloth diapers and see how far you'll get 
• we grew up with one landline telephone in the house, and one television set. There were no cell phones, and the idea that one would replace a cell phone every two years would have been anathema. Nowadays that is de rigueur and the cell phone companies are helping to cause this by forcing customers to download updated software that slows down the phone to the point of obsolescence. And then cell phone batteries are tossed away like the phones themselves, and fill up the landfills unnecessarily. Ask any young person to keep his or her phone for a minimum of five years and see how far you'll get with that idea. Additionally, many homes have multiple television sets, which also increase the use of electricity
• likewise--computers; whether they are stationary or laptops, they are continually being updated with new software that slows them down to the point where they are no longer usable, and so  you need a new one. All those worn-out computers have to be dumped somewhere
• we are pushing electric cars as environmentally-friendly, but they are not really. The batteries require constant charging (electricity that has to come from somewhere), and they must also be disposed of eventually as garbage when they can no longer be recharged
• politicians in most westernized countries fly constantly from one international meeting to another. There is nothing environmentally-friendly about this. If our parents' generation was lucky, they took perhaps one plane trip every five years or so for vacation purposes only. Air travel was simply not a common thing. Politicians don't seem to be intelligent enough to make the connection between too much plane travel and the fact that this doesn't help the environment. They would rather preach to us about how we sin against the environment by using our cars to go to work. In this country, they would prefer that we biked to work year-round. Never mind that they are being transported around in comfortable cars with chauffeurs in addition to frequently flying halfway around the world. The hypocrisy is appalling. I'm simply not interested in their 'do as I say, not as I do' policies
• kitchen appliances like electric bread makers, electric juicers, electric poachers, etc. were not popular in my mother's generation. That generation made bread by hand, juiced by hand, and used their gas stoves to poach a few eggs. Their kitchens were not loaded with useless gadgets requiring a lot of electricity to use them. 
• produce in the supermarket was not strangled in plastic wrap the way it is now. It is completely unnecessary to have all of the plastic packaging and wrap that smothers the fruit and vegetables they cover. For what purpose, I have no idea
• coffee pots were used to brew coffee on the stove. Electrical drip coffee makers arrived on the scene in the 1950s-60s. My mother continued to use percolator coffee pots. We did not drink espresso, just regular coffee. Nowadays, we have coffee machines that brew coffee using disposable pods (I own one but use it only on the weekends). I have grown to dislike using the pods, but the company that makes the coffee machine I have encourages us to return the used pods to their stores, so I do. They recycle them and that is at least something

I'm sure the list could be even longer, but I'll stop here. The appliances, phones and items we take for granted today, will pollute tomorrow's world in ever-increasing numbers. We can make a start by returning to manufacturing that produces appliances that are built to last. We can stop trading in our old cell phones for new ones every two years. We can mention to supermarket managers that it is not necessary to cover produce in plastic wrap. There are many things that can be done. But it is fallacy to think that young people are the environmental saints, while older people are the sinners. Young people have a lot to learn about how to care for the environment. They can start by keeping their cell phones for at least five years, by cutting down on their air travel, and by not wasting food or throwing away perfectly good food that is one or two days past expiration date. When they've attained some street cred, then older people might be willing to pay attention to their demands.