One last notice before I declare it over on FB…if you want them, you have first dibs.
Meanwhile, spring is springing here, at last: the tree peonies are just about to spread their leaves, the apple tree has sprigs, buds on the cherry trees are about to go, and I expect the dogwood and magnolia to be ready soon. Rhododendron is budded, azalea is getting there, and the warming of the water has brought all our koi up alive and well. We didn’t lose anybody in the winter, and Ari’s wound is much better. The pond, which I treated, is only half clear, but there are increasing bubbles, which indicates the bacterial additive is starting to work, and the water is getting clearer day by day.
I found a curious fellow in the filter yesterday, and did a little deep brain-search before I recognized him as a large dragonfly nymph. They’re dangerous to small fish, but fine with big ones, and I put him back in: curious that Mrs. Hoyt’s 5th grade class’s assignment of drawing and coloring the life cycle of a dragonfly should come back at such distance.
The name of our little garden is Tan Bo Mon, which is ‘Dragonfly Gate.’ And it is. We see quite a lot of them in the summer. Happy they’ve called us ‘home!’
The last of the sn*w in my yard melted today. The crocus and daffys are sprouting. I have still not see the first dandy… >wist, wist, wist<
My cherry trees have begun blooming. Can only just see green popping buds on the apples. “Dan’s Early Purple” rhody in bloom. Crocus is just grassy, but daffies are blooming.
My irises apparently survived the winter and are reaching up. I am so excited. Some of them are yours, CJ. 🙂
🙂
Just finished my copy of Protector on my Nook while watching son #2 practice soccer in the sleet. Isn’t this supposed to be Spring Break? Someone tell the weather!
The forsythia certainly is starting to bloom, so I’m getting mixed signals…
We’re having a two-day semi-cold snap, likely the last hurrah before spring and summer hit. Spring has started here. I don’t recall ever a chill after Easter, but this isn’t a freeze, so I suppose it’s not too odd. Not complaining. Not looking fwd to expected summer highs, but they go with the territory.
I’ll be moving into an apt. sometime later this year, so not planning any gardening. But I intend to (ugh) exercise some. I want to lose some weight. Not a lot, but enough.
I started reading Protector and am enjoying it. I’ve set aside Inheritor until I finish Protector, lest I get the two mixed up.
Oh look!
Here’s the status from my library:
TITLE STATUS PICKUP LOCATION
Protector / C.J. Cherryh. IN TRANSIT OLD TOWN LIBRARY
My jasmine vine is blooming beautiful yellow blooms, little yellow iris, a survivor from the ladies who built this house in the 1970’s, is blooming. Roses are leafing out. The Siberian elm is leafing. The *(&%$#* ornamental pears are done blooming (hallelujah!), are leafed out and are being staked out by all the mockingbird and grackle swains. The Bermuda grass is greening up. We’re back up into the 80s during the day. I have 5 bags of mulch to spread over my beds because the (insert pejoratives of choice here) “yard guys” that my landlady hires keep blowing all the leaves OUT of the flower beds, after I so laboriously rake them up and put them IN the flower beds to mulch and keep the weeds down, so I have to go BUY mulch because they won’t let me use the FREE leaves as mulch. (Insert expletives of choice here.) I need to work on the honeysuckle in the back yard, which I bought and planted, and reset the trellises, cut the dead wood out of the climbing roses, which were here when I moved in, and figure out some way to stake the rose canes away from the fence (which is about to fall down). I’m thinking a rebar trellis, but the cost of the rebar and the mulch is coming off my rent. (Frankly, if it weren’t for me, both the front and back yard would look like sh*t.) I only do it for the exercise (which I desperately need) and to get out in the “fresh” (when the dirt’s not blowing) air and sunshine, and to have something nice to look out the window at. I need to clean out my iris bed too, and cut down some dead bushes. . . .
Maybe you should look into negotiating with your landlady to do yard work in exchange for a discount on your rent. At least then you wouldn’t have to clean up after the yard guys.
You knew that Sharon Lee and Steve Miller lost their cat Socks Tuesday? In today’s post, Sharon mentioned receiving her copy of “Protector” in the mail. I’m awaiting the imminent arrival of mine.
Oh, I’m so sorry about the kitteh.
He was a gorgeous grey and white brindled Maine coon. She was telling how the other two kept looking for him. Broke my heart.
@ chondrite: The apartment manager’s son owns the landscaping company that does the yard. Politics. Ugh.
Spring? What spring? I think she managed to get lost on her way to Europe. I flown back from Poland yesterday, where was snowing and what do I get on my return to UK? Snow…
I’ll take a copy of Protector! Have ebook and audio but no hard cover!
Sleo, go over to Closed Circle quick as a bunny and nab one of the two that are left!!!! If there’s a problem with that, let me know and I’ll hold one. But you get it faster if you go after it yourself.
I do believe I have snaffled the last copy of Protector, after duly arguing with myself over proper apportionment of overtime pay, etc. “With your last tuppence, buy flowers for your soul.” I had a rough time getting the Paypal checkout to show the proper shipping charge. I had to back out, cancel the first order, then re-add it to the cart to make it show.
I just finished Protector (but not quite my taxes). B&N purchase–last one on the SF new release table at the 82nd Street store (NYC Upper West Side). Didn’t see anyone around to alert them to bring more up from the basement, assuming they had copies in stock.
Anyway, I loved it. Makes a lot of behavior in the earlier books clearer, especially Tatsiegi (sp?) is more three dimensional. Remarkable how people can come alive when they see prospects, possibilities for themselves.
And of course, the kids are great.
Long-term plotting… how destabilizing will it be for the Atevi when it becomes clearer how deeply corruption had infected their most important guild? Of course, the human equivalents are likewise, destabilizing–for example, judges and justice for sale–which is no doubt part of your point.
Thanks for a great experience.
The mailman delivered my pre-ordered copy of Protector today. I’m happy!!!
I collected my copy from my mailbox today – it actually arrived Wednesday afternoon, according to the tracking data.
One thing – why does the cover have Irene as a blonde? In ‘Deliverer’, nand’ Cajeiri remembers her as being dark brown, almost as dark as atevi.
Bleach?
LOL!
Also, I was up past 11 pm reading it. Because sleep isn’t always that important.
I look forward to the next installment!
I really enjoyed the book, but aaargh when will Peacemaker come out?
Could not agree more. The best of the recent books, but I REALLY want to keep reading !
Downloaded Protector while I’m in Sydney. It hasn’t helped my jet lag any to stay up all night reading it, twice!
Yesterday, I decided to start reading the Foreigner books from the beginning again. I’m at the part where Bren has just arrived at Malguri for the first time, but has yet to meet Ilisidi. Tagini has just replaced his two servants with two new “servants,” Tano and Algini. (snerk!) I am reminded again how callow and “human” Bren was at the start of his adventures — he was pretty much a leaf in the wind at that point– and how he’s grown and changed over the course of the series.
Please excuse the OT post (I know it will be on topic in time, but I don’t want to forget to mention this). I just watched a very interesting diet video on PBS, “Eat, Fast and Live Longer” (Important comma there!)
http://video.pbs.org/video/2363162206/#
Don’t be put off by the four day fast(!) he starts with. He goes on to intermittent fasting and 5/2 “fasting” (two days a week at ~500 kcal. See also (no links to avoid the spam trap):
Wikipedia 5:2_diet
Wikipedia Intermittent_fasting
Saw it. I’m going to try it. Started Thursday. Second 600 day will be tomorrow.
Been a while since I posted. My Katie-greyhound is doing awesome… getting much more comfortable in her skin. She’s on Prozac, and it’s made a world of difference for her. I have a new dog, a little rat terrier that followed me home and who was never reclaimed by her owners, named Pixie now. She keeps everyone on their toes, especially now that she is post-surgery for bilateral luxating patellas. (Pet insurance… it’s well worth the money if you have those kinds of problems!) Rana-cat and Pyret are hanging in there, doing as well as can be expected for cats that are somewhere around 18. My yard is slowly recovering from the winter. Had a fair degree of frostburn on the lantanas, but they should come back soon with some fertilizer (or that’s what the nursery guy tells me). The salvia greggii is doing well, the hummingbirds are loving it. The butterfly bushes are leafing out, the plum and apricot have already bloomed and leafed. The cherry trees I planted are struggling. They replaced a peach tree, which I lost to borers, and I think they may have gotten infected. Plus one is probably getting root-pruned by gophers. (Pixie, of course, will chase out squirrels, lizards, birds, grasshoppers, and crickets, but shows absolutely no interest in gophers!) I will see how they do and ponder options. I have recently found out there is a native plant nursery not too far away, so I may go see what they recommend.
I have a little water feature in my garden, a bit of an indulgence, which I wouldn’t mind some advice on. It’s a 100 gallon raised pond, which I currently have planted with some marginals on a shelf, and a water lily. There’s a filter and aerator in it, to keep the water clean and moving to prevent mosquitoes. I have stocked it with 3 shibunkins, since I figured that koi would get way too big. Can it take more fish, or is 3 about the limit? Also, the GH and KH are incredibly high – my town is well-known for having hard water, and according to the test strip, it’s 180ppm GH and in the 240 ppm range for the KH, and that’s straight out of the tap. I don’t like to mess with chemicals to alter the chemistry, since then you are always going to have to check and make sure that everything is staying where you want it. I figure it’s easier to try and get things that are ok living in that range. What would you recommend?
Returned from the first vacation readyGuy and I have had since the last ShejiCon. We went to visit the old homestead in North Carolina. We were pleased to see two Canada geese and a Great Heron taking up residence in our pond there, but winter has been especially harsh and long there. Returned to Arizona in time to experience a rapid decline in my right knee – not even able to walk with my trusty cane for over two weeks.
The only bright spot was Protector. I bought the hardback for the collection but also a copy for the Kindle (have read through Protector three time – ripped through first for the story, then more slowly for comprehension, and last time savored the really really good parts (there are a lot of them!) Next time we meet I’ll ask for you to sign my copy. I’m in the process of accumulating the Foreigner series for my Kindle as they become available. That way I’ll have them if I have to have the second knee replaced (a real possibility).
I roared when I saw the post by Paul yesterday. The cat looks just like readyDaughter’s cat who is currently living with us. Miss Halloween Huntress has been paying too much attention to the birds in our backyard through the narrow venetian blinds. I expect to catch her in that attitude any day now.
One thing that interested me was trying different punctuation in the “You’re… home… early…”
My back corner bedroom is a computer workroom. Yesterday it seemed like I had a good opportunity to pull the lid off my LAN file server and see if one of the fans is going, causing it to make noise for a couple minutes on cold power-on, then stop. May be the CD drive too. So I pulled up the blind for daylight. Saw a scrub jay alight in a rhody out the window. Then I noticed his mate on a nest in the middle, right outside the window. 🙂
Oh, of course the computer made no unusual sounds! 🙁
Wish I could get a kindle version of Protector in NZ. Can’t wait to read it when I get the chance 🙂