Blood, Boston, B-bus, Baskin-Robbins

I didn’t realize how many tulips have come up this spring until I decided this evening to put down dry blood around each and every one of ’em.
This is to prevent squirrels from eating the flowers, which are now fat buds and will be out soon.
We don’t have as many squirrels as we used to, since one of the neighbors decided to capture them in his Have-A-Heart trap and release them to a spot across the highway. He’s gotten over 150.
Still, you can’t be too careful.

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What the Heck……?

So, Pope Benedict XVI has not yet repudiated the assinine, paranoid comments he made back in 2002 that the reports of child sexual abuse by priests in the American press were really just anti-Catholic propaganda:
“In the United States, there is constant news on this topic…one comes to the conclusion that it is intentional, manipulated – that there is a desire to discredit the church.”

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How Much Mulch?

Mulch in bulk is measured by the inconvenient and non-intuitive square yard. Since most of us compute garden or yard area in feet, it’s a challenge to figure out how much mulch to buy.
Turns out, there’s a simple formula for figuring this out:
Area to be covered (in square feet) x depth of mulch (in inches) divided by 324 = square yards (or fraction thereof) of mulch*
Why 324? Because that’s the amount of mulch, spread to a thickness of 1 inch, in a square yard (3 x 3 x 3 x 12).

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I’ve Been Wondering About This

The 102nd Fighter Interceptor Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base, part of the Mass. Military Reservation (MMR), which overlaps sections of Bourne, Mashpee, and Sandwich, may be relocated in the next round of military base cutbacks.
According to the story, the combination of the high cost of snow removal this past winter, the generally screwed-up groundwater cleanup effort and the fact that the Base is in Kennedy/Kerryland count for three strikes against the Base.
Also, according to the story, the Mass. congressional delegation is a lot more worried about protecting Hanscom AFB in Bedford than its poor little cousin on the Upper Cape.

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I Still Don’t Get It

Stirling Newberry, who writes for truthout and other online pubs, believes that you need to balance the trade deficit (a result of the cost of foreign oil) with the sale of American assets, not just American goods.
But to avoid passing control of US companies to overseas investors, you have to keep rich Americans happy: “bring(ing) investment in (to the US) means that one must also cut taxes on the wealthy, so that companies remain under the control of Americans, rather than being bought up by foreigners, particularly those from nations that do not have internal economies. This creates a budget deficit.”

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Gardener’s Diary

Did some clean-up of Peter’s front yard yesterday, a little pruning, a little weeding, planted some pretty violas in a nice little container garden they got last year, didn’t have to do much, since most of the annuals came back.
Mulched the front where the new connection to town water went in, watered everything, especially the bushes and the new lawn, which is coming in thanks to faithful tending by the gentleman of the house.
Pulled out or cut back some cat briar in the rock garden. The garden is starting off its fourth year with a fair number of healthy-looking perennials, proving my hypothesis that it takes 3-5 years (unless you’re a millionaire) to establish even a modest garden. We think Emme’s Pot of Gold reseeded, and that pleases her very much. The lungwort has already started to bloom.
Doesn’t sound like a lot, but I was there over 2 hours. I must say, the yard has never looked better, mostly due to the excellent work by the person we hired to do the major cleanup of leaves and other detritus from the winter.
What a great weekend to be outside!
And considering what we started with when we bought the house, I am pretty happy with the progress we’ve made on improving its curbside appeal.