Harry Potter Fans With No Life

I am approx 900 km (560 miles) away from the fires. If they get to where I live, then that means over half of the province has been burned - can't see that happening. The winds have not been strong the last couple days so the smoke is definitely in the air here.

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As much as I like a nice warm house, fire can be seriously not good.

lol - so very true Figgy.

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Its been gray and damp for a couple days here. Since it is also about 20 degrees short of as warm as it usually is, some of the damp manifests as white... The quote below is for Denver, I'm about 3K higher than they are, so this time of year the 40F matches up, but by the time it gets to them having 70Fs we'll only have 60Fs.






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it is good to have the moisture Figgy ... keeps you out of the fire hazard zone!

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Been pretty decent here, warm with typical afternoon clouds and an occasional shower - stuff we usually get in the summer. Black flies and mosquitoes are bad this year. Wound up being their dinner Friday walking home from the bus stop. Itching is not as bad but making me think twice before going out my front door. Still getting some of the smoke haze here but it's only giving the sky that milky look.

the winds and rain have dissipated the smoke in my area ... it is heading east.

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We are supposed to have a couple really nice days (around 70F/21C), then it goes back to Spring-y rains. It really delightful, actually. Some of the days have been overcast, but most only partly cloudy.

Last year our whole town/county had a problem with Common Tansy, which the government has declared "an invasive species". Having done that they want to spray the colonies with nasty chemicals (glyphosate), but I told them I didn't want it in my yard because of grandkids and critters needing a safe place to wander about in. Anyhow, the guy who helped out with my mom said his parents had also had to do battle with tansy and used white vinegar. You just pour it directly onto the plants, preferably before they get very tall. Since they'd gotten such a foothold last year they are around places I didn't realize, but, the vinegar seems to be working. On the parts of the yard that aren't exactly flat I have to pour really s-l-o-w-l-y so that it can sink in instead of run off but, vinegar isn't known to cause genetic damage like the herbicidal chemicals do, so its worth the effort. John said it will need to be redone a few times each season for a while until the plants finally admit defeat. Even that seems better than the evil chemicals. So far it is killing off the clumps, though!

vinegar is an excellent weed killer - but only if you can get it strong enough. I know of a chemical company that is trying to legalize this product in a super-strength for the sole purpose of becoming a natural weed-killing product. They are not having much success though.


we are suppose to have rain for most of the week. There was rain/thunder & lightning all around us yesterday, but not a drop landed in town ... pity! Oh well, maybe today or tomorrow! That way I don't have to water my new plants.

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I also had some slices of onion that were "past human consumption", and thought they might interesting to experiment with. There was only about 1/2 cup of them so couldn't test a lot, but put them on one small clump. The onions, too, seem to be toxic to Tansy. Now I'm wondering if "companion planting" onions would do anything interesting.