lydamorehouse | Monday Comes in Like a Kerfuffle

I should probably comment on the LATEST SFWA disaster, but as an Old who has f*cking managed to keep up with the times I am losing patience and my mind. I will say, I think SFWA acted accordingly. Also, are we surprised? I would like future SFWA Grandmasters to be voted on by members of SFWA, honestly.

Now to something completely boring, though possibly no less predictable.

Backyard garden

Image: Backyard shade garden. Blue Virginia bluebells in foreground; Pink bleeding hearts in the background.

I've been doing a lot of gardening now that we are back from our big trip east to retrieve the kiddo. I understand the complaints, but I am fond of these cool mornings, myself.

On Sunday, our good friends Gerriann and Barb gave me a whole bunch of natives from their garden. They gave me native bee balm (monarda), purple coneflower (Echinacea pupurea), hoary vervain (Verbena stricta), stiff goldenrod (Solidago rigida), common boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum), and spotted joe-pye weed (Eutrochium maculatum.) Also, among the non-natives, but pollinator-friendly, I picked up a BUNCH of Autumn Joy sedum.

Hopefully, the Lawns2Legumes people will accept those as "in kind" donations. I guess we'll have to see. I would take a picture, of where they are right now, but they honestly look like sad little transplants in dirt. I should probably snap a couple of photos for documentation, however. Hmmm, maybe before I do that, I ought to pick up a bit of mulch from Menards so that they look less haphazard. (A microcosm of my gardening right here, folks. Me: gets plants for free, slaps them in the ground without much thought, and then thinks: sh*t, I need to figure out how to make this actually look intentional.)

At any rate, Ger and Barb also gave me some ferns, hostas, and Solomon's Seal, all of which ended up in various empty spots in the shade gardens.

I am hoping to go get the plants for my actual project at some point this week. Oh, which reminded me. The Lawns2Legumes folks assigned me a coach/gardening mentor at my request. We are mostly exchanging emails at this point. As usual, I am probably not taking full advantage of this mentorship. I should probably ask questions, but right now I'm all, "K. Gonna plant these and see if they live!"

At any rate, stay out of trouble, y'all. Hope you're having a lovely Monday!

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SFWA, sigh. I guess it wouldn't be SFWA without SOMETHING happening.

"Gonna plant these and see if they live!" I feel this method quite strongly.

It is my life.

And, yeah, SFWA....

I had better not comment on the SFWA mess, though I have to say the Twitter responses flinging about "woke" and "cancel culture" when the tweeters, if they are not bots -- well, if they are too, I suppose -- have no idea what those terms even mean, is enough to give anybody pause. Blargh.

Your shady patch is very pretty right now.

And thanks for inadvertently reminding me that when I went to an outdoor MinnStf meeting Saturday, the host gave me two ferns and a pack of violets. Vast stretches of her yard contain ferns and/or violets, and I can't think that digging up a handful would make any difference; but I think she wanted a bit of space for her tulips to feel happy in.

I have enough violets to candy them and sell them on eBay if I ever did either of those things, but these are a different shade of purple than mine and they were just sitting there looking pathetic in their flimsy plastic six-pack pot.

But they have to actually be planted. BRB.

P.

P.S. Vigorously salute your Lawns to Legumes commitment. I'm about to scatter some clover seed if I can find where I stored it.

Okay, okay, okay, I am soooooo jealous of your violet patch. If you ever decide you need fewer, PLEASE, PLEASE let me know!! Or if your MinnStf friend wants to get rid of more. I have been eyeing the neighbor's boulevard, wondering if I could sneak out in the middle of the night and liberate a few.

Most of the violets are white, either Canada violet (yellow center, pink splash on the back) or, um, not Canada violet (purple center). I have lots, you can totally have some. The white violets are a little larger than the purple ones.

I also have an unexpected resurgence of freckled violets (they look dingy white from a distance but are pleasingly spattered with tiny pale purple spots). You could have some of those too.

I'll have to inventory the regular purple ones, which got a very slow start this year, but I'd be surprised if I couldn't give you at least a few.

And I'll email my friend and ask, but she has always been very generous with her plant overflow.

I'm still being fanatically cautious about any indoor encounter, but hey, the violets are outside.

P.

It is completely up to you. It is also something we could do next year? I am not in a hurry, but I am covetous of any and all violets and so ANY TIME you want to get rid of them, we can arrange to do that.

The white and basic purple ones will be there. But if you want freckled ones, we might want to revisit the idea this fall, since those are irregular and may disappear underground again.

If I suddenly feel that I must dig a lot of them up, I'll let you know.

P.

Also I forgot to say that part of my exasperation around the most recent kerfuffle is that the fallout is almost as predictable as the kerfuffle. So, perhaps we are of a mind? I'm not sure. Something for a non-online conversation, I suspect.

I think we probably are, but yes, not online is probably better. P.

What is there even to say about this totally predictable occurrence?

That hasn't been said two or three kerfuffles ago?? NOTHING. Not a damn thing.

I kinda thought Lackey was sketch and I was surprised that she was getting some kind of lifetime award, so.

Well, the thing to know, which I did NOT, is that the SFWA president gets to appoint whomever they like. So, Lackey was NOT the choice of SFWA membership as a whole. I don't know if that makes the situation better or worse, but it at least explains part of it.

hadn't heard/seen about the SFWA so thank you for the pointer. so totally not surprised.

Given her track record with trans issues, no, no surprise AT ALL.

Monday Comes in Like a Kerfuffle

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Violets!

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Re: Violets!

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