In the city of good abode

Oh what a feeling Gecko on the ceiling! <sung to the tune of Lionel Richie's Dancing on the Ceiling>:

Grilled Italian sausages with charred Egyptian walking onions:

Seen while walking - White-breasted Nuthatch:

I would have like to have gotten a sharper image than this:

Gold to a goldfinch:

Saturday dinner:

Surprise in The Wasteland:

I didn't notice the tiny bee peeping out of one blossom & jumping spider perched on another when I was taking this photo:

On this week's episode of Gray Squirrels Are Bastards:

Volunteer peanut plant:

Surprise lily? No shit, I had forgotten I planted these where I did:

He is hard to see but there is a Goldfinch eating echinacea seeds in this photo:

Dinner one night:

Made a shandy with Maine Root ginger ale & Red Stripe:

Not as big as we'd like but still a nice potato harvest from a single pot:

This Friday's harvest. All those tomatoes are from volunteer plants:

Sunday harvest:

Wednesday harvest. All the tomatoes, except for the largest fruit, are from volunteer plants:

The peninsula in the front yard is a pollinator magnet this year even more than before:

I met this gecko today:

It told me someone had tried to bite its ass off but all they got was its tail:

Me: "What distance you need us at? We good with fists, big hammer, submachinegun ... we & I be a handful."

Silverback & the Red Menace: WTF are you talking about dad?

A gecko trapped in a orb weaver's web. I didn't think this was possible given the relative size of predator & prey:

Our kale got ravaged by cabbage white caterpillars so I gave it a severe cut back. The caterpillars & leaves they infested were drowned in water & added to the compost:

When your echinacea blossoms start fading like this, you might be tempted to dead head them. In our experience, it is better to leave them alone. The second flush of blossoms are never that impressive and, if you leave them be, the flowers will make seed that the birds, especially goldfinches, will love more than sunflowers:

Friday's cucumber harvest:

The star of Friday dinner - New York strip steaks:

When I was a kid, I tried several times to get a Venus flytrap to grow. This is the first time that I didn't just get one to grow but it looks like it is trying to blossom:

Dinner one night:

My queen & I trekked down to Sardis Lake in Mississippi on Saturday. We didn't catch any fish but it was a glorious day:

We went fishing closer to home this Sunday & caught 18 bream. These were the remains after they were filleted but this is not waste:

Here there be bream carcasses buried in our garden... feeding the microbes & enriching the living soil:

Volunteers all. Seriously, we intended this water trough container for our okra but volunteer cucumbers, watermelon, pumpkin & tomato plants claimed the soil. We decided to leave it as is. Why break the unbroken thread:

Our faerie watermelons:

Not tomatoes. These are fruit on one of our potato plants. They are toxic so they can't be consumed but we're hoping to collect seeds from them:

The view heading to our back patio:

Harvest:

The grill on Memorial Day:

Meager blueberry harvest:

First zucchini of 2026:

Ant on pollination duty:

I saw it through the grapevine:

Hawk feather:

Low Country boil on the grill:

Sadly, no pictures of the crab, shrimp & lobster:

Not a bad view to grill to:

Your host looking happy to be grilling but a little distracted because he hurt his back a few days ago:

A pair of airplanes in close formation. They sounded old school... possibly vintage but I couldn't find any upcoming airshows in TN or AR that might account for classic prop planes:

Unintentionally, abstract photo of a sphinx moth visiting our honeysuckle:

After the "supreme" court decision in Louisiana, repugnant cunt lawmakers in Tennessee rushed to redistrict the state. I've often talked about my county, Shelby County, where my home town of Memphis is located as Tennessee's little blue dot. Well, the Republican bigots in the Tennessee General Assembly split Shelby county three ways. They also split Davidson County where Nashville is located three ways. Why? Well, because in the general election in 2016 Nashville sided with Clinton and in 2020 they sided with Biden and in 2024 they sided with Harris.

To be honest, this pisses me off but I want to choose optimism. While it is true that this repugnant cunt move dilutes the voting power of the citizens of Memphis & Nashville, it also gives hope to the Democrat & progressive voters in those deep red counties that the repugnant cunts sought to disenfranchise Memphis & Nashville with. Prior to redistricting, I've looked at all those deep red counties & I've seen the Democrat voters that turn out year after year to tilt against the windmill. Serious fucking hat tip to y'all. Maybe, redistricting will give them power & agency. What about the voters in those counties that just gave up & stopped voting because it seemed hopeless that their voices would be heard? Maybe now is their chance.

My queen & I are now in district 8 which includes Haywood county. My queen & I have fished in Haywood County for years in the Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge. Several years ago, my queen really needed a bathroom & the only decent one nearby was a medical facility in Haywood. That medical facility has been closed for a few years now due to repugnant cunt cuts to funding for rural medical care.

Seen while walking The Wasteland -

Raider camp:

Meanwhile, back at the homestead -

Volunteer pumpkin:

Friday harvest:

Impulse buy at the grocery store:

Another year, another opossum. We relocated it far enough away that it isn't likely to find its way back to our garden:

I have never seen a fly with this coloration before. It looks like a some variety of soldier fly:

The Red Menace lurking in wait:

We gave up trying to grow hostas and other shade plants under our weeping cherry. The plants were always struggling so we added cypress mulch and three fragrant flowering shrubs that are supposed to be able to stand the abuse from the cherry:

We made chicken broth with bay leaves & walking onions from our garden:

A Ruby-throated hummingbird visiting our firecracker plant:

Just grilling in the rain:

I am extremely disappointed that not one of the twenty odd photos I took of this ant carrying a shred of rose blossom turned out remotely decent:

Male ruby-throated hummingbird visiting our red buckeye:

The strawberry harvest has been nice this year:

The view from the backyard seating area:

This is the best our firecracker plant has ever looked:

I bought a pack of "spicy microgreen" seeds at Dollar General for a buck. This is what happened when I allowed them grow beyond the "micro" stage. They are delicious. A nice punch of spice to a salad or a mess of greens:

Roses at dusk:

My queen got crafty with our plant labels this year:

White-throated sparrow in the garden. They have hung around the garden later than in previous years:

It doesn't look like much right now but we have our onions planted:

We've transplanted the three pepper plants that we overwintered. They are acclimating nicely even if they look a little Doctor Seuss:

We refortified one of the tree stump plantings. That us a mystery cucurbit in the center. My bet is on it being a pumpkin:

Will we get a grape harvest this year:

We had a lot of warm weather this winter then a cold snap & we are seeing a lot of blossom damage like this on our blueberry bushes so the blueberry harvest is likely to be less productive this year:

Discovered these irises are invasive non-natives so, despite their beauty, they had to come out:

Seen while walking - positive motivation in chalk graffiti:

Free traps found on the curb:

The strawberries are starting to make nicely:

I know it isn't clear but that is a tiny bee's butt in a hole in our home's brickwork:

I've posted about my wounded warriors collection before here: https://www.tumblr.com/inthecityofgoodabode/189636568646/my-wounded-warriors and here: https://www.tumblr.com/inthecityofgoodabode/620593798369673216/free-tomatoes-the-airman. I was planting some ferns in the southwest corner of our backyard when I found this WWII marine:

He had obviously been through hell so I cleaned him up & placed him with the rest of my wounded warriors:

Volunteer tomatoes popping up with a recently planted verbena:

I haven't posted any walking photos in awhile because I sprained a ligament in my left foot so I've had to take it easy for a few weeks. This Saturday I finally felt healed enough to stretch my legs proper:

These two trees have a story:

Most of the old dead trees that the blue herons nested in previously came down in storms last year so they are using live trees which makes the nest harder to spot & photograph:

I thought about it then decided "no":

Non-native Mylar. It isn't the first I've seen here so apparently Mylars instinctively seek out a natural environment where they can break down & finish their life cycles as microplastic contaminants. Thanks, capitalism! Where would we be without your innovations?:

Grilling in the rain with my Crater of Diamonds State Park baseball cap to keep the rain off my glasses and, for those who might be wondering, yes, Redhats routinely mistake me for one of their own:

Silverback is my constant grilling companion... even in the rain:

The view from the grill:

The view of the grill:

I'm surprise he let me get this close:

Easter dinner - grilled chicken wings just like Jesus & his disciples had at the Last Supper:

Snake in a bathroom:

We've been working on building small raised beds using found materials including wood pallets:

Finally found a use for these two cinders blocks & concrete garden border I found on the curb a few years back:

Still "no more plants this year":

Because it isn't all gardening... often there is wine too:

Homebrew liquid fertilizer. Weeds (especially dandelions) plus water. It smells bad but properly diluted it is really beneficial for your plants:

Our turnips are bolting:

How to remove a tree stump the slow but fun way:

We successfully overwintered three pepper plants:

We made some hanging strawberry containers using some bits of old gutter I found in the storeroom attic:

I added these bits of wood to help them hang a little more level:

We did clean up in the backyard garden this weekend. Some things got converted into ash & biochar:

I like the way this woodland phlox spreads. It forms little clumps or communities rather than a wall of invasion like our blue salvia:

"We're not buying any more plants this year...":

Our crabapple blossomed for the first time. They smell amazing. I don't expect many but I hope we get a couple of fruit this year just to taste:

We harvested some of our leeks today. You can smell them all over the house. It is glorious:

We knew it was a gamble & our bay tree did die back hard but there is new growth so maybe we can manage to keep it alive year to year with heavy leaf mulching:

We had a cut of beef roast & my queen said, "Do you want to try grilling it?" In deed I would. There are angels still weeping over how good it was: