This Is Not What It Looks Like

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

This is Havelock-cat, and this is not what I’m doing.

I’m doing some gardening that has to be done today.

Post after, probably early afternoon.

35 thoughts on “This Is Not What It Looks Like”

  3. Hope the gardening is a recharge for you. It’s good to see things you plant grow.

    1. Last week I planted precisely 199 bush beans in a fit of depression (it’s complicated). This week I’ve been watching them come up and being unutterably smug. 🙂

  4. I definitely won’t object to Havey pictures! His brothers in spirit R and C say hello from my computer desk and chair!

  6. Good luck with the gardening. I’ll be looking forward to the vignette challenge prompt.

    In the meantime, I need to work on merchandise for the retail business, getting ready for next week’s camping event. After that, newsletter to the retail list.

  8. Enjoy the peace of the garden. It’s work, but it can be meditative and calming at times.

    I helped the spouse prune the tomatoes early, then mowed the lawn in the late morning heat. Cats watched from the window while the dog just tuckered out and took a nap.

    Later this afternoon we will check what the freeze dryer at the God-Mothers’ has produced this week. We bought it, she runs it.

  9. It looks to me like Havey has the right idea. I’m ready for a lazy Sunday.

  11. I planted everything yesterday in anticipation of last night’s rain. Plant, plant, plant.

    More needed. Later.

    1. Needed to water it again today despite last night’s rain. May be more rain tomorrow.

  12. Jimmy is taco’d between my legs. I’m doing some breath work and he sees that as an invitation. 🥰

  15. And people wonder why I claim that cats are either liquids or gasses (they expand to fill all available volume) . . .

  16. That looks like a Havelock who’s decided you need a day off…

    So, on an off topic, have more questions on how women typically operate. In this case, separating couples. I’ve realized there is a romantic arc going on, and not all of the characters are onboard with it. There is at least one character who does not approve, and is well positioned to plant landmines.

    I know for guys, if you know someone is in a relationship that you think is a bad idea, if the person is also a guy, you tell him once and stay out of it. If its a girl, you don’t stick your hand into that there buzz saw. Bad idea. The most you’ll do is pull aside a female relative who is friendly with said girl, give them the list of reasons why that guy is ton of trouble and let them handle it or whatever. If you are the girl’s father or surrogate father, you’ll pull the guy aside and inform him that you have a shovel, forty acres, and if he hurts her no one will know what happened to him. And apply curfews.

    All of these are about as subtle as steel girders raining from the heavens. I’m guessing women handle this differently? I’m assuming the direct approach is generally unwise, but I can see quietly engineering situations where the guy has plenty of opportunities to screw up.

    How does this typically work?

    Thank you,

    Harry Voyager

    1. Even more off-topic-er, but every time I see your handle I think of this kickass song from Nevermore (I, Voyager):

      Also, I do believe you’re on the right track with women being subtle and manipulative…although what form that manipulation is likely to take and how to write it, I have no idea. I don’t really understand people at all, let alone the female variety. 🙂

    2. The extent of my wisdom is that even if the girl in question is your sister, it’s not helpful to offer your opinion that she hasn’t known the guy long enough and she’s being hasty in getting married to him. Also, when she volunteers 30 years later that marrying this guy was a mistake, you don’t say “I told you so”. But that’s not very helpful to your scenario, is it?

    3. Woman trying to persuade a guy away from an unsuitable mate usually either tries to make the unsuitable mate look untrustworthy or just gently hints that maybe unsuitable mate isn’t that into him. Woman trying to persuade another woman away from an unsuitable mate, usually tries to make the unsuitable mate seem low-status/embarrassing/undesirable, or just gently hints that maybe unsuitable mate isn’t that into her. The reversal of those tactics (trying to make the man’s unsuitable mate look embarrassing/low-status, or the woman’s unsuitable mate look untrustworthy) doesn’t necessarily work, because 1). men generally aren’t that easy to embarrass, and are usually not as hypergamous as women, rather the reverse, if anything; and 2). many women are drawn to dangerous men, and making an unsuitable mate appear untrustworthy just makes him a man of mystery, meaning a man of danger, meaning the attempt to persuade the woman away from him just backfired.

      1. And trying to bait him with another girl runs the double risk of him not taking the bait, and her decided that just makes him more interesting.

        Thinking about it, I do recall in Black Sheep, it wasn’t that the guy was chasing other girls that pried the other girl loose from him; it was that the other girl he was chasing rather publicly humiliated him about it all, a told everyone she had been stringing him along so her friend could snipe him on bidding for the estate.

  17. We’re almost ready to let Kat-the-dog run around on the property, but there’s a gap between below one stretch of fence. Do not want Kat to bug the neighbor’s horse, so chicken wire is called for.

    We finally got weather good enough to work outside, so it’s a mix of getting the garden ready for seedlings, starting the seeds, and clearing flammable debris from around the trees. Today it’s pine cones. Need to rake pine needles, but that’s mostly tractor work. I love my 9′ rake. 🙂

      1. Chicken wire works well in this application. It’s easy to install, not obtrusive, and lightweight. I only need 50′, so if (I hope!) it’s in stock, I’m golden. A previous owner did such along the 1000′ back fence, and I had to redo that one for reasons, so it’s not a problem. If I can’t get it, I have a few alternatives. Rocks of the appropriate size aren’t easy to get at; I have some, but the ones easy to get at got used for a fence anchor. Surfaced rocks are either way too small or aspire to be boulders. Concrete blocks are heavy, and I don’t want to have to take the truck into town to get more if I don’t have to. Not at current gas prices.

        I used a few concrete blocks to stop a couple of racoon/jackrabbit thoroughfares; the raccoons might be strong enough to move them out of the way; we’ll see. OTOH, they might just dig another trench. I think Kat will stay near us; because of badgers/coyotes and the inevitable ex-squirrel, we’ve figured it’s a bad idea to let a dog wander without us being out. Our two previous dogs got horribly ill from what our vet termed “Field Indiscretion”. The antibiotic needed (Cipro) caused problems later on for one. Sigh.

  18. I think one of my bay cuttings has rooted. If yes, that means I can take the clone-daughter of the seedling I’ve nurtured for quarter-century with me

    Gardening is magic

    1. Sis posted a pic of “Grandma Toots’s” plant she now has (Mom has a cutting from itas well, but, hers isn’t thriving as much as sis’) Gran Toots passed in 1999, and the plant had been hers for a fairly long time.

  20. I think in Jane Austen’s epistolary and gently funny novel “Lady Susan”, female family members identify Lady S as trouble, and – spoiler maybe? – they set up a more valuable target for her to pursue instead. Of course, in Jane Austen’s world, a “relationship” usually involves a lot less proximity until marriage than by modern standards, although elopement, running off together, occurs, usually with at least a claimed intention to get married, for instance in Scotland where you don’t need parents’ permission.

    1. Lady Susan is a problem who solves herself IIRC. She needs to have her daughter marry a rich stupid dude, to support them both. daughter is not cooperating, manages to find support from the parents of a young man Susan is stringing along to boost her own ego, Susan marries rich guy herself, young man becomes disillusioned, his parents dangle Lady Susan’s daughter in front of him as a replacement goldfish, and the two live happily ever after. All this is summarized in the last couple of pages, BTW, not shown.

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