come and gone. in the blink of an eye. seems like it only just got started. I could carry on but I think I made my point. the year is over. so much to ponder. so much to wonder. 427+ jobs applied for. 100+ margaritas. 45+ days packing. 3+ days moving. nyc. tucson. milwaukee. chicago. devo. blondie. cats. lion king, beauty, beast. paint. pool. family. friends. 2010.
Days have been pretty warm as of late, 60s, close to 70. Cools down at night. That all changed. Rain pushed through this weekend, temperatures dropped. There's snow in the forecast. You'd think I would be used to this by now, but no, I am not.
I've been meaning to post for a few days now but have let the days get away from me. Since Trick or Treat (which I completely enjoyed, even though there were only 11 kids, my favorite a little girl dressed as Red Riding Hood) Shane and I have been working on the house. More rooms painted. Now there's evening twilight, sachet (guest room), honey beige, useful brown, brickhouse (kitchen, dining room), sage (foyer, hallway) on the walls.
The neighbor next door came over and asked if it was okay if he bought insecticide to spray on the crab apple tree on the corner of the lot. It has been overtaken by woolly aphids. insects that live on plant fluids, and produces a filamentous waxy white covering which resembles cotton or wool. The adults are winged and move to new locations where they lay egg masses. The larvae often form large cottony masses on twigs, for protection from predators. They come from Japan. Woolly aphids feed by inserting their needle-like mouthparts into plant tissue to withdraw sap. They are able to feed on leaves, buds, bark, and even the roots of the plant. As a result of feeding on the sap, woolly aphids produce a sticky substance known as honeydew, which can lead to sooty mold on the plant. While wooly aphids generally aren't much cause for alarm, they can cause rather unsightly damage to plants, which is particularly a problem for growers of ornamentals. Symptoms of feeding include twisted and curled leaves, yellowed foliage, poor plant growth, low plant vigor, and branch dieback. Further minor damage can be caused by the honeydew that woolly aphids secrete, which is difficult to remove. While the honeydew itself doesn't cause too much of a problem, the honeydew can cause sooty mold to grow, which can block some of the sunlight needed for photosynthesis.
Circa 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane, a sycophantic, lean, lanky, and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer, Baltus Van Tassel. As Crane leaves a party he attended at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night, he is pursued by the Headless Horseman, who is supposedly the ghost of a Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during some nameless battle of the American Revolutionary War, and who rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head. Ichabod mysteriously disappears.
(word play on weekend.)
