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rebeccmeisterI suppose it's at least progress to notice that trying to get myself to work on manuscripts triggers an itch to work on tangible projects and get various other things sorted out.
I *did* make some actual progress on two of the current manuscripts yesterday, yay. One is a project on seed harvester ant queens that I worked on with a graduate student and some undergrads back in the summer of 2021. The grad student (now a postdoc) and I have a standing weekly meeting to help ensure we make slow but relentless forward motion on the paper. Right now I am mostly refining the Introduction and Methods, but I do also need to review the Results again so we can then start working on drafting the Discussion.
The other manuscript is an unpublished dissertation chapter where I just can't stop collecting more data. That's a project where over the past year I've had a whole team of undergraduates help me to weigh and measure the head widths of thousands of leafcutter ants. We made good progress overall, but there are still ~15 colonies to finish up out of the 80 or so. Slow but steady progress, but perhaps it's some small consolation that it's a project that doesn't require too much thinking at the moment?
Anyway, brains working the way that they do, I have to allow for some daydreaming in the midst of attempting to write. Hence the travel planning and whatnot. But the daydreaming was also motivation to get the next oars sanded and primed, and to think about actually working on a solar-powered bike parts chandelier I want to make, and about getting back to work on various sewing projects, too. Soon.
But then I missed rowing practice this morning because allergies really got me down, so instead I finally got the soaker hose set up on the garden. This was becoming a rather urgent project, because the strawberry plants are all showing signs of wanting to produce a rather sizeable strawberry crop, but if the plants aren't well-hydrated the berries will be tiny and disappointing.
See what I mean?
So, soaker hose deployed!
I also planted a bunch of marigold seeds in among the chaos of the driveway garden:
This isn't the best photo of the driveway garden, but this year S dug out one of the burning bushes and replaced it with Brandi Glanville, the apricot tree that tried to kill me earlier this spring. He also added a strawberry plant, and I added a newer Dark Dahlia, which is already putting out lovely blooms. The hosta in the lower left of the photo and the rhubarb in the center were planted previously, and the back end of the bed has been taken over by some sort of lily. So, lots of random things going on in this garden bed, which is totally fine and fun.
Anyway, it's nice to have a part of the yard be experimental. The driveway bed could definitely use a bunch of soil amendment, though. It's just compacted clay right now, as a result of years of neglect.
Martha would have liked to help me, but she was forced to remain inside the catio, much to her dismay.
George also would have liked to help me, but he requires direct supervision on the catio, so since he was not permitted out he instead decided to inspect our freezer magnet Scrabble game.
I *did* make some actual progress on two of the current manuscripts yesterday, yay. One is a project on seed harvester ant queens that I worked on with a graduate student and some undergrads back in the summer of 2021. The grad student (now a postdoc) and I have a standing weekly meeting to help ensure we make slow but relentless forward motion on the paper. Right now I am mostly refining the Introduction and Methods, but I do also need to review the Results again so we can then start working on drafting the Discussion.
The other manuscript is an unpublished dissertation chapter where I just can't stop collecting more data. That's a project where over the past year I've had a whole team of undergraduates help me to weigh and measure the head widths of thousands of leafcutter ants. We made good progress overall, but there are still ~15 colonies to finish up out of the 80 or so. Slow but steady progress, but perhaps it's some small consolation that it's a project that doesn't require too much thinking at the moment?
Anyway, brains working the way that they do, I have to allow for some daydreaming in the midst of attempting to write. Hence the travel planning and whatnot. But the daydreaming was also motivation to get the next oars sanded and primed, and to think about actually working on a solar-powered bike parts chandelier I want to make, and about getting back to work on various sewing projects, too. Soon.
But then I missed rowing practice this morning because allergies really got me down, so instead I finally got the soaker hose set up on the garden. This was becoming a rather urgent project, because the strawberry plants are all showing signs of wanting to produce a rather sizeable strawberry crop, but if the plants aren't well-hydrated the berries will be tiny and disappointing.
See what I mean?
So, soaker hose deployed!
I also planted a bunch of marigold seeds in among the chaos of the driveway garden:
This isn't the best photo of the driveway garden, but this year S dug out one of the burning bushes and replaced it with Brandi Glanville, the apricot tree that tried to kill me earlier this spring. He also added a strawberry plant, and I added a newer Dark Dahlia, which is already putting out lovely blooms. The hosta in the lower left of the photo and the rhubarb in the center were planted previously, and the back end of the bed has been taken over by some sort of lily. So, lots of random things going on in this garden bed, which is totally fine and fun.
Anyway, it's nice to have a part of the yard be experimental. The driveway bed could definitely use a bunch of soil amendment, though. It's just compacted clay right now, as a result of years of neglect.
Martha would have liked to help me, but she was forced to remain inside the catio, much to her dismay.
George also would have liked to help me, but he requires direct supervision on the catio, so since he was not permitted out he instead decided to inspect our freezer magnet Scrabble game.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-28 06:18 pm (UTC)Say more, please?
no subject
Date: 2026-05-28 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-05-28 09:16 pm (UTC)I suppose that's also living sustainably, for curious values of sustainable.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-29 02:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-05-29 08:19 pm (UTC)Stone fruits will be having a very hard time this year in this part of the Hudson Valley because of that one spell of 85° weather we had in March (where all the fruit trees bloomed) that was immediately followed by five nights of frost (where all the fruit trees' pistils froze and fell off).