Agreed. We have kept wearing masks in specific places (public transit, crowded events, airplanes) and it really does make a difference. I never get sick from airplane trips any more, which used to be a fairly regular occurrence.

I will say, I was never able to figure out how to stop a properly fitted mask from giving me a terrible headache after 8 hours of use so I’m glad I work from home and don’t need to make the choice of mask vs comfort at work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zZzn-KxeRI

I have a white Prius named Shadowfax so if I need to go somewhere fast I can yell “run Shadowfax, show us the meaning of haste!”

Local takeout ftw. I haven’t eaten at a pizza chain in years and don’t miss it at all!

Now the real question in New England is Italian-style vs Greek-style pizza

Another vote for mindustry! That game is a blast.

I didn’t know I needed Andy Serkis singing the songs in the Hobbit until I heard it, but it turns out I did. Dude has an amazing singing voice.

Highly recommend IGNEA if you like melodic metal. A few faves:

Jinnslammer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF_qqeXzM4g

Disenchantment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnV9vpEit6E

Mermaids https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU9WFEwsQQw

But gosh their stuff is just all awesome.

When watching eagle nest cams, I’ve seen little birds and mammals hanging around eagle nests and scooping up scraps of leftover prey. I think in many cases a large raptor isn’t going to go chasing around a little birds when they’ve already caught something bigger and the little birds play clean up crew and take away scraps that would be too small for the larger birds. Not sure if that’s the case here but it’s a cool little cooperative situation to notice. You’ll also see little birds nesting under osprey nests, probably for the same reason.

They help significantly to combat the heat island effect in cities and provide shade and cooler microclimates for people to shelter in when it’s hot.

Just try going to a shady tree-lined path vs. a paved treeless path on a sunny day and you’ll be pretty clear on the meaning of this meme.

So yes we can’t stop global warming with trees alone but we can mitigate the local effects of it all while providing habitat for birds and shade for people and lots of other benefits besides.

This article has a pretty good review if you want to take a look at some of the benefits! https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/12/4371

And here’s a more plain-language website about urban trees: https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/the-power-of-urban-trees-2023

Cucumbers need a lot of direct sun and a lot of space, either vertical (trellised) or horizontal (along the ground). Put them in a wide open sunny part of your yard. They’re also fairly susceptible to powdery mildew so keep an eye on them if the weather is rainy.

You mentioned you’re in Maine, which means you have a relatively short growing season. You might want to start your cucumber seeds inside to get a jump start on the season in the spring. Otherwise just make sure you get them started right away once it’s okay to plant outdoors so that you don’t run out of room at the end of the season.

Good luck and let us know how it goes! Cucumbers are a very rewarding plant, right up there with tomatoes for me as far as bang for your buck. Homegrown cucumbers have a crunch that totally knocks store bought ones out of the park.

Other vegetables I like growing that grow well in my corner of New England: Basil (grow enough to make several batches of pesto and freeze it) Tomatoes Sugar snap peas Leafy greens, especially collards and Swiss Chard Potatoes in 5-gallon buckets Hot peppers

My mother in law lets her cucumbers grow along the ground and they do great. Not sure if she buys a specific variety that’s not for climbing but it’s definitely possible to grow cukes without a trellis. Same as you would squash.

That said, a trellis saves a lot of space.

I’m a huge fan of Nabokov’s and have read Lolita several times… But I’ve never heard it described as horror before and you are so right! I guess before I’d have classified it as tragedy but horror fits so much better.

It’s basically a horror story told from the point of view of the monster.

The only “tragic love story” is maybe Dolores’ mother trying to warn the world about Humbert being a pedophile only to be hit by a car and killed, unable to save her daughter. Or maybe Dolores’ tragic battle to love herself and escape from all the men who want to take advantage of her.

Rowling with another steaming hot garbage pile of an opinion on sexual abuse, no surprise there. What an awful person.

Thank you for reminding me this plant is edible. I’ve always wanted to try it as a tea and I’ve got a very healthy patch of it this year!

I would have had a local barbecue joint cater the wedding instead of getting a fancy caterer. The food was the most stressful part of our wedding and it wasn’t even that good for the price and trouble.

Would keep the strawberry shortcake instead of wedding cake though, that was bomb.

Other than the food I wouldn’t change a thing. I married the right guy and he’s just gotten more awesome with time. And we had a (relatively) low-key wedding to start with so there’s not much I have in the way of regrets.

Jaws doesn’t quite fit the prompt but although it’s a good movie, the book is essentially a sub-par beach read. And there was no USS Indianapolis monologue in the book.

Just a foot and a half high, but they were individual for each plant so each fence circle was like 1 foot diameter maximum. I think if you had a bigger fenced area you’d need higher fences.

I made them out of hardware cloth and took them in over the winter and they’ve held up really well, so at least I don’t have to make new ones!

Calendula, bachelor’s buttons, and strawflower are all sprouted and looking healthy! For food plants, I’ve only started greens so far (collard and tatsoi). Soon it’ll be time to plant peas outside though and I’m stoked! Also got some potatoes chitting on the windowsill to plant in buckets. Those did really well last year.

Also we have one super collard who overwintered from last year and I’m excited to see what it does.

I’m apprehensive about the bunnies this year but more prepared to do battle. Last year they mowed most of my new plants down to the ground until I put little fences up. This year I’m gonna start with the fences from the get-go and see if I can get more plants past the tender chompable stage and into maturity. The only problem is I tried winter sowing a bunch of natives this year so I’ll need to notice when and where they come up and get defenses around them.

Apprehensions aside, though, I’m glad it’s spring! Bring on the gardening fun.

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AFAIK, micro greens are just regular greens that you plant really close together and then harvest before they get mature.

Please someone correct me if this isn’t technically microgreens but what I’ve done in the past to get mini salad greens is you just get one of those larger seedlings trays (or you can use old milk cartons cut in half), put some soil in it, and plant seeds in really dense rows (like >10 seeds an inch). Then you just harvest them when they get to be an inch tall or something similar. I just use regular collard, kale, mustard, and lettuce seeds from the garden shop.

You can also grow stuff from the grocery store. One of my favorites to grow is pea shoots. You literally buy a bag of dried peas from the grocery store and plant them like I described above. Then harvest them when they get about 3-4 inches tall. They go great in spring salads. Mung beans are another grocery store staple that I love sprouting on my own instead of buying the sprouts.

Not sure what your kit looks like but you can definitely grow micro greens in potting soil as well if you run out of whatever the kit has! Just make sure you’re keeping an eye on moisture so they don’t stay too wet or get too dry. Because micro greens are basically seedlings, you don’t actually need to fertilize them at all and they can actually grow in pretty spare soil.

I pay $15 a month for a plan with 5gb data. But even their unlimited plan is $30 a month. So yes, mint is cheaper assuming you are talking about just one phone.