WTF-Beta

@Mary-Anna I have to assume you've seen this book https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/agatha-christie-poisons-book/

Yes we have a solar panel. The squirrels chewed through the cord on the first one and the company replaced it for free.

We just added a nijer feeder and the bird cam captured RATS last night. We will be taking down the feeders.

We get the avian kind. Again, I hear them all the time but never see them. (Sense a pattern?) We thought we were putting oranges out for them, but those seem to be for the squirrels instead.

Wow. Everybody should read this.

Cool bird. I've heard them but only seen one at a distance.

Saw my first Monarch of the year today. No picture.

I thought houndiepaws (dog #2) was going to go right through the closed kitchen window when our resident garden bunny taunted her yesterday.

Had a concert from this redwing blackbird at our favorite ice cream place

We're ready for the Monarchs.
Native butterfly weed

My favorite is cheap fish steaks in Louisiana hot sauce. We didn't used to get them in our grocery store so thecomputerdude would order them in bulk from Amazon and give them to me for Christmas.

We're being encouraged to find uses for AI at work. I find it frustrating and the iterations seem to take longer than just doing it myself, usually.

What I find it useful for is initiating when I'm procrastinating. It creates something I have to fix, and before you know it I'm off and running.

Apron or no? Not usually

Towel hanging from apron?
On oven handle

Bench scraper? Or scrape cutting board with knife? Blade up or blade down?
All of the above

Garlic in with the aromatics or just for the last minute for fear of burning?
Last minute

Jarlic? Frozen garlic?
Jarlic

Countertop trash bowl when chopping?
Paper lunch bag on the counter. When I'm cleaning up, I put in the freezer. When it's full it goes into the compost tumbler outside. No fruit flies in the house this way.

Mis en place?
Rarely

Clean as you go or all at once?
As I go

Where do you stand?
In the corner at the cutting board between the fridge and oven

This chipmunk in the red twig dogwood had his eye on me for awhile.

@Bernard
Daylilies here too.

@ShiroKuro I think it's a New England thing. Our previous town didn't have curbside pickup. It had a relatively wealthy demographic and maybe they didn't like to see the trash cans on the street. Instead everybody put their trash into their Lexuses and Mercedes and hauled it to the transfer station themselves. The garbage was then "transfered" to various processing plants.

My new blue collar town has trash and recycling pickup at curbside. And half the people drive oversized pickup trucks. But there is no dump or transfer station where you can take stuff.

FEMA exempted Camp Mystic from its flood plain maps based on appeals (from owners?).

https://apnews.com/article/texas-flood-camp-mystic-map-records-investigation-e12bee8d5f88301363861ca12c19b929

https://www.axios.com/2025/07/10/mahmoud-khalil-case-trump-ice-detention

@wtg I hope it isn't too late for me.

Wild bergamot/bee balm/monarda fistulosa

This little guy has made a little hollow under my red twig dogwood. He likes snipping off the stems of plants and leaving them without eating them. So, you know, basically an a$$hole. Good thing he's cute.