The garden is coming alive, but the May weather is definitely a challenge. One day it is mid 70’s and the following evening it is mid 30’s. We had 3″ of snow up north this morning. Snow on May 16th – really?
I put my dahlias in the ground only to have to cover them with buckets at night. The ornamental apple tree and the viburnum are putting on a show regardless of the weather.
Do you watch or read the news? Have you heard all you want to hear about toilets? I feel qualified to discuss toilets because I have many years of using them. In general, there are men’s, women’s, families, and unisex toilets in about 99.9% of the buildings we enter. That other .1% are businesses here in NH who choose not to provide public restrooms, which I can’t get into without a glass of wine and it is way too early in the day.
Photo Credit: Gerry Broome, AP
How can we maintain personal safety and close the door on the toilet issue?
In many cases, aren’t there some single toilets that are already available and the sign could be changed to we don’t care?
Only have one toilet? Fine, change that sign. Have lots of single toilets, change them all. Subject over – problem solved.
Live and let live as long as everyone is as safe as anyone can really be these days from the real predators.
Once they stop talking about toilets, they move right on to politics because there isn’t a real big difference this year.
I’m probably not qualified to talk about politics, but I can say this is the biggest circus I’ve ever seen. I’ve voted in every election since I was 18, but this year it makes me just want to stay home with a blanket over my head because it is just down right embarrassing. I’ll probably end up voting for the lesser of two evils and not the best candidate because we’re way past there.
Since I really want to stop thinking about weather, toilets, and politics, I think I need to get a sewing project going.
I have seven beautifully hand embroidered tea towels
gifted to me by my sister-in-law in Colorado, and they are much too lovely to dry dishes. I’m thinking with a few extra blocks, they will make a nice wall hanging. Since they are all birds, some additional blocks with trees might balance it out. Any suggestions on how to join them gratefully accepted.
So, what’s going on with you this 16th of May? Weather beautiful, garden growing, toilets all flushing, and you’re happy with the political state of affairs (pun intended)? Have a great week and try to keep your sense of humor. 🙂
NewEnglandGardenAndThread 
I’m right with you on pulling a blanket over my head Judy! Here in the UK on TV it’s all about Europe and if we should stay or leave. I’ve had enough already… there’s talk of Europe taking over like the Nazis if we stay v World War 3 if we leave. I can’t listen to any more nonsense so I’m spending all my time in the garden up until and including 23rd June which is voting day for us!
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I’m sorry to hear you are dealing with all this non-ending, crazy political stuff in the UK. The garden makes sense – soil, plants, pollinators, fresh air. That’s all good and is probably the best medicine for this ridiculous state of affairs we apparently are all finding ourselves in.
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Very interesting post. One more thing to think about…It’s my guess that everyone who has used a public bathroom has, at some point, shared it unknowingly with someone who is transgender. And the sky did not fall. I, too, am very discouraged by national—and state!—politics. Too much money influencing the system, too little care for the concerns of everyday people. Hence, the anger that thrums through this country. ‘Twas not an act of nature that brought us where we are today. Instead, it’s through the very deliberate actions of people. Other countries do it better than we do. It’s time to for us to wake up.
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It is a strange state of affairs in several areas this year. Wish there was hope for us, but I’m not seeing any bright shining light at the end of this tunnel. We sure do need to get the train back on the track. 🙂
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I actually read the rest of the comments on this post, and believe it or not, they made me feel better. With all the craziness and maliciousness in this country, it’s nice to find a place—your blog—with such thoughtful, tolerant people who also have a great sense of humor. There is hope!
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I like “We Don’t Care” as the sign. And you are right. Talking about toilets and discussing politics has become remarkably similar. I feel like I’m living in a bad joke.
It’s been freezing at night here too. My son had to replant ALL his vegetables and I’m hoping my fuchsia survive. They look okay, so far.
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Can’t you imagine what our counterparts are saying? Yes, bring that fuchsia in if it is going to get too cold and so sorry to hear your son is replanting. 🙂
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I’m on the “FREE THE TOILETS!” side of life. Transgender cisgender, transvestites, Pats, drag queens, I do not care. We Do Not Care is excellent signage.
This election is decidedly scarier than others. I have always voted and will always vote.
The tea towels are charming. I have no idea what you should do with them. I for one, would use them.
Now the weather, THAT I could go on about. I think I have to re-plant most of my edibles. Perhaps next week I can finally begin to sow and add annuals. Can you hear my space heater from there?
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Maybe we need a ‘Free the Toilets’ movement. 🙂 Yes, I can hear that space heater and wish it was closer because my fingers are frozen and I’m back to having two shirts on.
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Yes. I think there should be seperate toilets for politicians… 😉😉
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I thank you for the chuckle. 🙂
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Nice to see you’re getting some flowers.
Since this legislature and governor came into office the motto sadly has been, “Welcome to NC. Set your clock back 100 years.”
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I can see that now on the big sign as you enter the state, but I guess you’ll also have to add a U-turn lane as well. These are strange times we are working our way through right now. 🙂
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Let’s just flush the “toilet debate” down the…,well, toilet!! We’ve used public bathrooms for years along with all manner of people. WTH!! These people who have to beat the subject to death need to get a life. Do I understand homosexuality or transgender? No!! But I doubt they understand me either.
Politics….don’t even get me started. My first vote was when Eisenhower was running. My dad always said that my vote counted. So this time around I won’t be at the polls. I just can’t give my vote away to someone I don’t want running my country. So sad.
Now gardening makes me happy. 😜 I don’t plant veggies, but I love my flowers!! Plants are a mix of thriving and so-so. Like your area, here in the Hudson Valley mornings and nights are COLD. Afternoons warm up, but the wind is threatening to blow these little plants all the way to New Hampshire!
The tea towels are beautiful. What a wonderful gift. I like your idea to create a wall hanging.
Enjoy your week. BTW, I’m wearing two shirts too!! LOL.
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Good to hear from you. I keep wondering if when election day shows up if ‘lots’ of people will stay home because of the same feelings. I know we can’t eat flowers, but they feed my soul which is just as important. Glad you like the tea towels, and I’m happy neither of us put our long-sleeve shirts away. 🙂
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I had to laugh at: “Once they stop talking about toilets, they move right on to politics because there isn’t a real big difference this year.” – so true. We bought flowers this weekend, but we didn’t put them in the ground, just in case we have to move them in under cover. Maybe we’ll get some warm weather this week…maybe in June…sooner or later it will get warm, right???
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Glad I could give you a chuckle because it is usually the other way around. 🙂 I know the weather will warm up and hopefully it will stay warm for longer than 24 hours.
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Well said, my friend, well said! I too will be pulling a blanket over my head! And the toilet issue is DRIVING ME CRAZY! That I Don’t Care Sign is Perfect!
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By the way… Making them into a wall hanging is a fabulous idea!
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Sounds like our weather here in southern Ontario! The politics in the US this year is strange. my sympathies.
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LOL You are funny and so are the commenters! It sure is crazy out there these days! I was initially taken aback at the bathroom fuss. Probably because all these years (as many as yours, my dear!) I’ve just entered and exited them with nary a glance at who’s at the next sink. I mean, an obvious dude would have grabbed my attention……! As for those who scream that their kids are going to be abused by pervs, well, kids young enough to be victims shouldn’t be turned loose inside public bathrooms by themselves to begin with. Have I made sense here? Probably not! But that’s the way this issue goes for me!
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You make perfect sense. I am 100% for doing everything humanly possible to keep each person safe as they attend to their personal needs, However, if we spent this much time and money on a medical research project, we’d probably have cured something by now. 🙂
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Snow? So sorry! We had freezing temps but no snow. We traveled around the Delaware (OH) Arts Festival, my daughter and I with gloves, hats and winter or early spring jackets on, my 7 year old grandson wanted to wear his shorts and sandals, with a hoodie on. No! We were adamant but midway around the festival we took turns holding his hooded jacket, Judy! I wish I had a “7 year old furnace” and not my 60 year old icy body which never seems quite to be warm enough until August! ha ha! 🙂
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My ten-year old grandson is a furnace too. 🙂 I’ll have the pellet stove roaring and two shirts on, and he will have a short sleeve t-shirt on and is not cold.
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Oh dear, sorry I meant to say I really like embroidered or crewel stitched birds and I would tend to want to sew them on a banner, too. But I would buy one kind of fabric, and just organize these in a pattern. I like the idea of trees, though! Smiles, Robin
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Never thought I’d have to add my birth certificate to my coupons, shopping list before I leave the house. Maybe that’s why mom always made us do a potty stop b4 we left home
I’m more likely to have a freeway overpass bridge fall on me as I drive to the mall than have some gender kerfluffle in the ladies room. I’m hoping our Michigan pols stay away from this. We’ve got enough real stuff on our agenda right now
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Yes, we have ‘real stuff’ that needs addressing, and the list gets longer. 🙂
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Has anyone ever noticed how long the women’s lines are and how empty the men’s toilet is? I have visited more than once! Count me guilty.
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I’ve visited men’s restrooms when the line is long and there is a lock on the door. 🙂 Recently at the KC airport, we were in a holding area with 14 gates. 14 gates with 2 restrooms for each group. Total of 4 toilets for 14 gates of people. Yes, I’ve already written my letters of complaints but was told by the airline and the airport that there is nothing they can do. 🙂
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I especially see mothers do it with small children. Making someone wait to use a toilet who just learned how one works is mean.
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For the wall hanging, if it were me, I would use green fabric and embroider a leaf in white in each square to give the feeling of trees without making green trees and brown bark on a white piece of fabric, which might, as a big wall hanging, come off as cartoony. Just an idea. 🙂
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What an interesting suggestion. I have some material I can do a mockup with and see how it goes. Thank you very much for the idea. 🙂
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You’re welcome! I took a lot of art classes, but I cannot sew or embroider. I think it’s beautiful. I especially love the embroidery with the elaborate bead work that you see come out of India on saris and accessories.
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I suspect our senses of humor will be in tatters by the end of this election season. But if we don’t keep them intact and humming, we’ll all be cowering under blankets. What a crazy, crazy time we live in. Still, better than being dead.
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LOL It is always good to keep things in perspective. I’m going to keep this in mind over the next 4 years and 6 months. 🙂
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Last week we planted annuals at the RV Park here in Idaho and they all froze 😦 but the lilacs and trees are blooming beautifully. I love spring.
The state of politics and political correctness is laughable.
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Here’s to no more freezing weather. 🙂
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Do you remember the Don McLean song, “Wonderful Baby?” There is a part that goes,
“Wonderful baby nothin’ but new
The world has gone crazy, I’m glad I’m not you.”
These days, this song enters my head A LOT!
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Love it, Eliza. I’m thinking our European neighbors are singing that right now. 🙂
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😀 IKR?
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And here in Indiana all I can say is “ditto, ditto, ditto!” Which is a lot to say with chattering teeth. I don’t know which inspires more gloom, the weather or the campaign. As to your lovely tea towels, I can say only that I await a photo of the final piece. When it comes to fabric, I’m useless. Meanwhile, my thanks to you and all your followers above for brightening yet another cold and dismal day.
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It has been a fun exchange of comments, and that is what blogging is all about for me. Thank you for adding yours so I know that the weather and news is as crazy in IN as it is in NH. Here’s all hoping we have some warmer weather. 🙂 Have a great week.
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Oh, I love those day-of-the-week towels! Are you sure you won’t use them? They’d be wonderfully absorbent for drying dishes. But a wall hanging would be cute, too. I have an old, old coverlet where the stitcher joined the panels with a narrow (quarter inch) hem and then did feather stitch over the join (http://www.embroidery.rocksea.org/stitch/feather-stitch/feather-stitch/)–it looks good!
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What a wonderful suggestion and link. Thank you so much. Question: are those lines made with pencil?
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Yes, I think pencil but, if you were marking your own work, you’d use a lighter touch. I think she did it dark so it would show up well in the example. Light pencil marks should wash out or there are marking pens, sold mostly to quilters, I think, that fade over time or when ironed, etc. Or you could use tailor’s chalk, which would just brush off. Or, and here’s a bold move, you could just eyeball it!!
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Enjoying the humor in this post Judy, so much so that I forgot what I did on the 16th! Toilets, oh my – I remember my first trip abroad and didn’t make a habit of learning the toilet signs (signaling which gender they were for), well wouldn’t you know I surprised quite a few men when I popped out of the stall!! I’ve not looked at bathroom signs quite the same way since.
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I’ve walked into a couple of men’s rooms because I wasn’t paying attention, but I sure can retreat quickly once I see that row of urinals. LOL 🙂
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I love your implication that our politics are in the toilet! You couldn’t be more right. On a brighter note I love those tea towels! They sure took me back. I can remember embroidering those and pillowcases when I was little. Can’t wait to see what you make out of them.
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We are having crazy weather too, unnaturally cold for mid May. One set of sweet peas has died but the others, on the other side of the arch are thriving – now how can that be?
We had some very interesting conversations with people we met while on our road trip from Atlanta to Washington, each one agreeing with you about your political situation and feeling quite desperate. It could be very frightening so – let’s head out into the garden.
I love your toilet signage idea.
🙂
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I use to think that gardening had its ups and downs – weather, viable seeds, soil, skills, pests, etc. until this political season keeps going and I’m all for just playing in the dirt. 🙂
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I’m with you there! 🙂
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What kind of Viburnum do you have? I have a Korean Spice Viburnum (V. carlesii) that is blooming for the first time this spring. Great fragrance. I’m with you on the bathroom hysteria.
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I’m not exactly sure because I’ve moved it a couple of times and lost the tag. It looks like your variety but my leaves seem to be waxier looking. 🙂
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I’m with you on toilets and elections ….Thank goodness for gardens .. Even in strange weather!
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