impressions that compete for attention

[mellowtigger]

It's laundry day. I've had very few of them for the past 1.5 years, sometimes washing clothes in the bathtub by hand and sometimes returning to the local laundromat. That's one good thing about the pandemic. While I'm lucky to work from home (and I live alone), I absolutely skimp on cleanliness. I wear the same clothes much more frequently than I would in social venues.

So I packed up my laundry and walked out the front door.

I was immediately greeted by some poppies in full bloom. And my nice Violet's Pride rose is blooming too. I really like the fragrance and color of that one. I'm glad it's somehow managed to survive many winters, even though all my roses seem to "start from scratch" and grow only from the crown at the ground level, losing all of their former growth. The roses stay small every year. But still... this rose is my favorite.



As I drove up to the street curb to park at the laundromat, I saw what I thought was a bullet casing on the road.  No, it was a full bullet, pictured here below my front tire.



Inside, the staff were no longer required to wear masks, but I and one other customer were still wearing them.  While waiting in a chair, someone arrived in a wheelchair to talk with the staff.  This poster was on the back of the seat.  There's a reward for information on the people who shot the stray bullets that hit these 3 kids in my neighborhood.  I picked up 2 of the community newspapers and read them in the laundromat.  One of them had a story about that topic.  One of the kids who died was the granddaughter of a local peace activist.



I'm back home, hidden away indoors to escape the still oppressive heat wave and the rest of humanity.

Comments

[danieldwilliam]

Pretty much every time I read one of your posts I am grateful to be living where I'm living and I admire your stoicism.

I also have many many orange and yellow poppies in my garden (too many I am told by MLW) but not bicolour ones. I have mostly orange and a few, perhaps 2%, are yellow. I've been trying to introduce red ones by sowing literally thousands of red poppy seeds but each year following an attempt I am back to hundreds of orange one.

[mellowtigger]

I think I bought those poppies early when I moved here. I haven't kept track of them, but there's always another one or two that shows up each year. They are pretty, though, so I should try to track the seeds this time and try to sow them somewhere that they'd like.

[danieldwilliam]

There should be lots of seeds to collect.