Let's Go [Away], Mets.

5-1-08 SHORT HILLS: Yesterday and today were sunny and cool. Today I did a bunch of small chores around the yard—more pruning, cleaned the pool cover, cleaned the driveway drain.

Yesterday was a totally wasted day. I went to Shea Stadium, probably for the last time ever. The Mets were awful—Oliver Pérez gave up 7 runs in less than 2 innings, mostly by walking 5 and hitting another, the Pirates, yes the Pirates, got 6 more runs off the relievers before I left in the sixth inning. The defense was lackadaisical with 3 bobbles and a failure of José Reyes to cover second on a rundown play. The hitting—pathetic—one hit in the six innings that I endured. This team, now, is not a contender. The bright spot of the outing was the traveling. NJ Transit train to and from NY Penn Station, the subway out and back to and from Shea with the iPod and a newspaper was almost pleasant and much more enjoyable than the game.

Last night we saw a great movie, The Visitor, four great performances. Don’t miss it.

Since my last entry, I have done a lot of pruning, junipers, the linden tree and others, and drove another two Subaru-loads of cutting to the dump.

New blooms: jack-in-the-pulpit, lamium, azalea.


The redbud flowers all look like tiny orchids.

Lamium Flowers.Lamium is a semi-evergreen, ground cover available in several colors. The flower has a covering petal, a landing pad petal for the bugs and a well in the center with the nectar If you touch those hairs, you or the pollinators get a shower of pollen from those organs on the ceiling of the overhanging petal.