it rained for much of the day, everything from sprinkles to showers, but no heavy downpours. the first thing i did was to go out back and check on the status of my lotuses. unfortunately - with the overcast weather - the partially opened coin leaf from yesterday still remained partially opened. whenever there was a lull in the precipitation, i'd go outside and do some garden surveying. i particularly wanted to make sure there was no rabbit damage anywhere.
my sister came by around 1pm with persian chelow kababs takeout from sabzi in arlington.
my mother and i watched an episode of extreme hoarder on TLC. this woman lived in a rat-infested house that was foreclosed because she owed too much back taxes. her hoarding has been such a problem that her friends and family have long since abandoned her. the house was purchased at an auction by a flipping company who regrettably bought it without having seen the inside. amazingly enough, they managed to clean the house instead of just razing it to the ground, walking on piles of trash so high they have to climb through doorways and touching the ceiling, everything covered in melted rat droppings, all the while cat-size rats were scurrying about in broad daylight. even more amazing, they decided to sell it back to the original hoarder for the purchase price, though i highly doubt she'll be able to keep it clean, with her deeply-rooted psychological problems and her hoarding deniability. there seemed to be a hoarding marathon but we couldn't stomach another episode, the next one was an old man who lived in a cockroach-infested hoarding house. instead i introduced my mother to tubi, and she started watching the series the firm.
later in the afternoon i moved the lotus barrel to its new location between raised beds 2 and 3. i first put the potted lotuses in the 2nd barrel already filled with treated water from yesterday. this barrel was much deeper, and the 2nd lotus was completely submerged. i then siphoned out as much water from the old barrel with buckets, just to add it back once i moved the barrel.
i learned last night that the reason why willow branches will root naturally is because willows produce their own rooting hormone (indolebutyric acid), which can be extracted by steeping chopped up pieces of willow branches. i changed out the willow water, but instead of just tossing it out, i carefully irrigated some new seedlings with the water in hopes of promoting better root development.
my parents ate dinner early, around 4-5pm, just the leftover kababs from earlier. i was waiting until later to eat it, but when i checked the weather radar, it showed the start of rain around 6:15pm that wouldn't stop until later in the evening, so i packed up my leftovers and quickly biked home, having dinner back in cambridge.
i'd seen these wisterias before but today i actually stopped to take some photos, on the corner of reservoir and huron avenue. most wisterias have already finished flowering so these immediately caught my eyes. i knew they weren't the typical kind, first because the flowers were smaller than normal wisteria, and second they bloomed after the leaves were out. these turned out to be Wisteria frutescens or american wisteria, a less invasive native wisteria.