In discussions of free will, one of the regular appeals of its proponents is to the idea that they have an intuition of their own agency. What is the nature of this intuition?

At first we may suppose that it is an experience like my experience of an apple. But does this make sense? I see the apple, I taste it, I feel it, I smell it, I hear it perhaps if it falls on someone's head. What is it I am doing to the free will such that I experience it?

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I'm not saying I don't know... but I don't know. ;)

... Lanque's Chaos in 2(ish) weeks.
... Gencon Indy in 4(ish) weeks.
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First, GenCon! It looks like I'll be getting in to Indianapolis around 7ish PM on Wednesday. I'll be meeting people on Thursday, in workshops most of the day Friday and a LARP on Saturday. But, other then that, I'm free for the most part though I did promise solrane_altari lunch or dinner and pandashivkun a LARP. I'm also sure there's some sort of hanging out somewhere there. I feel like I should be whipping out the organizer, but I would prefer to just enjoy myself.

Now! Lanque's Chaos. I'm pretty far along on preparations, though I'm having trouble with a bit of writing mostly due to the influx of boxes coming in from the storage unit and the step-cat wanting reassurance that the world isn't ending with me moving furniture. Did I mention that I love my new work space? I'll post pictures later, though I really ought to post ones of the scrolls I made a while back. So, that goes on the to-do list along with looking into getting cots. Grr. Ground sleeping.

I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and my little backyard vegetable garden! This is my third year with this garden, and I'm definitely learning a lot (though I still consider myself pretty clueless!). My house came with this lovely garden plot, and my husband and I didn't think twice about growing our own summer crop. We've grown tomatoes every year and have changed things up beyond that.

This year we're growing LOTS of tomatoes (8 plants total), lots of leafy greens (romaine, red leaf, arugula, and spinach), zucchini, cayenne peppers, eggplant, and basil! We also just started two small containers of herbs - including more basil, chives, lavender, oregano, and parsley!

We also have a large rose bush in the back of the garden that has been doing quite well, although I'm not thrilled with how it's looked the past few weeks. Traditionally we've been terrible at growing flowers. So much so that this year we've not planted any... we like having hanging flowers on the front porch, but last year we killed three sets, so we've kind of given up this year. We just haven't found the right balance of watering for flowers, apparently.

Anyway - I'll be keeping up here and no doubt asking questions - but if you want to follow our progress week-by-week, we post about it on our blog, here: http://lifeatnumber71.wordpress.com/category/gardening/

Looking forward to learning from all of you.

Hi again! My tomatoes are doing well but what about my cabbage? This is my very first vegetable garden ever and I have no idea what cabbage is supposed to do. Mine looks healthy with nice thick purple leaves but I don't see them making a head. Is that normal?

I'm in Boston and after a few weeks of non-stop rain, we're finally getting some sun. My tomatoes are covered with fruit and finally are getting some color on!

Hi guys, I'm new here.  I'm an amateur gardener.  My first botanical experience occurred when I was nine.  For a school project, my class planted watermelons, but I thought that stuffing four seeds into one little sterofoam cup was blasphemy, so I pinned all my hopes on one little seed.  I gave the little guy the moon and the stars (not to mention a prime spot on my windowsill), but he let me down.  I never even saw a sprout.  I like to think that hasn't scarred me too much though :)

Anyway, does anyone know what this is??  I see them frequently at the park near my house, and they go through a few different stages I've noticed, but it looks more like an alien than a plant to me. 

My mother and I have been put in charge of landscaping around my grandmother's new house. The problem is that we live in a rural part of the Willamette Valley in Oregon. The deer eat everything except for blackberry brambles, apparently.

We have looked up lists of deer-proof plants, but we have personal experiences with many, many exceptions to all of them.

What works for you? :)

I finally managed to catch video of one of the clever Gila Woodpeckers.


It has figured out how to sit the feed ring on the feeder and how to lever it open for a seed.

I own a "squirrel proof feeder". It has a feed ring set up that allows for a weight setting to close off access to the food if too much weight is on the feeder. (This keeps the squirrels out.) I have it set to only allow about 3 full size sparrows to access the food at any one time. One of the locel Gila Woodpeckers has figured this out. It is just on the almost too heavy end, but with its strong beak it leavers open the feed ring enough to get the seed. It then grabs a seed, jumps to the tree, shoves it in the bark and bangs it open to get to the edible bit.
Cross posted to my own journal

I have finally been "busted" for (i.e., very politely asked to clean up) my covert attempts to compost. Additionally, my tomato had issues (not blight issues, thankfully) that led to my needing to cut off some big shoots.

So, a few days ago, I put my more promising-looking tomato cuttings into jars of water. Today and yesterday, there were lots of roots coming out, so I built a raised bed around the compost with rocks I found under the porch, planted the tomato shoots, a basil plant, and some started peppers in it, and covered the top with leftover orchid potting medium (world's most expensive mulch, but it was totally left over anyway, so :P).

Pictures after cut. I hope it develops, it'd be nice to have some little veggies! ( Read more... )

This is a better image of H. Pacific Moon than I was able to get of H. Watermelon Moon.  The colors of the two cultivars are similar, but Pacific Moon actually isn't as consistently pink-y as the Watermelon Moon.

Have some Terry Gilliam!

Fly Damnit

brown-headed cowbirds

Usually there will only be one or two feeding in the yard. But Saturday friends and family gathered for a meal.

I'm still gardening in zone 7 Mississippi though things have been very hot and very dry though there's a chance of some rain tonight, so I'm hopeful. Along with my first major gardening effort, I'm keeping a spreadsheet of what I've harvest to date. So far it's been fun. It's allowed me to see what's really doing well, so I can plan better next year. Grape tomatoes are doing better than anything else. I've harvested 204 of them. If only everything were doing as well.


( how most everything else is doing )

My strawberries are now turning red , ripe and luscious - need to harvest before they go overboard. My bell peppers and jalapeno peppers are growing -need to feed them, and make sure they have enough support so they won't drop off like the first bell did.:( My clematis is blooming ,as is the Russian sage and the lavender. And the butterfly bush has buds but hasn't turned color yet. And I discovered that a mysterious plant that potted itself in a container on the front porch is ,as I suspected, a sunflower (it burst into bloom a couple days ago - and it has multiple potential blooms to come.),yea! :)
( pics under cut )
as always, I love surprises - and the way plants spring up wherever. That's one of the reasons I tend to let green things grow until, and unless, I am convinced they are up to no good. You never know when may come up.

Hiya!
I just have a couple of questions. My mom bought me this adorable pot of different little cataus plants for my birthday and I'm not sure how much to water it. I have never had any of these types of plants before, other then a christmas one.

I also just recently moved and one plant was damaged pretty badly. I had it ID'd once before and they said it was a cane stemed Begonia, I call it an elephant ear. I have had it for years, prolly 7 or 8. It was grown from a few snips.
One of the big branches was wilted really bad so I cut it off to try and re root it, the top snaped off of the newest one getting it out of the car and I broke another large one once we got it in the apartment :*(
There is still one smaller branch left and I was thinking about taking it and repotting it alone. It looks healthy.
Anyone know if the other's will surive? I'll leave themall together if's there's hope.

Attaching photos under the cut of both plants, thanks a buhch for Any help :)

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