Your neck of the Woods Part 9 Easter Bonnet

I played hooky from lawn mowing yesterday and met up with SSG at a local plant swap. The hostess had the most beautiful, and beautifully landscaped, gardens I think I've ever seen at an ordinary private residence--the archways, the gazebos, the koi ponds, the artfully arranged exotic plants, and so on. Very beautiful! There were several incredibly beautiful tree peonies in full bloom in the front yard which of course made me Want One. :-o

I think we both managed to stay out of trouble (all plants were free for the taking--LOL), and SSG was tolerant of my just-escaped-from-yardening dressed down look (thanks, Terri!). I picked up my first tomato plant--a Paul Robeson, my first lesson in *black tomatoes*--and got SSG's raspberry babies home and potted up.

A good day--thanks, Terri! :-) Here is a photo of the Black Scallop taken early this morning--plenty big for dividing!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY LADIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ♥
And, thank you Ric for the well-wishes... it's nice to be called a "girl" every once in a while. =)

Mowing, roll call, and watering was done early yesterday, no yardening for me today. I was gonna do some weeding, but there are so many new seedlings popping up I'm afraid to pull the wrong thing! ... when I say "new", I mean plants that are new to me that I've never grown from seed before, so I'd have no idea what to look out for. =)

A very Happy Sunday and Happy Mamma's Day to all! =)

Gardengrandma (don't remember her real name) has a gorgeous garden in Burtonsville, and only minutes away from me and Catmint.

I also went to Clyburn Arboretum yesterday with my mom for an early Mother's Day trip. It's much smaller than Brookside so we were able to visit all the gardens.

Tree peonies were in full bloom in both locations. Boy, are they tempting! Such HUGE flowers!

Happy Mother's Day!

Catmint, Black Scallop is such a pretty ajuga!

Yes, it was a small local swap, and very convenient to where SSG and I are located. The gardens were definitely amazing to see!! I think Gardengrandma said her first name was Henrietta?

Sounds like a great Mother's Day trip, SSG.

Yes, beautiful tree peonies, and very tempting! I'm going to be good and resist though--I have my eye on spicebushes right now because of the berries and the fact that they are host plant for Eastern Tiger and Spicebush Swallowtails. I'm noticing a decline in pollinators in my yard so far this year, and wonder if it's related to the two huge native trees coming down in neighbors' yards.

Cat, I am now taking your wallet and locking it into a vault for safe-keeping... now, here comes the chains and duct tape to hold your hands and arms in place, safely AWAY from new plants. < =P

Speedie, I am afraid that would qualify as cruel and unusual punishment. On Mother's Day no less. LOL

LOL Speedie and Ric! :-) Because of course dd's Sunday volleyball practice (did someone say it's *Sunday*?) is awfully close to one of my fav nurseries, Seasons in Gaithersburg! :-D

See if the warden will grant an early parole.

haha--I'm afraid this prisoner is out on her own recognizance at the moment -- dangerous! :-D

Alright Young Lady, you be a good girl and take ONLY your driver's license with you when you go out -- NO credit cards!! < =P I'm watching you Waznowski, always watching.... always!!

But I can hear the siren song of the spicebushes... ;-)

Truly!

LOL Holly yes!

Up with the chickens and off to jury duty. What a pain in the grass. I wouldn't mind if I thought they'd keep me, but I applied for exception weeks ago due to my hearing loss.
I don't remember ever seeing a TV program where a juror ask if they could, "speak up" or "look at me when you speak, so I can see what you're saying". LOL I know it's a privilege and duty to serve but somewhere along the line I thought RSVP was also.
Just venting here. I expect to be home and in the garden by noon.

It always cracked us up that my mom would get called almost every year it seemed. I wondered if they ever bothered to put into the system that she couldn't drive, was considered legally blind, or the last three years that she was on hospice care. Boggled our minds.

We are hosting a graduation party for the six Korean students Jeff has in his AP classes on
Saturday. Should be fun. He wanted to thank them for their hard work.

Well no such luck. They kept everyone all day. They gave me this thing that looked like TV ears saved my marriage, to wear and I still couldn't hear the defense atty. For some reason I thought what he said may be important. So I got to spend the whole day standing like cattle and sitting on hard wooden pews. By the end of the day I was ready to commit a crime. I'll have to see what the rest of the week brings, tomorrow I have a formal garden club luncheon, Thursday a bus trip to The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens (both prepaid), and Friday an appointment with my pain specialist.
I also made no progress on my garden. Bah Hum Bug

Sounds like a miserable day, Ric! Glad it's over. I guess I am lucky that I never get called for jury duty! It's interesting how some people get called repeatedly and others of us never!

Sorry to hear about your wasted day, Ric. :(

I have a friend who lives in Balt City and gets called for jury duty all the time. Every time his call date approaches, he starts growing his beard out so he looks like a mountain man, and brings his Bible to read while waiting. He says he never gets picked. I can't imagine why? ;)

I just got a letter for jury duty last week
I've never been...I am #2.

Clear your schedule, Paul! You can be pretty confident that you are going to get called with a number that low. :/

I hear that getting called for a Federal Grand Jury is the WORST. Nothing else compares to it. You are on call for a month, and you have to call in every Monday to see if your number is up. The courthouse may be nearby, it may be far away, but you have to go and you don't get paid for that.

Oh geez if you're #2 you definitely have to go. I was a really high number the first time I was called and didn't have to go in.

Sorry to say that it isn't just a wasted day, it is a wasted week. He could have asked for his week to be rescheduled but didn't because he was so sure that they would dismiss him. So now he is legally required to be there and we have all these activities this week. The biggest is a day long bus tour to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens on Thursday. I don't think he would really mind having Jury Duty but with his spotty hearing, he doesn't feel capable. If one of the attorneys turns his back on him he misses what they are saying. I know a few of you have gotten a very strange answer to a question you have asked him, because he miss heard what you were saying.

Yes. I'm going to look angry..and hope they excuse me based on the daggers coming out of my eyes.

Back in my pre-Christ days I always said that I would tell them I hated a few select groups of people so they would let me go...I wouldn't do that now of course :)

Aww, come on you guys -- jury duty isn't so bad. Civic duty, and all that. And if you were on trial, you'd appreciate having some reasonable people on the jury! Though I do think if I were a defendant I would raise a complaint about a juror who could not hear the proceedings. Ric -- You should make sure the judge is aware you can't hear everything. They should swap in an alternate for you.

Exactly, it would really disturb me if a juror couldn't hear my lawyer! I really hope they excuse you due to your hearing loss.

I know it's my civic duty but that doesn't mean I have to like it ;P

Also you said I'd appreciate having 'reasonable' people on the jury. Reasonable people don't award millions for frivolous lawsuits.

I have been on Jury twice.
The first one was about someone getting some kinds of fumes from a roof
and being sick....
It was a fairly short trial and the defendant lost....

The second time was a 3 day ordeal on a murder case.
This guy went to he waterfront cabin where his uncle lived and shot him dead.
It was a long process and they showed lot of photos of everything.
Thank godness I am not squeamish.....

The guy was committed.

Here's something I want to tell you about the selection process.

The Lawyers already "know" you before all this--from the filled out form
you were asked to fill in.
They are looking for certain type of a person--from certain demographics--
Male or female. Older conventional person--or one with certain expressed opinions.

They will call everyone by name and you have to stand and answer their Questions.

Ex: "Does anyone in your family have ever been arrested? Does anyone in your family
work for the Police dept.? Are you prejudiced against any ethnic group? etc...etc..

When you are selected as one of the 12 and sitting up front--the two lawyers start
the weeding out process. They both have to agree to keep a certain person on the Jury
or to excuse someone. No reasons are given here. Just you are excused...

If one disagrees--they start swapping out people until they both get THE one they really
want on the Jury. This process is done by calling juror # whatever--and saying "you are excused"...
Then they go down the list and choose the next person in the sequence--until one or the other
gets the EXACT person they want to be on the Jury. Again--both have to agree....

This can take a while.....

Here, in the baltimore County Courthouse--we were paid $15 a day and had a reduced
cost for lunch.
BUT---this was a long time ago....

Whether you hate it or like it--it is an interesting process to be part of. Educational.

G.

Some of the more ridiculous awards might happen because the "reasonable people" try to get out of jury duty... just sayin'

In the 12 years since we moved to this county, I hadn't been called, but I got a letter earlier this year... called in every night, and they never did get to my group. I'm sure they'll pull my name ont of the hat again soon. Inconvenient, yes, but as Happy said, if I were on trial I'd want my lawyer to have a good pool of jurors to pick from.

Agreed that they should find an alternate for Ric since the "TV ears" clearly aren't doing the trick. Frustrating. He should have a little buzzer to use every time he can't hear something & needs to have it repeated -- bet they'd excuse him in a hurry.

Joyanna & I spent part of Mother's Day in the back yard, honing her tree climbing skills. I try not to let on that I get nervous when she climbs higher than I can reach to "spot" her, LOL...

OMG, that reminds me of when our daughter Lee was young and really liked to climb high. I remember looking out the kitchen window and watching her fall to the ground from a too-high perch on a tree in the far back of the yard. Terrifying for me (she was fine).

Woopie, Ric was excused this morning. He took in his list of planned activities and they excused him. Of course the girl with chemo treatments 3 times a week had to rescheduled her appointment. Tell me any of this makes sense.

Wow, that's so weird; makes no sense at all. Ric didn't flash any questionable tatoos to get out of there did he? LOL

I'm so glad Ric was excused. But that's extremely strange about the woman undergoing chemotherapy. In my County, they are usually really easy-going about rescheduling jury duty. To make someone who is undergoing chemotherapy still have to stick it out is bizarre.

Yes this whole thing has been bizarre.

It was so strange, it was like they had zero tolerance for medical excuses, but fawned at a social schedule.
Jeff this area of the country has one of the most notoriously conservative compensatory awards in the country, and many times punitive damages are a joke. I agree many appear to be ridiculous, but they're only the one's making the news. Around here many jurys feel $250-400k is a lot of money, never mind that the defendant lost $45-50k earning potential for 30 years. Disability is almost as bad, with determinations been based on a persons age and the idea they can just change jobs. Appeal hearings are de rigueur.

I had to 'register' for jury duty recently- I will withhold my complaints until I know that I really get called.
Reminds me, the old movie (B and W) of Twelve Angry Men, is a great movie- almost every juror is a 'name' star

I agree--not excusing someone for chemo sounds pretty draconian, but then to turn around and excuse for a social schedule just seems bizarre. It sounds like they created a 'no medical excuses' policy and are rigidly sticking to it, but they had no policy in place for the 'busy prepaid social events' excuse, so they went with it. Rigid adherence to policy in, common sense out. :-o

I am to report for Jury Duty on June 9th. Was originally set to be in January, but for some reason I was able to get it re-scheduled (wasn't a problem at all). Have yet to get my new juror #, but the original one was pretty high up (well over 300). The notice says that my time of service is to be 1 month. WOW. I am required to call the given number, to check in, Monday through Friday for the ENTIRE month. Hmmm... this has got me thinking... I should be receiving my new info/badge#/juror# like any day now, they told me mid-May. I think I'll call them today to check on it.

Ric, you didn't, by any chance, where one of your Grateful Dead t-shirts on the day you were excused, did you? ;) heeheeheee

A few years ago was the first time I'd ever gotten called for jury duty (I dunno, about 8 years ago or so), and I was working at a medical practice at the time. When I showed my letter to my Dr. (whom I worked with) she flew off the handle, ranting "there's NO WAY I can let you go, you can't leave me for a whole month!!..." blah blah blah. She wrote a STRONG letter "requesting" my excusal. It worked. =/