Day 17. Where I Don’t Get as Much Done as I Wanted

May 2022. This is a post from the beginning of the pandemic. It’s been sitting in my draft folder for more than two years now. I am publishing it without revising, so please excuse its first-draft form.

But where I also planted the Tree Collards!

I got six hours of work in today. I had to take an hour off to take Sentinel to get his stitches out, and then another hour to pick Matt up from work. So it wasn’t quite the productive day, hours-wise I was hoping. That was disappointing.

On the upside, last fall I ordered Tree Collard cuttings, which are a perennial plant that allows one to harvest collard-like greens on a perpetual basis. As I eat a lot of greens (I bought four bunches of kale during yesterday’s WinCo trip) having a steady supply is an attractive notion.

I had to start them in pots over the winter. I haven’t necessarily been good at doing that before, and I didn’t go and buy fancy potting medium, I just used the same potting soil I use to grow the cats’ wheat grass.

But little by little they seemed to be taking root. And today they have been transplanted to their own holes in the ground!

It looks like I should plan to take some cuttings every autumn just in case my tree collards don’t make it through the winter. But now I feel confident in doing that.

Jezebel is Full of Range (and an Epidemic)

Jezebel

The review:

William Wyler’s Jezebel is an excellent movie for showing off Bette Davis’s range. Aside from Davis, it’s fun to watch Fay Bainter as the ever worried, silent-suffering Aunt Belle Massey as well as to see 1850s New Orleans society mores.* I wasn’t fully convinced by the transformation,*** but was all in on the journey to get there.

The verdict: Good

Cost: Free via TV Time Feature Films which is a Roku Channel that has TONS of old movies!
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences

*I thought I was headed in for a film full of shaming and was delighted to discover a more nuanced narrative.**
**Less delightful: the many “happy slaves” portrayed in this movie. That element has not aged well.
***I also wasn’t convinced that I was supposed to be convinced.

Questions:

  • Was Julie’s transformation complete, or was she still working an angle?
  • What other 1930s films do you enjoy? Filmspotting recently did a starter pack.

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Fay Bainter became the first actor to receive nominations in the Lead and Supporting acting categories, being nominated for Best Actress for White Banners (1938) and for Best Supporting Actress for Jezebel (1938).

(I also enjoyed her as the mom in State Fair!)

Jezebel

Tree Collards Flourishing, Peas Popping Up

The tree collard starts I received in the fall have been transplanted and seem to like their new space. I’ve got stakes up so I can keep them from flopping when they get bigger.

And the peas I planted in early March have made an appearance! I love fresh peas, so this is a very exciting development. I’ve been planting every two weeks or so in hopes of having a long harvest.