I visited my garden yesterday and several wood stakes that I'd pounded into the ground were horizontal and in some cases several feet from their original positions. And two trellises were bent over 10° or so. I initially thought "vandalism" but it turns out the winds from yesterday's storm were clocked at 95-105 mph. Peas and fava beans took a hit from the hail, too. Took an hour to clean up. #weather #delco #swarthmore #garden #wind #allotment #gardening

Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) doing its strange cauliflory thing. I planted three in my front yard and for the next several weeks people will stop in awe and ask what species it is. When possible, I try to have small potted seedlings on hand to give to them. #trees #swarthmore #redbud #fabaceae #botany #cercis #cauliflory

Crazy amount of hail and lightning this morning. Sirens have been going off so I'm assuming power outages somewhere. Hoping my fava beans are OK. Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, USA. #weather #hail #ice #pennsylvania #swarthmore #gardening

The Evolution of #Swarthmore https://youtu.be/hUpPDSSQt2M Neat aerial timelapse. Will be interesting to see campus post-Hicks, since I spent so much time there.

Made rice krispies treats for the volunteer fire department in town. As it turned out, their Gamewell Diaphone (nicknamed the Moose) started sounding as I typed this message ... and now the engine sirens are going, too. #cooking #dessert #swarthmore #FireDepartment

Here's my 10 x 25' plot at the community garden. To keep the birds off my peas and the squirrels off my tomatoes I've draped netting over the center portion that contains trellises made of concrete reinforcement panels. #garden #gardening #allotment #fence #peas #tomatoes #swarthmore #GrowYourOwn #VerticalGardening

Last fall I pruned off several dozen stem segments from my fig tree and crammed them into a bin of wet soil in my basement. Now they are starting to produce roots and I'm potting them up as gifts to friends in town. #figs #gardening #propagation #plants #fruit #ficus #swarthmore

Looks like the RA union at #swarthmore got most of their pay demands met
https://swarthmorephoenix.com/2024/10/10/ra-union-and-college-reach-tentative-agreement-on-21-raises-and-more/

I planted 5 'King of the Garden" lima beans at the beginning of the summer and boy have they been producing. Hundreds on each plant with no end in sight. Plants got so big they cracked their supports. #LimaBeans #beans #gardening #swarthmore #VegetableGardening #legume

At my community garden there are several dozen containers and objects that collect stagnant water. And because most people ignore their allotments for weeks at a time, or abandon them entirely, the sites are home to tens of thousands of mosquito larvae. Horrifying. #mosquitoes #allotment #gardening #garden #water #swarthmore #WestNile

Is it ever possible to get a restaurant to stop oversalting? There are several small places near me that I generally love but that consistently add about 2-3x more salt than is necessary, often creating dishes that are inedible. I'm not a fan of public floggings on Yelp and such, so am wondering whether there is wording I might send to the chef, privately, to get them to scale back salinity. My guess is that they are all supertasters and don't know it, so they don't realize they are physiologically wired to use far too much salt. Any tips on how to proceed? #food #salt #supertaster #tongue #taste #genetics #restaurant #dining #chef #cooking #delco #swarthmore #DelawareCounty

We recently lost Danderfluff, our cat of 18 years and would like to reup to fill the void. Anyone in my area with leads on cute Persians? The one we had was a sealpoint tortoiseshell Himalayan. We adored her. #swarthmore #philadelphia #DelawareCounty #delco #cat #cats #caturday

Like many people, I foolishly planted my tomatoes last week, thinking that night temperatures wouldn't go below 50 °F. It was 45 last night, with more cold nights and rain in the forecast. Even though I covered them I suspect they'll be stunted for the season, plus have blossom end rot issues. #tomatoes #allotment #vegetable #gardening #swarthmore

My neighbors have subscribed to one of those twice-a-month mosquito-spraying services for over a decade. But the guys always blast it over the fence, coating my nearby strawberries and likely killing small pollinators such as syrphid flies for weeks. I still can't believe this is legal. #pyrethroids #insecticide #chemical #pollinators #mosquitoes #insects #MosquitoShield #swarthmore

#Swarthmore students will ride #Philadelphia #SEPTA trains and buses for free, on passes purchased by the college. SEPTA gets ridership. Swarthmore gets the carbon #emissions cuts. And,
"Research suggests that getting students to use #transit can have enduring effects."

Many colleges have, or are considering, similar transit mobility programs for their students. #MIT staff use their MIT ID to ride Boston's #MBTA network for free.

#PublicTransit #TransportationTransition
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-07/the-power-of-free-transit-passes-for-college-students

#Swarthmore College — Facing the Past https://www.swarthmore.edu/presidents-office/facing-past

What I appreciate about this is the big thinking here... they didn't just investigate the one report of native remains taken in 1899, or even just the holdings of the biology department... they're initiating a complete review of all collections.

When you've been around multiple human lifetimes, you might not know what you have that you should never have had, and now is the best time to fix it.