. This week I reviewed Kiva loans from Phillippines and Kenya, many for people wanted about $175 for a sanitary toilet. Many of the borrower photos show the borrower standing in a thatched hut or sometimes an outhouse built of cinder blocks. It will have the toilet itself but there is no plumbing. I have often wondered how they make do and I guess they must dig a pit in the ground under the toilet (?) and use a bucket of water to wash it all down. In any event, it's a good example of how a relatively small amount of money can be life-changing for someone living where the average annual income is about $4,000.
I visited a native plant garden nursery in my area with a friend who is as passionate about native plants as I am. She's chair of my town's conservation commission, and also serves on the same board as I do that promotes awareness of Japanese knotweed and how damaging to the environment it is.
I enjoyed walking around and talking plants with her. I bought a Pearly everlasting. (I always enjoy the names of these plants.) The next day, I dug up 2 smallish beds here that contained lily of the valley (spreading into my lawn after enjoying itself since before I moved here) and a daisy that was pretty for a brief week or two but rarely attracted pollinators. I'd like to get 2 more pearly everlasting to fill in that bed.
The other bed, nearby, is shaded for most of the day by large rhododendrons, so while I haven't yet settled on what to plant there, I'm thinking maybe great blue lobelia, maybe with some geranium maculatum. I have a small patch of the lobelia and it's doing great, but probably gets too much sun in its current location.
Here's a picture I took last night of a bumblebee bedded down for the night inside a lobelia flower. It closely resembles how I would feel after a long day at work. It is said that male bumblebees, which do not return to the nest after leaving, often bunk down at night in the flowers they are foraging on, both for protection from predators and also for warmth.
We're in the middle of some very nice weather here in New England so I've been spending more time catching up on yard work. Which means other things get ignored, like house cleaning.
August 24th, 2025 at 07:33 pm 1756060426
That's great about your helping with your Kiva loans. We often forget how fortunate we really are until we are reminded.
August 25th, 2025 at 01:25 pm 1756124700
August 26th, 2025 at 03:48 am 1756176527
And yes, that's a very pretty picture indeed!
October 23rd, 2025 at 04:53 pm 1761234822