@fretfulmother - zucchini will have both male and female flowers. Probably more male ones, and you can harvest them for sauteing or for use in salads since they won’t develop a fruit.
Don’t worry about a possible little bit of lead. Plants might pull it into their leaves and roots but not their fruits. There have been many studies showing that anything with a woody stem will not pull heavy metals from the soil into their fruit. All fruit trees, grapes, blueberries, and some brambles fit that description. Also, lead in the soil is greatly diminished by the simple addition of a good layer of compost.
Zucchini is the second easiest to grow, next to mint lol. Very easy and very fast. I already picked 2 from my garden today. Every summer I have so much zucchini I can’t give them away fast enough.
Ah mint. We also had delicious home grown/made mint tea last night with supper. Farming lad makes some of his income selling both mint and apple mint tea. He has different kinds of mint. I like his peppermint tea the best.
Our first zucchini will be going into a breakfast stir fry this morning. (Farm fresh eggs with a veggie stir fry as a side.)
I keep my mask on in the parking lot so I don’t touch it. I avoid taking it on and off between errands. I used to take it off once in the car after my last errand but now I don’t do that because I wear a mask while sanitizing groceries. It’s easier and safer to just keep it on.
If you are done all errands and are heading home, I think it is fine not to wear it in the parking lot but be careful removing it, and just use the ear loops to take it off, not the mask itself.
Most of us don’t have virus particles on our masks. We are not working in a COVID ward. But dealing with mask exteriors is consistent with the idea that masks are protecting us from others, not protecting others from us.
For me, there is a slippery slope so I just handle a mask as if I have been exposed. If I start making exceptions, I will slip into not using a mask !
Knowing from my nurse daughter that prolonged mask wearing often leads to irritated face and ears as well as my personal problems when wear a mask I wear mine only when necessary.The TMI is that my nose runs when I am wearing a mask. I forgo ‘ scenic” routes for my walks and I instead walk (in still pretty) neighborhoods where I can literally walk for hours and not be within 100 feet of anyone.
At the grocery or target I carry hand sanitizer and alcohol wipes with me and remove my mask as soon as I get to my car. No way am I driving with one on. I have a plethora of masks and keep several in my car, so if I’m making another stop I use a new mask. Then bring them in clean , dry and restock.
There is no way I want to watch a movie in a mask on so I am done with movie theaters for the foreseeable future. Streaming at home it is.
I do no go into any place inside without a mask. But am judicious with my inside visits. I try to wear it as little as possible while making sure I protect others.
I leave my masks in the car and figure the heat and sunshine will do their work. I don’t have washable masks. I am surprised at how often I get out of the car and realize I haven’t put my mask on. I usually wear masks in parking lots because people turn up out of nowhere, but I don’t wear masks outside if I am outside of the downtown area or stores.
Sometimes when I get ready to go out somewhere, out of total habit I pt on light makeup and lipstick. Silly because (a) no one sees it under the mask and (b) it ends up all over the mask.
I generally don’t mind wearing a mask, but it did bother me that I had to wear one all day every day in my own house while we had 4-5 men painting various places in our house this week. Since they were basically everywhere, I retreated to my very small office niche within our library/music room. I’m not sure how AC affects spread of virus within a home, so we erred on the safer side and wore masks (painters wore them as well) while they were here. It wasn’t pleasant. I’m so glad they are finished and I have my house back.
One reason to wear masks in parking lots might be to help change societal norms and encourage universal mask wearing, if you think that would be a good idea for the foreseeable future. It’s just good modelling, especially for younger folks, imho.
I tend to follow @compmom when it comes to masks. I try to touch it as little as possible, so tend to keep it on from when I leave the house, do my errand, and return home. Most of my errands have been done in 1-1.25 hours.
Part of the reason I keep it on, in addition to not wanting to touch it, is that I live in a high-rise building and need to have the mask on in the elevator so the mask would already be on before I even reach my car. The stores I’ve been to are usually only a 5 minute drive away, so it’s no big deal to keep the mask on. And since I need to have the mask on for the elevator when I get home, it’s not worth taking it off once I leave the store.
The exception to this protocol was when we made a trip to a store 30 minutes away. Then we removed our masks while we were in the car.
I’m not sure how I’d feel though if I had to keep my mask on for hours at a time.
I’m not nearly as fastidious about mask wearing as most of you. Here, masks are required inside stores and whenever you can’t socially distance. We don’t live in a crowded area so that means it basically boils down to only inside stores
I keep my mask in the car, put in on in the parking lot after I’ve parked, take it off as soon as I get back in the car, and that’s it. I don’t use hand sanitizer. I don’t go that many places so it doesn’t get used much so it doesn’t get dirty. I’ve washed it a couple times since mask wearing has started.
I wear my mask whenever I leave my apartment, and that includes going to the laundry room.
Today when I was walking to a grocery store (my freshdirect didn’t get delivered yesterday), I heard a very loud sneeze around me and it was just someone who was walking by me. I think that’s the same when you at a parking lot, you may think you were very well distanced from others, but when you are distracted (loading your packages) someone could just walk by you without your knowledge and sneeze.
True, but non-medical cloth masks are unlikely to protect the wearer when directly (or within a certain distance) sneezed upon by an infected person…at least based on current thinking that is something people should not count on.
“Sound familiar ? “ we are not an effective society to fight this virus and this is due the current leadership in the UK and USA. Did I get that right from the posts?
Lol.
Yes. Very Large Western democracies.
Culturally Diverse populations.
Embedded protections for independent thought and personal agency.
Incredible privacy protections.
Constitutions.
Unprecedented situation.
Uncertainty worldwide from medical, economic and science on the multitude of issues and problems not simply related to spread.
Political opportunism covered in Covid concerns and issues.
Yes the UK and USA. And every free diverse and large country with a rare exception - sans the lying and brutal repressive states and small and culturally homogeneous societies - do sound familiar.
Thank god. I’ll take our system. The good and bad. The virus will be gone one day or controlled. The society you choose will be here much longer. Police states and executive orders. Not for me.
People here act like the citizens and leaders didn’t lock us down for months and most people still are extremely cautious.
Some just don’t think we can live like that forever. Some do.
Welcome to a free country.
But let’s be real folks about the real agenda driving most of the posts here. The sources for information quoted and the articles posted.
Anyone can scout the internet and find things that support things one way or another.
This is not and has not really been about the virus for many on CC for months.
