Link Love

Supporting Black-Owned Businesses

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Growing up in the Tulsa area, I was aware of our bleak past, a time and place where black business owners had started to thrive, only to have their lives and shops destroyed by a racist white mob during the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, which writer Scott Ellsworth described as “the single worst incident of racial violence in American history.” Some, who were able to, rebuilt their businesses, but undoubtedly, our Tulsa Greenwood district would look very different today if all of those businesses had the opportunity to continue to flourish.

I realize that times are difficult for many, but when you go to shop, consider the black-owned businesses you could be supporting. As an Etsy buyer and seller, I was glad to see Etsy highlight some excellent black-owned shops recently. And as a member of Etsy seller groups, I have seen the impact of this support on the lives of many shop owners this week, and I hope we will remember to continue to build up these communities in the future.

When you support these wonderful, vibrant businesses, you support an economic and societal presence that has been stolen from too many people.

March in the Garden and My New Aquarium Obsession

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Herbs and Butter Lettuce

As we are drawing out of our freezing mornings here in Oklahoma, I’ve been very excited to get some new herbs, fruits, and vegetables for the garden!  Last week I bought some blackberries, cilantro, chives, and lemon verbena for the front porch.  I had planted blackberries in full sun in the yard last year, but I think the Oklahoma full sun was too much for them and they didn’t make it.  Hopefully potted blackberries on the shady porch will work out better for them.

I also bought some butter lettuce, and have cleaned out one of my garden beds for them and planted them in the garden this morning.  They usually enjoy the cooler months, so I’m hoping to get a good yield before it gets very warm here.  Last year I had filled the garden beds with Sunshine brand soil, which is supposed to be excellent, and mushroom compost, so this year I only had to clean out the weeds and leaves and the soil was ready.

So many amazing plants to get…

Yesterday, I got some more vegetables for my other garden beds, which still need to be cleaned out.  I’m pretty sure that in the past I’ve overcrowded my garden beds with too many of each vegetable, so this year I just bought two of each kind so they can have much more room to grow.  It also saves me work and money that way.  I got two tomato, squash, cucumber, zucchini, and strawberry plants.  One garden store that we went to even had a nice food can drive where they gave out free plants for cans.

I think I have found the best fertilizer for them in my new hobby, too.  My sister’s husband got me fascinated in aquariums over the holidays, and I have already started two this year.  Well, I started giving my plants the aquarium water from when I would vacuum beneath the gravel to eliminate settled waste material, and so far my plants seem to thrive on it!  I’ll be hauling buckets of it out to the garden once I get everything planted!

My friend and I went to a backyard chickens class yesterday at our favorite local garden shop, too, and I was so tempted to get some.  Yet I already have enough animals and hobbies as it is!  😅

Chicks!

Link Love: Blade Runner 2049 Exclusive Photos

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This morning I went to see the new “Blade Runner 2049,” which I touched on in yesterday’s post, and I found it to be an incredible sequel filled with spectacular scenes.  It was truly the best movie I’ve seen all year.

I found the entire movie to be visually stunning, and if you want to view some new photos from the film, then head on over to ew.com where they just posted some exclusive pictures, with this description:

In the hands of director Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger A. Deakins, nearly every frame of this much-anticipated sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi original — which resumes the story of bounty hunters called blade runners who “retire” factory-made replicants — dazzles.

I’m just going to go bask in the glory of the movie for a while now.