What Is Or Isn't What

Things are finally taking shape here. If you remember after I saved the plantlings from the sandy soil and put them in pots I didn't know what was what. Now I'm getting an idea.

Cucumber Cosa Nostra

What's with cucumbers? Why do they make people laugh so much?

You mean, let me understand this cause, ya know maybe it's me, I'm a little f****ed up maybe, but I'm funny how, I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I'm here to f****n' amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny? - The Cucumber

Check it out.

Gawker - Phallic Vegetables Will be the Undoing of MSNBC - Msnbc

Starter Garden

Just wanted to plug this. The New York Times has a guy blogging about starting a garden (sound familiar?) If you enjoy this blog, you'll enjoy his, though he doesn't have the rockin' tunes we do.

GARDENING - Times Topics Blog - NYTimes.com

Feminine Farms

Sorry for the absence. But, I'm back with a story from the Washington Post about how more women are farming. These are the kinds of things I like to hear. More farmers!

Women always played important roles on the family farm. They kept the books, milked the cows and fed the children, often juggling another part-time job while the men worked the fields. Sometimes, they ran the farm after their husbands or fathers died.

But increasingly, women such as Stinar are turning to farming on their own. According to the 2007 U.S. Census of Agriculture released this year, more than one in every 10 U.S. farms is run by a woman. In Maryland, the number of farms in which a woman is the principal operator jumped 16 percent between 2002 and 2007. In Virginia, female-run farms also grew by 16 percent.

Female Farmers Sprouting: More Md., Va. Women Lead Farms - washingtonpost.com

Picnic, Lightning Bug

An article in today's Times suggests some interesting ideas on how lightning bugs turn the light on, so to speak (in Kenny Rogers's lyricism). It's comforting to know that lightning bugs do, in fact, reproduce because it remains to be seen (in this article, at least) why we see so fewer of these beatles.

I wouldn't be the first to reminisce about nights in the backyard catching lighting bugs to put in grass- and leaf-filled jars, their lids punctured for air holes. (As children, we were so wont to create comfortable homes for things.) We released them by the end of the evening, of course. Although, you may not all have had friends whose only evil streak was revealed when she waited until the bug had lit, then, with her thumb, smeared his body across the concrete sidewalk. I had never been so shocked at man's brutality.

Now, they say that we've done something else to lightning bugs, we've overpopulated their meadows and pondbanks; we use too much artificial light and pesticides. And so lightning bugs slowly disappear. Surely, there's a better reason for their demise, although rarely is there a different reason than humans being humans begetting more humans.

The Museum of Science, Boston facilitates a program to research data on "fireflies" using volunteer information. That means, check out this website: https://www.mos.org/fireflywatch/ to contribute sightings.

Bedknobs and Pea Vines

Something cool: found art. Something cooler: art that doesn't know it's art.

Here is a fine way to make use of mattress springs, headboards, bookcases, and whatever other trellis-like object may find its way off the back of a truck.

This vegetable patch belongs to a very fine gardener, who happens to be the former proprietor of the business for which I work.

Lady of Shalott Redux

One of the most read posts on this blog was not actually about gardening, it was about John William Waterhouse's paintings of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poetry. Now, Waterhouse and his pre-Raphaelite friends are back with a new show in London.

From the Reuters article:

His works also became increasingly preoccupied with mystical, powerful female figures ranging from nymphs to mermaids to the Lady of Shalott.

His renowned representation of the heroine from Alfred Tennyson's poem of the same name was rejected by many critics who were more accustomed to his historic scenes.

But it did become a "rallying cry" for younger artists and was interpreted as representing political and social change in the role of women in Victorian society with its hint of eroticism and expression of a woman's isolation and punishment.

Pre-Raphaelites back with London show | Lifestyle | Reuters

Es Verdad? Si!

Si se puede! The U.S. knocked off Spain today, the No. 1 ranked team in the world, a team that hadn't lost in 35 games. Amazing!

Ice Cream Kid

Things are slow in the garden. No more planting, just watching things grow. Until I have more garden-related news, enjoy this. A little background - this was happening as Brazil was thumping Italy 3-0. The ESPN commentator made a similar quip. And, if you get a chance, watch Spain and the U.S. play tomorrow at 2:30 on ESPN.

Happy Father's Day!