The White Obelisk

This was dropped into the kitchen; so I asked the computer what is it.  The computer said: Open it, Dave, it is full of stars.

Brussels Sprouts and sidetrack

Feeling my way with this vegetable as it is the first time that I grow a few plants of Brussels Sprouts; a lot of hiss in the name. A little pat on my back as my produce compares fairly well with the stalks shown as photos on wikipedia.

While surfing on the net, a report on 5 boys found dead in a dumpster in rural China caught my eye. There was a picture of the living conditions.

The photo and report was from China.org.cn

Sunday with Jones

                            Jones helping to pick up the blocked firewood

                               Then he had to go and chase a porcupine

                               These are the quills picked off  his loose lips

Taking in the parsley

Well it is the middle of November and the sense that continuous freezing nights are coming is starting to get through to me and hence this ritual of taking in a young plant from the parsley patch. I like a little green garnish in the grey days of winter. Where I use to see the herb as a brightening touch of colour, now I also see, as a lay person, it as an illustration of fractals. Thanks to high school students and their science projects. I take my learning where I can.

 Besides the parsley I took in another herb, thyme, to dry.  Silver and Gold Lemon Thyme. Besides colours and fractals they have fragrances.
More in exuberance than in maturity I add Stevenson's line:

''The world is so full of a number of things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.''

October 31, 2012

For Halloween we have the fully dressed Japanese Maple, the naked Choke Cherry on the left and the Unruly Forsythia on the right. This gratuitous tableau provides a kind relief. The images, I saw on TV, of the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Sandy were indeed heartbreaking.  To see well established urban assets overcome on October 29-30 is sorrowful. For a back-up, such as a generator, to become dangerous is scary. I saw the explosion of one, on the news, as the lights went out in New York.