A Colorado columbine successfully re-locates to Maryland.

Thanks to Kitt, who a couple of years ago sent me some seeds from her gorgeous patch of Columbines.  I planted the seeds a year ago but nothing happened. I saw this plant growing a few weeks ago and thought at first it was a weed. But my weed-loving instincts told me to let it be. I was rewarded! Only one plant came up (or survived me poking around in the ground nearby) but maybe I'll have more next year. Thanks again Kitt!

"Microbes: The Trillions of Creatures Governing Your Health"

Wow! I just heard an interview with Richard Conniff, author of "Microbes: The Trillions of Creatures Governing Your Health," and now will read the article from start to finish. Anyone who takes a lot of antibiotics should read it too. Article is here.  From the latest issue of Smithsonian magazine. Long Live Magazines!

Illustration by Stephanie Dalton Cowan (Smithsonian magazine, May 2013).

PS: Toss out that Purell while you're at it. I always thought that was such a corporate rip-off anyway.

Clarence! Eight months old and still perfect in every way.

Sweet and Dandy.

I'd really like to hear this song at my daughter's wedding in June but I don't think it's going to happen. (It's complicated, plus I'm not totally sure I understand the lyrics although it is about a wedding and they sure sound happy.) That doesn't mean I can't listen to the song over and over, as I've been doing lately. The music we're having at the wedding will be a couple of singers with guitars, and although it will be lovely I'm sure, I'd be surprised if they could work this in. Here are the lyrics. (And if  you haven't seen the 1972 movie The Harder They Come you might want to try it. It's dated but oh the music!)

Sweet And Dandy by Toots And The Maytals
Etty in the room a cry
Mama say she must wipe her eye
Papa say she no fi foolish
Like she never been to school at all
It is no wonder
It's a perfect pander
While they were dancing in that bar room last night.

Johnson in the room afret
Uncle say he must hold up him head
Aunty say she no fi foolish
Like a no time fi him wedding day
It is no wonder
It's a perfect pander
While they were dancing in that bar room last night.
One pound ten for the wedding cake
Plenty bottle of cola wine
All the people them dress up in a white
Fi go eat out Johnson wedding cake
It is no wonder
It's a perfect pander
While they were dancing in that bar room last night.

A mixed bag, but another blonde woman comes to my attention.

I'm reading the Henrietta Lacks book for my book club. I'm 78% through (you can always spot an e-book reader these days) and I'm not at all sure how I feel about the book. It's certainly a downer, but that shouldn't have been a surprise to me. It's a fascinating medical story, but a way-too-sad personal story. I was working for the National Cancer Institute in the 1970s, just about the time when Henrietta's family (living 30 miles north of me) was beginning to fully appreciate how her cells were being used. During the course of any given day at work I would read or type or say the words "HeLa cells" constantly. Little did I know. Although I DID know. I knew that HeLa stood for a woman named Helen Lane, which turned out to be not exactly right. And that her cells were being used everywhere to study chemotherapeutic agents. Sort of makes me uncomfortable.

And sadly I must once again call out a blonde woman for some criticism. The woman above, who will go unnamed, said an awful, hateful thing about another blonde woman, Meghan McCain, and it made news, of a sort, on many so-called news sites. This particular blonde woman gets my award for lowest of the low, but I fully admit that she really knows how to get attention. And I guess she makes a living at it. Horrible woman.

Betty Draper is a whack job.

It may appear that I'm picking on blonde women, see last post, but I'm really not. It also appears that I'm not thinking very deep thoughts these days, which is true. For fans of Mad Men, you will know what I mean about Betty being a whack job. She was never particularly stable but she's now way over the top psychologically.  As one headline said today, she's now "WTF Betty." It was great to have the show back last night. 

I've read trashier books but not many.

But I'm enjoying every single badly written sentence in this (library) book. I've been mentally composing some generous words to put here about the book or the author, sort of in the spirit of not being snarky or holier than thou. But then I read a few more sentences and I laugh in amazement. It's a hoot. Too bad four children are involved and had to watch the story unfold. Or will find this book in the future and be tempted to read it. I should be ashamed to be spending my time on it (but confessing it here makes it OK somehow. What's up with that?).

Look at those stargazers in the right background of this 15+ year old photo! Daughter with Socks, Wonderful Cat of the Past.

But about those stargazers. You can see three groups of them on the right. That shows how much the wildlife has changed in our backyard in 20 years. When the top photograph was taken we had no deer fencing in our back yard and we had big hostas and those lilies. We certainly saw deer from time to time and they were free to wander over the very ground Socks and Daughter are sitting on. But apparently they didn't. Because look at all those stargazers! 

And there she is once again, February 22, 2013, with Sean. Wedding coming up soon. [Clothes to find/buy!]

I bought some of the herbs that I plan to nurture into much bigger herbs to use as planter centerpieces for the June wedding.  Behnke's Nursery had a good selection of herbs, but not the full selection they'll have over the next weeks. I watched an employee with an old-fashioned clipboard and a printed list of different herbs and she was counting and checking them off. I love that stuff.

Fun jobs. Being paid by Stephen Colbert to think up silly anagrams like this one.

Reince  Priebus

Crisp Bee Urine

Must finish by Tuesday night. Doubtful.

I joined a book club recently. This is what we're discussing on Tuesday night. I'm on page 318 of 672, and the likelihood of me finishing by then is very small.  I'm sure I can find an online summary with plot spoilers to fill me in, but this is one of those book clubs -- I discovered after the fact -- that meets to have a great home-cooked meal sprinkled lightly, or not, with book talk. So I don't necessarily feel that I must know the outcome of the novel since I probably won't be the only one who doesn't finish it. And that means there might not be much discussion anyway.

I'm undecided about staying with this particular group. I'm very compatible with the small group of eight women -- we like the same kinds of books, we live close enough, and the group has been together for more than 20 years so they have staying power. Although I like to cook, I don't like to cook for foodies. And hostessing is not my strength. I just wanted to join a simple club that sat in someone's living room or in a local diner/coffee shop yakking about a specific book, and books in general, for an hour or so.

At the first meeting I attended, in February, we discussed State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. Interesting novel with a lot of side issues worthy of discussion. We spent about 20 minutes actually talking about the book, and that's a generous estimate. Dinner -- which was delicious and discussed thoroughly -- was scallops and grapefruit risotto and sauteed chick-pea patties and fruit and coconut cake and other dishes I've forgotten. It was in the home of someone who lives in an older section of upper NW DC in a Sears house, 1920s vintage I think she said, with a kitchen overlooking the dining room. Perfect for someone cooking a 100-course meal from scratch while talking to eight guests who are milling about asking dozens of questions about the food and the cooking thereof. She handled it beautifully.

I think it will be my turn to host the dinner (sprinkled with book talk) in July or August, although I might ask to do it earlier just to get it out of the way. Then if I quit I will have paid my way, so to speak.

Well, maybe next time for Stephen. And thanks to the always funny SF Margo for the other photo.

Although I'm not a Catholic I spend time each week at the place below, the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America in Northeast DC. I'll be there tomorrow and expect to see lots of atta' boys among the brown-garbed brothers.

Hellebores and crocuses. Spring is just around the corner.

Another no-yeast, no-knead, no-time Bread

Preheat oven to 375

Combine:
flour (not self-rising), 3 cups sifted
baking powder, 3 teaspoons
salt, 1 teaspoon
sugar, 1/4 cup

Stir in:
beer, 12 oz
melted butter, 1/4 cup (optional)
Parmesan cheese, shredded or grated, 1/4 cup (optional)

Pour into a greased loaf pan

Bake 1 hour

Cool 15 minutes

Photos I forgot to post over the summer.

Volunteer cantaloupes, which I get every year because of my compost pile -- I guess. Purple hyacinth beans (seeds courtesy of my sister), the ONLY nasturtium I managed to grow all summer despite planting a number of plantlets, and some late tomatoes. These tomatoes perplexed me because they remained green on the outside but were red, as shown, on the inside. And tasted ripe. Unfortunately I don't remember what kind of tomatoes I planted.

Quit! Again. Let's see if it holds this time.

I always quit, this will be the third and I hope final time, for the same reason. I comment on someone's post and then hours later I'm embarrassed by what I said. Today I made a stupid, pointless (hey, it's Facebook) comment on my brother-in-law's post about a computer problem. I did it quickly and without noting that many others had already commented. I said the same thing that someone had said earlier and she pointed it out to me. OK, said I. The only way to avoid all this nonsense is to just get out of FB. I don't need it, I don't learn anything much on it, but I admit that I check it several times a day. Waste of time. I'll read two more books a year, I figure, with the time I'll save.

Thomas Jefferson did NOT say this.

Quotation: "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

As this nation makes yet another attempt (almost certainly doomed from the start) to put a few sensible and responsible restrictions on firearm ownership, this quotation pops up here and there as evidence that T. Jefferson was seriously pro-gun. Don't believe it. The Internets are full of bogus quotes attributed to Jefferson, Adams, Washington, and Madison. There are so many non-Jefferson quotes that the website for Monticello has a link to Spurious Quotations. Link is here.

Update: I thought I was so clever....I thought I had discovered some little secret about this and other quotes. But then half an hour after I posted the above I was roaming around on CNN News and found this. Good! I want everyone to learn about the dishonesty of some gun lovers. Not all, I know. Just some. But still.

True? If so, does it matter? Let me answer that. Nah.

I'm a half-hearted member of the Facebook world. I have only posted a couple of times, although I comment on friends' posts occasionally. I have very few Facebook friends and some of them are people I've never met ("friends" I picked up when I was addicted to FarmVille or FarmTown or some farm things). So the fact, if it's a fact, that posts only reach 12 percent of a user's friends doesn't bother me at all. But I do think it's kind of interesting.

Cold frame.

Last winter I bought an inexpensive (about $50) cold frame and set it up in my very small vegetable garden. Then I didn't do much with it -- just let it sit there -- all spring, summer, and fall. The top blew off once or twice so at some point I just moved the top onto the porch. Finally in November I reattached the top and planted some lettuce plantlets, not seeds but plantlets. Everything is still growing, or at least nothing has been frozen, so I guess the frame is doing its job. Our temperatures have sometimes been in the 20s at night which normally would kill off lettuce (I think). Unfortunately, although alive and presumably healthy, the lettuce doesn't seem to be getting any bigger. Bottom pix was taken yesterday, pix above it was taken 3 wks ago. Maybe if we get a burst of sustained  warm weather -- in the 60s -- everything will grow in a burst.

See the grass in the upper left corner of the top picture? That's my neighbor's lawn. She has a lawn service which comes occasionally to give her lawn a "treatment." The kind where the lawn guys leave little warning flags in the ground near the driveway, warnings about pets and children, maybe? I haven't examined one. Anyway, do you think her chemicals, plus the chemicals from the neighbor next to HER, who also gets such treatments, will get into my lettuce? I think yes, probably. If nothing else some chemicals will be airborne and will float onto my garden.

It would be a big deal to move my vegetable garden to another location in my yard. A combination of not enough sun in some places, not enough free space in others, proximity to the road (and the stuff that cars spew out), and the whole aesthetic factor. We live on a corner lot so two of our four sides are visible and accessible from the street (ie, open to the hands of passers-by...we have a fair number of passers-by since we live next door to the entrance to a park).

Pie in a Jar!

 

 I bought this at the Takoma Park Farmers' Market on Sunday. Tonight I'll put it in a pie pan and heat it up. Report to follow. 

Wang Dang Doodle Barbeque. Go while you can....

This little restaurant is in the back yard, sort of, of an ice cream parlour in Takoma Park, MD. It's run by one guy who opens only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He's been there since September and makes barbeque to die for -- chicken, pulled pork, brisket, ribs. He cooks it outside (outside being just behind where I was standing when I took this picture) on a grill. He stays open only as long as he has food so you have to get there between noon and about 6 or 7 PM to guarantee finding him open. We went one day when it was bitterly cold so we ate inside that door, in the ice cream parlour where the owners were quite friendly, even though we bought nothing from them. (Well, I bought a bottle of water...) But!!  I learned today that The Big Guys are moving in. The Big Guy in this case means Jeff Black who owns and operates a bunch of fabulous restaurants in Bethesda, Rockville, and Garrett Park. I'm happy to see any new restaurant open close to home but I will mourn the loss of Wang Dang, which is a seat-of-the-pants place. Takoma Park is slowly, slowly, slowly becoming just a tad too upscale for me. Oh well, times change.

My neck feels great! Could it be because I stopped yoga a year ago?

I started taking weekly yoga classes in the fall of 2008. Within a couple of months I began to have low-level, intermittent but annoying neck pain. Aspirin, ibuprofen, tylenol, and aleve all worked to relieve the pain. I assumed the yoga was the cause but I didn't want to give it up. And I thought that maybe my body would adjust. (Magical thinking.)

In January 2012 I stopped taking classes. A conflict came up with the class I had been attending for years but there are tons of options in this area so I could have managed. I didn't. I procrastinated. I just kept saying "I'll start again, when I feel like it." Now it's a year later. I almost never take pain meds for my neck and I'm back to not remembering that I even have a neck. (Which is nice, because I hate my neck. It's too long and floppy, like Alice in Wonderland when she's eaten a mushroom.)

I miss yoga, and I think it was good for my strength and balance and brain and a bunch of other things. What I should do, since I know the basic moves, is create my own routine, making sure I do only movements that put zero pressure on my neck. That leaves out a lot of moves but it could be done.  Even if I did it only once a week it would be something.  It's a thought. I'll file it with all the others.

Clarence.

Clarence is now about 5 and 1/2 months old. To describe his wonderfulness would take pages and pages. Let's just say that he's as close to perfection as kitties come. He's very hard to photograph. Looks like an ad for Nivea doesn't it?

Color even in the dead of winter. A reliable Christmas cactus and assorted African violets.

Not literally, but close.

From a recent issue of The New Yorker. Artist: Zach Kanin.

I Hate Leaf Blowers.

I've complained before, mildly, about leaf blowers. Well the days of mild complaints have long ended and now I'm an obnoxious, opinionated, out-spoken enemy of these horrible devices.

I will make begrudging allowances for people who have to clear away vast expanses of lawn in public places. The Mall in DC comes to mind. They probably don't have that many leaves but I grant that it's possibly quicker to use blowers in those settings. And the young strapping men usually hired to do such work like to play with them, just as they like to play with guns and other phallic-like items, so they probably do a better job than they would with rakes.

And there are some older people who believe they are being gentler to their bodies by using leaf blowers, so go ahead if you must. Frankly I'm not convinced that it's any more gentle to lug around an electric blower than to brandish a rake but I have no evidence that I'm right.

But for most homeowners or business owners I say get rid of those evil devices and pick up a rake or broom (or hire someone to do that).

I hate leaf blowers because they are:
1. Noisy. Painfully so.
2. Messy. All the leaf mold spores and dust and bits of leaves that get tossed up into the air we breath can NOT be good for us. Not to mention the chemicals that the homeowner may have applied to their lawn. Another thing I hate. Lawn chemicals.
3. Time-consuming. I am positive that it doesn't save any time to use a leaf blower, especially if you live, as I do, some place where you have to dispose of your own leaves. Your options are bagging them up for the trash/recycling crews to pick up or composting them, which is what we do. And is of course what I think everyone should do. Because it takes absolutely no time to maintain; pile up the leaves and walk away. That's it. (Man, I've got at least three rants I could include in this one but I won't.)
4. Resource-wasting. Obvious. They use gasoline or electricity. Boo-hiss.
5. Polluting. The devices themselves must be recycled when they inevitably break down or burn up (which just happened to my neighbor and is why I sat down right now to write this pent-up rant). So what happens when they are discarded? They end up on the coast of some poor nation -- India, Brazil, Ghana -- where children sift through trash piles of hazardous materials.

So there it is. I'm sorry if I've offended anyone. I don't really want to make anyone feel guilty. Truly. But since I can't say all of this to my neighbors -- I have said much of it, and yet they still speak to me! -- I felt the need to lay it all out there.

And I think I violated only one of the Thanksgiving rules I posted earlier today. Rule 2: Speak without accusing.

Image from here. A blog I'll have to check out later.

Thanksgiving is a good time to make changes. I found this in my inbox today so here's my new creed.

1. Listen without interrupting
2. Speak without accusing
3. Give without sparing
4. Answer without arguing
5. Share without pretending
6. Enjoy without complaint
7. Trust without wavering
8. Forgive without punishing
9. Promise without forgetting

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Perplexing bumper stickers seen in Maryland.

I recognize Don Quixote in the lower right and possibly a cross in the upper left but what does all of this mean?? Random images or a single coherent message?

Surprising story about mozzarella.

I like the opening paragraph to this very interesting article.

Buffalo mozzarella is the Great White Whale of American cheesemaking: a dream so exotic and powerful that it drives otherwise sensible people into ruinous monomaniacal quests. Despite all the recent triumphs of our country’s foodie movement (heirloom-turkey-sausage saffron Popsicles; cardamom paprika mayonnaise foam), no one in the United States has, as of yet, figured out how to recreate precisely this relatively simple Old World delicacy — a food with essentially one ingredient (buffalo milk) that is made every day in Italy. Over the last 15 years, in fact, the attempt to make authentic buffalo mozzarella — to nail both its taste and texture — has destroyed businesses from Vermont to Los Angeles. It seems truly doomed. “A Polar wind blows through it,” Melville might have written about it, if he had been a food writer, “and birds of prey hover over it.”

The photo is by Peter Bohler, and I hope he doesn't mind that I posted it here. I believe that "fair use" applies to a one-time use on a barely read blog. 

The Red Elephant up the street re-appears. And now I know it's a political statement.

I've been keeping my eye on, and posting pictures of, this interesting little house for years. Here, here, and here.

Best tweet ever!

@GarryShandling - If you're head of the CIA and can't hide an extramarital affair it means it can't be done. Case closed, fellas.

Kitten playing, displaying his amazing nervous system. Adult Lady Cat tolerating.

A fried green tomato. We had our first true frost last night so I picked the few that remained.

Sweet Georgette definitely tolerates, and sometimes enjoys, Clarence.

Clarence in charge.

King of the Media Whores. [And The Prez's next-day retort.]

This guy is living proof that you can be an idiot and still make a lot of dough.

And Gloria Allred isn't much better (but at least she's rooting for the right guy).

Update 10/25:  Obama has some great writers. Here's what he said to Jay Leno when asked about the Trump challenge:

“You know, this all dates back to when we were growing up together in Kenya. We had constant run-in on the soccer field, and he wasn’t very good at it. When we finally moved to America, I thought it would be over.”

Photo from politico.com.

Matt Taibbi writing in Rolling Stone. I agree.

What we Americans go through to pick a president is not only crazy and unnecessary but genuinely abusive. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in a craven, cynical effort to stir up hatred and anger on both sides. ...a process that involves two years of relentless, suffocating mind-warfare, an onslaught of toxic media messaging directed at liberals, conservatives and everyone in between....

In every race there are now not two but three dominating figures – the Democrat, the Republican and The Process, and we're raising whole generations who hate The Process far more than they like either of the candidates. Mainly for grim commercial reasons, we in the media manipulate people to stay wired on hate and panic-focused on the race for every waking moment....

Most of us suck so badly at our jobs, and are so uninterested in delving into any polysyllabic subject, that we would literally have to put down our shovels and go home if we didn't have poll numbers we can use to terrify our audiences. ...

Full article here.

Illustration: Victor Juhasz