Sago Palm Sprout

The sago palm in the back yard is sprouting. I SWEAR it was less than half this height yesterday. I will take a photo again on Monday. Last year it did not sprout, but had a weird fleshy flower thing in the middle.

I love you too, Robyn!

Here is my wonderful sister Robyn when she had dyed her hair dark brown. She looks beautiful sitting on the kitchen floor smoking. She told me the story of why her eyes are so sad, which gives this image a lot of depth for me. The cigarette holder still cracks me up, though!

Robyn let me know if I can put up a more recent photo of you, taken by me when I visited you.

Don't Look if You are SQUEAMISH

Last summer it was very wet on the green space, and one warm evening I saw something very much like this on the sidewalk. Two of them, in fact. I did not know what they were. Now I have found out they were Land Planarians, or flatworms that live outside of water itself, but can only live in very wet conditions. The ones I saw were about a foot long, the thickness of spaghetti, with flat heads the shape of arrows. Gross, eh? Photo from the University of Florida.

Not Bad for an Old Broad

Same angle I think, no teeth in smile, no makeup, but this is the difference of about 20 years. A friend recently said, "not bad, for an old broad".

40 ...

In makeup and dressed up for a party.

Wolf Tee for Elle Coyote

Osprey gave me a tee shirt with a wolf on it, saying it was as close to a coyote as she could find. It was created by one of her students (I think).

Dirty Pleasures

I haveI have been playing in the dirt this morning. I watered the garden yesterday, so the ground was very receptive to my potted plants. A couple of years ago, I bought the gardenia (top photo) in a pot and loved it so much I could not bear to throw it out after it finished blooming. When I put it in the ground, I had read "never put hothouse gardenias in the ground. It is hopeless, and they will never bloom." Well, so much for gardening books!


I put in my yellow impatiens (middle photo), next to the formerly potted begonias left here by the former owners. These things never seem to last very long, but they appear to be perennials here!

Here in Houston, the climate resembles a hothouse. I have planted in the shade, so that the plants can receive the heat and moisture without being burned up by our intense sun.

Gordon received the plant in the bottom photo when he was recovering from his sinus surgery. I planted it in the garden today finally. It was incredibly pot-bound. There really was nothing but roots in the pot! Poor thing must be very relieved to be in the ground.

The Culture of Pills

Many times I have heard the argument that because our soil in the USA is depleted, the vegetables we eat do not contain all the vitamins we need, therefore we must take vitamin pills.

Isn't there something specious in this logic? We are spending probably billions on vitamin pills, and get cranky when we have to pay a little more for organically grown fruits and vegetables, and in particular, for meat from animals who were raised properly, with fresh air, freedom to walk around and exercise their muscles, grass and grain that grew fed by their droppings, and who were not injected with hormones to make them grow bigger and faster, and who were not given antibiotics routinely.

If we look at it another way, maybe the money is better spent on naturally raised fruits, vegetables and animals. Maybe we would not need to then spend a ton of our money on PILLS. The earth recovers her natural fertility when she is treated properly. Our fruits and vegetables will be full of life-enhancing vitamins and minerals. Our animals can be treated well while they are alive and give us the nourishment of their flesh when they are humanely slaughtered, as they have been for thousands of years. What madness we are living!