Gifts from the Earth

Today my boss and I gave each other a series of gifts that we found in the gardens.

She gave me a set of practice nunchucks, white pine pinecones, and a pencil.

I gave her a spoon.

I went home with my pinecones and nunchucks tucked into a coffee holder. I really liked it.

I also visited Rambo the Carrot Rustler who is enchantingly enchanted by christmas lights. He sits in his stroller and his tiny red mittens point at them as we pass by.

Inspired I put up my own christmas lights which glint like jube-jubes in their big round bushes.

I'd Sing You A Morning Golden and New

My Dad belongs to the Toronto Field Naturalists and they have been choosing nature-themed songs to sing at their 90th Anniversary celebrations. So Jaja and Dad and I went through the list, singing and listening and discussing options. Three songs particularly made me grin, and for days I've been trying to sing two of them without the benefit of knowing the words or the music.

Everyday as I work in gardens:


Another gardening song, and this one makes me giggle:


Finally, I fell in love with this song. It makes a perfect lullaby, perfect for a raspberry or a large zucchini:
Here's another longer version of it, if like me, you feel the need to listen to it over and over again:

Science and Beauty

Feynman on Beauty

"I don't see how it subtracts, it only adds..."

I've been enthusiastically sharing strange and interesting facts about bees lately, but here are two quotes I liked from the bee book as well:

"Bee larvae are probably not well equipped to deal with diseases, but they have evolved strategies to help them escape some potential illnesses. One involves the co-elvolution of bees with tiny mites that crawl over the larvae eating potential disease-causing microbes. The mites act as hygienic helpers, just as an egret cleans a water buffalo's hide of ticks and our parents removed nits from our hair. Females of some species have special rosettes of hairs at the base of the abdomen to carry the mites, which arrange themselves over these hairs like shingles on a roof. ... But some species have gone even further, creating a cavity in the abdomen with only a tiny, mite-sized opening to the outside. The mites are completely surrounded by the body of the bee. Once transported to the host nest, they emerge and run around cleaning it of vermin. This would be something like our having a stomach-sized cavity in our chest or abdomen in which we carry kittens when we move house so mice can be removed from our new dwelling." ~ Laurence Packer, Keeping the Bees.

"The next night we disturbed a large male Cape buffalo that was eating the lush vegetation in the watered garden. The animal reared and then stared at us from a distance of no more than two meters. It looked as if it would charge. When the ranger clapped his hands and shouted loudly, the enormous beast took two steps back, but it stayed in attack posture. The ranger clapped and shouted again. This time, the animal took two steps forward, and we backed out of there as fast as we could. I consider myself lucky that slugs are the worst enemies of my homegrown fruits and vegetables. If I had buffaloes to contend with in my garden, I would likely give up; my usual pest-control tactics of sprinkling salt or squishing between finger and thumb would obviously not work." ~ Laurence Packer, Keeping the Bees.

Sweet Scent

"According to a study by the Wheeling Jesuit University, Jasmine has a positive effect on the quality of sleep one gets, decreasing anxiety and improving the attitude one has after waking up. The smell of Jasmine doesn't make you sleep more, instead it makes your sleep time count for more. I guess you could consider it 'high quality' sleep with less moving and disturbance. In addition, studying while smelling Jasmine increased alertness and performance on cognitive tests."
I read this to Rafiki last night and he immediately said, "Bedtime!" :)

"The Mighty Oak was once a Nut that Stood its Ground."

1. I went to the symphony with my mummy today, and listened to violins sing.

At the end of the third movement Pekka Kuusisto, the solo violinist, made his violin warble like a bird, and finished the movement with a small quiet smile on his face, as if everything had come to a perfect moment and he was content. He was right, it was a perfect moment.

2. A very small bay tree has seeded itself in our rock garden. It isn't supposed to grow in our cold climate, but there it is, three sturdy leaves upraised.

3. I'm reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, and stuffing it full of bookmarks. It is very good (and happy!) and has many bits I want to remember. Today I came across this paragraph in defence of children's literature:

Children's literature often deals openly with the most transcendent themes, such as the battle between good and evil and the supreme power of love. These books don't gloss over the horror and fascination of evil, but in the end, in even the most realistic novels, good triumphs. Novelists for adults don't usually write that way; perhaps they fear being seen as sentimental or priggish or simplistic. Instead, the focus on guilt, hypocrisy, the perversion of good intentions, the cruel workings of fate, social criticism, the slipperiness of language, the inevitability of death, sexual passion, unjust accusation, and the like. These are grand literary themes. Yet I also find it enormously satisfying to see good prevail over evil, to see virtue vindicated and wrongdoing punished. I love didactic writing, whether by Tolstoy or Madeleine L'Engle.

and this quote by C.S. Lewis:

When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

It puts into words reasons why I love children's literature so much, and can be often found lurking among those shelves, rather than the "adult" novels section where I am supposed to be found, and reminds me not to be ashamed of it, but instead, be myself and ever more grow into who I am.

nature and bad girls, both powerful

I love this dance routine. I heard the song on the radio, so I found it again this morning and it brought a big smile to my face:

A sprig of rosemary that I tucked into a decorative underplanting sprouted! I never would have expected that.

Snuggle with me, Sweet Scented One,

We were planting vegetables and herbs in Bird's garden the other day, and we'd bought a cat nip plant to see if Dragon-Cat would like it. Dragon-Cat found the cat nip plant and climbed into the box, purring madly to snuggle with it. She was adorable.

spring studying

The weather's been so nice. I got home from an exam a few days ago and went straight into the garden. I turned over the vegetable bed so it's ready for planting, and dug up all the dandelions, washed the leaves and saved them in my fridge and freezer. I cooked some today with pasta sauce, and ate it with noodles and avocado. yum.

Code Yeller got so excited about all the plants his friend gave him for his vegetable garden that he made me turn on video chat so that he could show them all off to me. He had peppers, and eggplants, and all sorts of things.

I found more silly quotes on the top of my lecture notes:
"A cow is useful as a cow. I mean, you could ride it."
"I found out that amaryllis when they get scared, don't curl up, but jump high into the air." [he meant armadillos, not amaryllis, but I like the idea of jumping flowers].

After my next exam Dragiraffalina and I sat on the grass nibbling on sweets and basking in the sun. We tried to remember all the words to the song "video" by India Arie and we wandered around singing it. Dragiraffalina has a lovely voice.