How Does Your Garden Grow. . .

Growing up in the middle of suburbea I never really gave much thought about summer gardens or vegetables or weeds or fertilizer or rototillers or aphids. I never really had to. I lived in a world of ignorant bliss where summer's bounty was readily available at the local Kroger store (with an abundantly stocked Kroger produce section), and from a guy selling fresh peaches and tomatoes in a little roadside stand on the way to the mall. I never had to give a second's thought about plowing, or when to plant, or when the last frost had come, or how much fertilizer to use; and I never had to worry about when it might rain, or whether the 100+ degree temps were going to fry my seedlings. My biggest concern about gardening and "harvest time" was deciding whether to use paper or plastic in the checkout line. During those carefree days as a young teenager, the most important summer activity involved suntanning at the local pool and deciding whether to use Johnson's baby oil or Coppertone Coconut Oil. (And, for the record, my current dermatologist hates me for using either one.)
It's not that I never heard about farming or gardening, it's just that I never had to do any. Once, however, I came close, when I was invited by a friend to drive to east Tennessee to help her family harvest their potato crop: "Sure, I'll help y'all pick potatoes! Will we be using paper or plastic?" I soon discovered that neither paper nor plastic was on the day's agenda, but garden spades and wheelbarrows, and mushy dirt (aka mud), and ants, and lots and lots of sweat. I also discovered that potatoes do not grow on trees or even bushes, but in the ground, of all places! Thus began and ended my early farming career.

So now that I'm a grown-up and I live out in the middle of nowhere on a farm in rural Georgia, my Tennessee family thinks it's quite interesting and a little amusing that I even have a garden, let alone work in it. It's not a huge, feed-the-world-sized garden, but one just large enough to suit our family's needs. Surprisingly, I discovered that I actually enjoy playing the role of "Farmer Jane." Some years we've experimented with things like heritage watermelons and winter squash, but mostly we plant the old standby vegies like beans (if the deer will cooperate) and tomatoes (if the blossom rot will cooperate) and corn (if the crows will cooperate) and okra (if the aphids will cooperate.) And we always plant my all-time favorite summer vegetable, yellow squash. This year was no exception, and during the spring we bought 8 tender seedling squash plants from a local distributor, and put them into the ground. The plants grew and thrived and began to have blossoms. I'm no expert, but I noticed that these plants looked a bit different than I remembered from previous years. Now, I may not have a rich heritage of farming in my blood, and I don't have much of a green thumb unless I'm using green paint, but I do know that when you plant 8 squash seedlings, this. . . r or plastic at the checkout line in the grocery store,

. . . is not what you expect to grow. This is what we city-girls call a cucumber. But hey, what do I know? I once thought that potatoes grew on trees.

USA Rocks

From every mountain side,

Let Freedom ring.

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~Samuel F. Smith

"America"

Irony

I hate it when I get so organized I can't find anything. . .

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Minding My Own Business. . . .

This. . .

. . . plus. . . .

. . . plus. . . .

. . . equals. . .


:)

New handmade crepe fringe here.

For the Next 60 Seconds. . . .

[This is a public service announcement: Do not adjust your computers. This is only a test. We interrupt this regularly tasteful blog to bring you a message about potties. This is only a test.]

*******The following article appeared in our local newspaper several weeks ago.

Toilet vandals strike in Carl
Athens Banner-Herald Story updated at 10:46 pm on 5/19/2009

Sheriff's deputies and Carl city officials are searching for vandals who smashed a public toilet at the Carl City Hall last weekend. Mayor David John Brock and the city's council have left the bathroom unlocked so the public can use it if they need to, Brock said. It serves as the public restroom for the city's park, and city leaders have never had problems before, he said.
The city will have to pay about $300 to replace the toilet, Brock told deputies. [Read the entire article here.]

******** Normally I try to avoid the typical "potty humor," (mostly because I'm not in middle school anymore) and I try to keep things around here family-friendly; however something about the above article struck me as funny. It's not that I don't feel badly for the mayor, and for the city council, and for the $300 it will cost the taxpayers, and especially for the moms who may be visiting the park with potty training toddlers . . . but this article made me laugh. I'm sorry, but it just did. Why would someone feel the urge to smash a toilet of all things?! Was this a premeditated attack or simply a spur of the moment, random act of porcelain violence? What was going through the vandal's mind? Did the perp set out that day thinking, "Death to toilets!" or maybe, "I'm so angry at the world I think I will smash a public toilet in Carl, Georgia today." Furthermore, when smashing a working potty, wouldn't there be the issue of, uh, water? And public potty water, at that! (You know what I think about public toilets. If not, you can read about my issues here .) Was there something about this particular toilet that the vandal had it in for? Was it the color maybe? Or was it one of those low flow, "energy wise" fixtures which aren't always so wise, if you know what I mean. Maybe it was one of those "mind-reading" toilets which flushes automatically, whether the startled. . . um. . . customer?. . . user? . . . vandal? . . .is ready or not. Maybe this was just simply a case of post traumatic flush syndrome.

Whatever. . .my hope is that this will be the only incident of its kind and that we are not dealing with a serial toilet smasher.

[This has been a test. We now return this blog to it's regularly scheduled tasteful content. ]

P.S. I'm sorry if I ruined your Cheerios.

:)

Special Delivery!

Looky what the mailman delivered!! Straight from the PFATT giveaway and straight from a wonderful doll maker named Kaf over at Grimitives. Kaf calls this little doll, "Molly Americana Sailor Girl," and she's even cuter in person.

Be sure to Check out Kaf's blog and her other wonderful creations here. She does amazing work, and I just noticed on her blog that she has another sweet patriotic doll, and some new little pumpkin dolls. . . .

Coming to a SpookyTimeJingles Website Near You

We have the spooky. . . .

And the jingly. . . .

June 13 at SpookyTimeJingles . . .

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C. Nash, out~

Playing Catch-up, and Losing. . .

"He, who every morning plans the transactions of the day, and follows that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through a labyrinth of the most busy life."

~Victor Hugo

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(Yeah, well, that's probably why I'm wandering aimlessly most of the time. . . and usually running late. I can't even find my "thread.")

My Eyes, My Eyes!

Okay. Yahoo Mail I've just about had it. Must you continue to bombard your unsuspecting users with such annoying and personal images plastered everywhere? Those banner ads and sidebar ads are driving me nuts--if it's not the "plump" lip ads showing a woman who appears to be suffering the effects of 18 bee stings, it's images of pulsating bulging abdomens and jiggling bat-wing arms; or sometimes it's pictures of ugly stretch marks or ads showing teeth which look like they came straight out of a horror movie prop room. I'm just trying to read my mail, for goodness sake, without being accosted on all sides by what amounts to virtual roadkill. I spend half my time reading my email while shielding my view, ala Phoebe on Friends, "My eyes! My eyes!"
It's enough to make a girl switch to gmail.

Thank you. I feel better now.

Sail Away

It has been a busy, busy few months around "Nash-ville," even more than our usual amount of busy. I keep wondering when life will slow down! If you've kept up with me for any amount of time, you'll remember that I've been up to my eyeballs with multiple graduations, mountains of camp laundry, extended trips down Memory Lane, floating away at outdoor art shows, and a host of other things which have kept me away from my paper mache work table more often than I would like. But finally, I've finished a few new pieces and recently listed them at Glitter and Grunge.

It's June Again. . .

It happens this time every year.

:)