Beverly Nichols

An excerpt from a Beverly Nichols essay, on the joys of owning a garden:

"I still stand before a hedge with a pair of shears in my hand, saying 'I can clip this hedge exactly as I please. I can make it round or square or like a castle. If I choose, I can clip it away altogether, and nobody can arrest me.'"

He also compares the more distasteful tasks of gardening (e.g. hunting slugs) to babies: "If it is your own baby, you probably quite enjoy wiping its nose. If it is somebody else's you would have to use a long pole with a handkerchief on the end . . . at least I should."

I've had people recommend him and I've even picked up a book but haven't gotten around to reading it yet. I'm looking forward to it even more now.

And I really think I need to clip my rosemary bush into a castle.

Bean lesson

Note to self -- when storing home-grown dry beans in glass jars, be very sure, be very very sure, be very very very sure, that they are totally, completely, 100% dry.

(Luckily, they weren't my precious Hutterite beans.)