Skip to main content

Going to seed

When we got home after 2 weeks on vacation, we had 2 ripe tomatoes! Yay! They were very yummy, especially with basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. If I can prevent the blight from killing the tomato plant, (and the deer from eating the tomatoes) we might have more in the next few days.

The rest of the house was less productive. The lawn was a jungle, the sunflower had died. The fish were alive, but the water had gotten dangerously low because of evaporation---almost below the level of the pump, which would have been bad. The yellow fish appears to have broken something, she's a bit misshapen now (a humpback? I don't know). The ants found their way under the kitchen table. There are moths living in our pantry. I haven't checked the compost pile, which I need to do tomorrow. Things tend to disintegrate when you're gone, but they're slowly coming together again.

Everything except for the laundry to be folded pile, which is glowering at me and reproaching me for writing blog posts instead of folding. The longer I put it off, the harder it is to start folding... Ah, I can always do it tomorrow, right? (and if I just wait long enough, we will wear all the clothes from it and I won't have to fold any at all, right?)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Ca...

Books I like: reality edition

Here are some more books from my childhood and later. I read a lot as a kid, and these books are the ones that stand out in my memory. I figure that if I can remember them 25 years after I read them, they must be pretty good. I'm calling this the "Reality Segment," not fantasy, not science fiction, not history, just real life. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin : This is probably my favorite children's book of all time. I read it in 3rd grade or so, then read it again to clear it up more. Then I read it in 6 th grade and finally understood what was going on during the second reading of the will. In more recent readings I've understood more about Sydelle Paulaski and the relationship between Dr. Denton and the lovely Angela. What a pleasure. Ellen Raskin has written many other good children's books (all quirky and surprising) but this is the jewel. Bruno and Boots books by Gordon Korman : As the FNDP (Friendly Neighborhood Developmental Psychologis...

Books I like: magic/science fiction

I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy when I was younger, so I was surprised when I was thinking about this list at how few books were on it. The other thing that is interesting is how many books I just remember a few details from, but not anything useful like a title or author. Half Magic and the whole series, by Edward Eager: My favorite is Knight's Castle, although I suspect I would have enjoyed it more if I had ever read Ivanhoe... Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald: I'm not sure when it happened, but I now identify with the parents rather than the kids. The Seven Citadels by Geraldine Harris: I came back to the Jr. High library to check this out even after I moved on to the high school. Girl with the Silver Eyes by Wilo Davis Roberts: I always wondered what would happen if I had ESP and other "special" abilities. The OZ books, by L. Frank Baum: I read almost all of these (all the ones I could find in the library, rather). My favorite is Tik - To...