Visitors in our garden: 好友自遠方來, 不亦樂乎 (Happy is when good friends come to visit from far away)

After attending the 5^th World Congress of IFHNOS (International Federation of Head and Neck Oncologic Societies) and the Annual Meeting of AHNS (American Head and Neck Society) and gave his talk in NYC, Dr. Yu-Tsai Lin (Ivan, 林右才) and his 40 pounds-less (after a successful dieting) beautiful wife, Hsiao-Ching (筱晶) made a side trip to Pittsburgh to see some old friends.

As Simon Liu said in the FB comment, 他鄕遇故知是人生四大喜事, 好友自遠方來, 不亦樂乎(Happy is when good friends come to visit from far away) is no less happy. 

You have seen beautiful things in our garden, now you also see beautiful people.

Heavenly hollyhock

I have posted “holy hollyhock” the other day; they’re still on their way to glory (seeing such beauty makes one want to sing ‘glory to God’ hymn).

You may or may not notice that many of the flowers in our garden  were at Emily Dickinson’s garden, based on her poems and letters.  These include zinnia, phlox, dianthus, aster, bellflower, Siberian iris, etc.  And of course, hollyhock, too.

In one of her letters, she wrote, “I am very busy picking up stems and stamens as the hollyhock leave their clothes around.”

Ceremonial ribbon cutting in the garden: harvesting 葫蘆瓜 (gourds)

Before going to a Taiwanese gathering yesterday we decided to share some Taiwanese cucumbers and 葫蘆瓜 (a type of gourd) with friends.  Katy all dressed up; “dress to kill” a gourd?  Harvesting the first 葫蘆瓜 (gourds) calls for a ceremonial ribbon cutting after all.

 

 

Holy hollyhock: fall in love at the first sight

Earth has not anything to show more fair
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:

The above is the first three lines of William Wordsworth’s “Upon Westminster Bridge” that he composed on September 3, 1802 while crossing the bridge on his way to Dover, heading for France with his sister.  Two hundred and twelve years later, I’ll try to recite this poem (14 lines only) while crossing this bridge.

The first three lines of this poem can be used to describe the majestic beauty of the hollyhock that is blooming in our garden.

I was not too impressed when Katy planted this hollyhock, whose leaves look very similar to that of an Italian squash next to her.  “Oh, my God” was my exclamation when I saw the blossom of the first flower; anything that can bring forth a “religious exclamation” is something to the extreme; in this case: extreme beauty.

Upon Westminster Bridge Wordsworth found the most beautiful scene on earth, I found it in our garden.   You will have to be someone with “no spiritual sense” (“Dull would be of soul”; a dull soul is uninspiring, uninteresting, flat and plain) to pass by our hollyhock without marveling at the sight.  An indeed “A sight so touching in its majesty”.

 

 

 

Luffa rows (菜瓜排)

These luffa gourds are actually the center piece of this garden for various reasons.  First and foremost the luffa variety (米桶菜瓜) we cultivated is the one we grew up with; it is also the most challenging to cultivate, there is no guarantee that we would succeed.  This tropical gourd is not frost hardy and needs 150-200 warm days to mature, a luxury western Pennsylvania cannot afford.

We germinated them indoors in March and waited until Memorial Day weekend to move them out to the garden.  Katy had to cover them up with plastic bags when the night temperature dipped to be below 40ºF.  Many of them almost perished.  They began to flourish when the warm and hot days came.

澎湖菜瓜 grows more vigorously than 米桶菜瓜, which is more of a delicacy and is tastier. Like everything else in life, the better one is harder to get.

Let’s up there will be a long hot summer for these two rows of luffa.

 

 

Fragrant lilies: 香水百合

Most of our lilies (in three different locations) are in full bloom.  You can share with us their sublime beauty, but you cannot indulge the pleasant fragrance they exude.

The other day I was transplanting zinnia in the lily zone, to say “so perfumed, the winds were lovesick with them” may be a bit exaggeration, but the constant and steady fragrance filled the air, leading me to imagine how Cleopatra came to meet Antony, the story told by Shakespeare.

The grandeur and beauty of the scene told by Enobarbus (Antony lieutenant) is unmatched by that in the modern movie Cleopatra.

ENOBARBUS
I will tell you.
The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Burned on the water. The poop was beaten gold,
Purple the sails, and so perfumèd that
The winds were lovesick with them. The oars were silver . . . .

(I’ll loosely translate it)
I will tell you.  Her barge looked like a golden throne upon the river/waves, burning bright as the sun shone upon it.  The rear upper deck was strikingly golden.  The sails were dyed purple, and there were perfumed so heavily that the air seemed dizzy with love. . . .

Lily in our garden: Queen of the flowers

Emily Dickinson mentioned flowers in her poems or letters more than 400 times, the roses appeared most often, but her allusions to lilies are the most loving and sensuous.

Most flowers need to have a “group photo” to look beautiful, not lily; lily stands alone can be beautiful, elegant, sublime or even aloof.  Like a queen!  You can tell I am in the camp of lily in the age-old debate of whether lily or rose is the queen of the flowers.

Seeing the lilies in our garden, I always think about Queen Catherine of Aragon (Henry VIII’s first wife; she was a Spanish princess whose parents commissioned Columbus to discover the new world).

In Act III Scene 1 of Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey tried to persuade Queen Catherine to accept the divorce from the king.  We read Queen Catherine said,

Almost no grave allowed me; like the lily,
That once was mistress of the field and flourished,
I’ll hang my head and perish.

 

Salvia: the sage

After showing you our celosias, I better let you see the salvias, lest they would feel neglected.

The other celosias

These celosias are not too pleased as I failed to mention and show them to you yesterday when I introduced celosia; they may not be as mature, but they are “burning” with passion.  They are in a very nice neighborhood; they are in good company.  Ladies and gentlemen, here are the other celosias.

Celosia: “old flame” in our garden

Celosia is one of our favorites in our garden; to call it “old flame” is not entirely inappropriate as celosia in Greek means “burn”.  It is also a medicinal plant.

Taiwanese cucumbers galore

Taiwanese cucumbers galore

It is time to harvest Taiwanese spinach (應菜, 空心菜) again

While staying in Paris for 5 years Thomas Jefferson cultivated American veggies (not available in Europe then) in his garden; for the same reason we have luffa (絲瓜, 菜瓜) and Taiwanese spinach (應菜, 空心菜).  This is the section of peppers and Taiwanese spinach (應菜, 空心菜); we have been eating 應菜 a few times; it is time to harvest again.

Patriotic garden

It is the time to show the patriotic garden again.  With the unrelenting demand of the garden work; we hardy have time to make garden posts.  Happy Birthday, America!