種瓜得瓜, 只是我們兩個傻瓜不知道種的是什麼瓜

種瓜得瓜, 只是我們兩個傻瓜不知道種的是什麼瓜. (種瓜得瓜 means “one gets squash when one plants squash” or can be loosely translated as “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”) 

The first photo was taken at “China Palace” restaurant at Wexford, PA, where we indulged a few weeks ago. The second and the last word (reading from right to left) are “squash or 瓜 ” (the last one shown as picture of squash). We planted various squashes; we did reap what we sowed, except the two fools we are; we have no idea what kinds of squashes we got. I am hoping the seasoned gardeners, the likes of Dr. Fang and Dr. Liang, could tell us what kind of squash we got.

Since we’re talking about “squash” (瓜), we also use “傻瓜” (foolish squash = fool) to describe us accordingly.  These photos are taken by using a “傻瓜"相機 (“dummy” camera) 拍攝的.

Our luffas grow in good company of beautiful flowers

Taiwan is a paradise for growing luffa (菜瓜); they love hot, humid weather with lots of water; some of our fellow gardeners (in western Pennsylvania) have given up growing luffa. Our success in growing luffa this year surprises many; credit to our faithful and diligent (at times using flash light) watering. But, let’s not forget they grow accompanied by beautiful flowers in an aesthetic garden. These photos can prove it.

“In its unfading flowers”

Emily Dickinson’s letters often came with a poem; this one was in the letter to her brother, Austin. I think she must have written it about this time of the year: she was concerned about the frost (“Where not a frost has been”) and emphasized her flowers had not faded yet (“In its unfading flowers”); I can boast the same, the photo of “unfading flowers” were taken this morning. “Prithee” comes from “pray thee” which is used to express a wish or request for something to be done; something like “please”. Let me paraphrase her, “Prithee, my [Facebook] friends, / Into my garden come!”


Linda Mosier was still entertained by butterflies and hummingbirds at this time of the year; and Emily still “hear the bright bee hum”.

There is another sky,

Ever serene and fair,

And there is another sunshine,

Though it be darkness there;

Never mind faded forests, Austine,

Never mind silent fields –

Here is a little forest,

Whose leaf is ever green;

Here is a brighter garden,

Where not a frost has been;

In its unfading flowers

I hear the bright bee hum;
Prithee, my brother,
Into my garden come!

Joy's shoe garden

Inspired by our grand garden, Joy managed to set up a garden of her own in her Chicago high-rise apartment; that is her way of recycling. You cannot find any shoe more beautiful than this one.

Emily Dickinson’s mourning on the end of summer

I just post Emily Dickinson’s poem marking the beginning of autumn, here is her mourn on the end of summer.  I interpret this as the “mourning” of the passing of summer since Auburn was mentioned (“Will idle lie – in Auburn –” I think she referred to the celebrated Mount Auburn Cemetery—the noble and beautiful place.  (Edwin, Mount Auburn is  at Cambridge.

When Roses cease to bloom, Sir,

And Violets are done –

When Bumblebees in solemn flight

Have passed beyond the Sun –

The hand that paused to gather

Upon this Summer’s day

Will idle lie – in Auburn –

Then take my flowers – pray!

Our garden refuses to say good-bye to summer

Summer is officially gone and done, but our garden refuses to believe it. These photos are taken today (Sept. 22); they may have seen their best days, but they still linger; many are still thriving, and I need not apologize if I said it is still a lush garden!

Karen Patterson Eisiminger Yes, many of my flowers look better now than they did earlier this summer when it was so hot!

Linda Elliott Mosier It is beautiful...and I know what you mean. I was still entertained by butterflies and hummingbirds yesterday and I'm enjoying it and will continue to do so until they start their journey south. Had a white crowned sparrow stop by yesterday, just had lunch and went on his merry way. : ) 

A captive and captivating beauty

Zinnias do not die, they just fade away; they lost their luster first before they do their color, but many of them are still beaming in their glory. While watering from outside the fence this afternoon, I saw this captive (kept inside a chain-link fence) and captivating beauty.

Do the flowers know they are beautiful? Emily Dickinson wondered the same question.

How many Flowers fail in Wood –
Or perish from the Hill –

Without the privilege to know

That they are Beautiful –

Pink for breast cancer awareness

These are the pinks from our garden; this post raises two hands supporting Linda Mosier’s original post of the same title.

菜瓜有幸, 鮮花相伴

Emily Dickinson romanticized the bee-flower relationship with sexual allusion

In Emily Dickinson’s poems, the bee-flower relationship is romanticized with sexual allusion.  In The Seductions of Emily Dickinson, Robert McClure pointed out that flower is, after all, a sexual organ and pollination is a sexual act (one cannot be more explicit in saying “Their moment consummated”).  Bee is always a male one, even though it was actually a female bee that collects the nectar, whereas the flower is always a female one.  I would call this luscious poetry of garden scene.

Their moment consummated –

A Bee his burnished Carriage

Drove boldly to a Rose –

Combinedly alighting –

Himself – his Carriage was –

The Rose received his visit

With frank tranquility

Withholding not a Crescent

To his Cupidity –

Their moment consummated –

Remained for him – to flee –

Remained for her – of rapture 

But the humility

The passing of summer

It is inescapable that a gardener would mourn the passing of summer when the garden activities were winding down; Emily Dickinson was no exception.  This is how she did it.  Emily must also plant flowers of gentian family, which are colorful; many are blue.  Again both bee and butterfly showed up hand by hand.

The Gentian weaves her fringes –

The Maple’s loom is red –

My departing blossoms

           Obviate parade.

A brief, but patient illness –

An hour to prepare,

And one below this morning

Is where the angels are –

It was a short procession,

The Bobolink was there –

And aged Bee addressed us –

And then we knelt in prayer –

We trust that she was willing –

We ask that we may be.

Summer – Sister – Seraph!

Let us go with thee!

In the name of the Bee -

And of the Butterfly -

And of the Breeze - Amen!

Butterflies cruising round the purple line

I 'steal' (sharing euphemistically) these photos from Linda Eliott Mosier at Facebook so my FB 'friends' can see them; they're too good to be missed; they also remind me of Emily Dickinson's "Cruising round the purple line -" poem. The purple butterfly bush is the favorite of butterfly, and Emily Dickinson also noticed as we read,

 
Flowers - Well - if anubody
Can the ecstasy define -
Half a transport - half a trouble -
With which flowers humble men:
Anybody find the fountain
From which floods so contra flow -
I will give him all the Daisies
Which upon the hillside blow.

Too much pathos in their faces
For a simple breast like mine –
Butterflies from St. Domingo
Cruising round the purple line –
Have a system of aesthetics –
Far superior to mine.

Richard Feynman wondered whether the aesthetic sense exists in lower forms of life such as bees or butterflies; Emily would resoundingly say yes. She would say “that is my kind of garden” had she seen Linda's.

Vivacious zinnia

Linda Elliott Mosier posted this vivacious zinnia at FB and wrote,

"Walking out through the garden today made me think of you and Katy...and of course the zinnias brought to mind your literary friend, Emily Dickinson. I loved this pale pink with the white center. The vibrant ones are beautiful, but the pale ones steal my heart."

To which I commented,

"This is not a photograph; this is a painting—a work of art. The bold strokes of mixed colorful background—dim, blurry, indistinct, and uncertain, are in sharp contrast to your focus—bright, clear, vivacious, and confident. At Sermo (a physician-only online site) I know a colleague (a vascular surgeon in Michigan) who is an accomplished photographer; I know he uses Nikon camera, a professional one that only a vascular surgeon can afford it. This photo reminds me of some of his flowers."

红杏出牆 (a red apricot flower slipping out of wall)

We do not plant apricot/almond flower in our garden, but the red geranium behaves like one, slipping out of the chain-link fence. Virtually all Taiwanese know “红杏出牆” (a red apricot/almond flower slipping out of wall or leaning over the wall) means one’s wife has an affair. (It doesn’t apply when husband has an affair, though). This famous poem is almost untranslatable; I made a bold attempt.

 

春色满園關不住 A garden filled with love and passion, contained no more;

一支红杏出牆來 A lone red apricot flower leaning over the wall.

The last canna of summer

This is the last canna, alone next to the front porch of our house.

'Tis the last canon of summer

Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred, . . . . . (borrowing from Thomas Moore)

The last canon of summer 

The last canon of summer

 

 

Noiseless noise in our garden in the deep of night

Emily Dickinson said “Flowers . . . had tongue” and that is why we heard the noiseless noise in our garden during the night. We tiptoed into the garden lest we would disturb their conversation. These photos let you take a glance (love is only a glance away) in our garden in the deep of the night.

Do you see the lone and lonely night street light?

Linda Elliott Mosier We laugh at our "noisy noise" in our gardens at night...it's the deer eating out of the bird feeders.

Nectar of flower is what butterfly goes after

It may seem the bright showy flowers attract butterfly; but in the end it is the nectar of the flower they are going after. The colorful aerial ballet is the happy dance before feasting on the nectar. This is another Emily Dickinson’s poem about butterfly and bee was also mentioned.

The pedigree of Honey
Does not concern the Bee,
Nor lineage of Ecstasy
Delay the Butterfly
On spangled journeys to the peak
Of some perceiveless thing –
The right way to Tripol.A more essential thing.

The Pedigree of Honey
Does not concern the Bee –
A Clover, any time, to him,
Is Aristocracy –

Butterfly in Emily Dickinson’s garden and in ours

A gardener like Emily Dickinson worked alongside with bees and butterflies all the time, it shouldn’t be a surprise that her poems abound with bees and butterflies.


I am curious about her using ‘Chrysoprase’ (a gem stone) since the pupa of a butterfly is also called ‘chrysalis’. I am not aware that butterfly is attracted to buttercup, but I also read butterfly and buttercup together in one other poem. A New England Town is of course Amherst, Massachusetts.

The Butterfly's Assumption Gown
In Chrysoprase Apartments hung
This afternoon put on –


How condescending to descent
And be of Buttercups teh friend
In a New England Town –

In praise of zinnia

No matter what colors the zinnias are endowed; they are all bright and brilliant or even arrogant, treating the other less flashy and gaudy flowers with contempt. Like Emily Dickinson said, “Flowers had . . . tongue.” They must also have personality.


Flowers with delicate and fragile beauty often is ephemeral; Nature makes an exception for zinnia which can tolerate heat, drought, or even poor soil and they live a happy and flourishing life throughout the summer.  I am hoping they can outlive the summer.

We have to expand our garden next season, why?

These photos show why we have to expand our garden next season. The new garden will be more than double the current size. Joy was home in late July, and brainstormed to suggest that we moved the garden to be adjacent to our house and we have since taken up that idea.

In the undated photo (taken in late May or early June) you can see the emerging green beans, shy, hesitating, and not sure; the path was not constructed yet.


The photos taken from 6/13 to 8/21, documenting the vigorous growth of green beans and has since completely covered the walking path. The zinnia, geranium, and begonia all struggled to grow taller lest they would be overshadowed into oblivion.

The green beans have completely covered the path.

Early breakfast for bumble bees and wasps in our garden

Luffa flowers bloom in the morning, making them ideal breakfast for the bumble bees and wasps. There are nearly (or at least looks like) hundreds of bees and wasps having early breakfast in our garden.

One photo shows two bees eating together in the same luffa flower and that is unusual; it is too close for comfort. If two bees land on the same flower, either one will leave without a fight; with so many flowers available, there is no need to fight for a meal.


Their table manner is more or less the same, 埋頭苦吃 (burying the head and eat attentively and continuously.