Ethnic Taiwanese cucumber: following Thomas Jefferson’s footstep

We introduced ethnic Taiwanese vegetables to our garden just like Thomas Jefferson did from Europe in the Revolutionary Garden at his beloved Monticello—“A Rich Spot of Earth” (a book by Peter Hatch).

We read an entry of “March 20.  Purple hyacinth begins to bloom” in his Garden Book in 1766 and that was 60 years before his death in 1826.  You may see our purple hyacinth bloom in my blog (April 11, 2013); hyacinth blossoms earlier in Virginia than in Pennsylvania obviously.

I’ll begin to introduce ethnic Taiwanese veggies; here is Taiwanese cucumber or gherkin (小黃瓜).  They are side by side with luffa (絲瓜 or 菜瓜).  We got the seeds from China Town in Boston.

有朋自遠方來, 不亦樂乎! Happiness is having friends visited from afar!

有朋自遠方來, 不亦樂乎! Happiness is having friends visited from afar!

From seeds to flowers: Flowers are like the pleasure of the world

Flowers are like the pleasure of the world, as Imogen says in Act IV Scene 2 of Cymbeline, especially when one creates them from the scratch.  We planted these snapdragon and zinnia seeds indoors in the spring and transplanted them outdoor when the summer garden began. 
 
Not only is it more economical, but also gives us a gratifying sense of creating something.  And these flowers will “paint our garden with delight” (from a song in Love’s Labour’s Lost) much earlier in the season.

Delphiniums: Our long purple but not Shakespeare’s

These delphiniums came back on their own and they usually do better than those cultivated.  We did plant them last year.  I call them “long purple”.

Shakespeare also used ‘long purple” in Act IV Scene 7 of Hamlet, when Gertrude (the Queen) told Laertes that his sister had drowned and how that happened.  Long purple is one of the flowers make up the ‘fantastic garlands’ she wears.

Queen
There is a willow grows aslant the brook
That shows his hoary leaves in the glassy stream.
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold [chaste] maids do dead men’s fingers call them.
. . . . . . . . .

So Shakespeare was not talking about the delphiniums, but Orchis mascula (an orchid), which has a grosser/obscene name of “dead men’s fingers”.

With that many flowers/veggies mentioned in his plays, the Bard must have been a gardener or at least he had a garden.

My dancing in the wedding

While “dancing” (if you would stretch your imagination and call it a dance) with Paula, I suddenly heard the chanting of “Go Buccos! Go Buccos!” I was wondering what was about; did Pirates win another game?  Little did I know it was Janet’s Pirates hat that was on top of my head.

A fabulous wedding: Splendor on the grass and in life

We’re in a fabulous wedding yesterday (July 6^th).  These photos were taken by Katy, who thought she was still working as the World Journal (世界日報) reporter.  The wedding reception took place at the Destiny Hill Farms; we saw rows of lavender and “splendor on the grass”.

Juliet (to Romeo):                                                      
But to be frank and give it thee again;                      
And yet I wish but for the thing I have.                     
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,                                  
My love as deep; the more I give to thee                 
The more I have, for both are infinite.                     

                   Romeo & Juliet   Act II  Scene 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taiwanese pumpkins: “I go so you will live.”

Gabby was hopping along in the Katy’s Vineyard where is the home of Taiwanese pumpkins when she came home for a visit on June 8, the other photo was taken July 4^th, not quite one month apart.  Now one can hardly walk, let alone hop, between the pumpkin patches.

It was toward the end of August last year when the Taiwanese pumpkins were about this size, so we’re about 6 weeks ahead of schedule, thanks to the indoor planting of seeds that began in April.

These Taiwanese pumpkins are still in adolescent stage; they will outgrow the limited space pretty soon; we plan to remove some or many of them to make space (air or ground) for others.  I hope the sacrificed ones will say to their more fortunate friends who may live to their natural life span and produce, “I go so you’ll live.”

6/8/2013

7/4/2013

7/4/2013

7/4/2013

 

7/4/2013

7/4/2013

7/4/2013

 

The meaning of the Battle of Gettysburg

It must have been an awfully sad July 4^th in 1863; the Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1-3, ended today 150 years ago.  It was a decisive battle, a turning point of the Civil War, although still more people died after than before the Gettysburg Battle.  Drew Gilpin Faust’s (current Harvard University president) “This Republic of Suffering” talks about the death in the Civil War.

One may say it is ironic or even a curse that a battle with great casualty during the Civil War had to fight and end just before the birthday of the nation.  But it may have special meaning if one thinks along this line that America was re-born a better nation after the Civil War as Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, “that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, . . .” Carry Wills’s Lincoln at Gettysburg has a subtitle, “The words that remade [thus another birthday] America”.

Let’s Go, Bucs! Sky’s the Limit

After 20 years of losing seasons, Pirates and lowly were once synonymous and inseparable; not anymore, nevermore! 

Pirates has the best record in the majors (American and National Leagues—30 teams in all) at 51-30, leaving the runner-up, Cardinals, 2 games behind (we’re no longer afraid to “Meet me at St. Louis”) and with 5 ½ games behind, Cincinnati Reds is suddenly became irrelevant. Let’s Go, Bucs! Sky’s the Limit (the headline of the Sports section in today’s Observer-Reporter).

Snapdragon: All orators are dumb when beauty pleadeth

These heavenly snapdragons are in the “I ♥ KATY” section.  I run out of words in describing their ethereal beauty, just like Shakespeare wrote in one of his narrative poems, Tarquin, not that I am an orator.

All orators are dumb when beauty pleadeth;

Beauty itself doth of itself persuade
The eyes of men without an orator;

 

6/29/2013

 

Patriotic garden

With the July 4^th fast approaching, our garden is getting into a patriotic mood.