one of my favorite things to do lately is stare at plants. my own plants, friends’ plants, neighbors’ plants, communal plants, plants in nature, pictures of plants in plant books, blogs about plants with pictures of plants.........i think because it’s been so cold and precipitate-y all week i’ve been extra obsessive. spring is here, but i’m still cooped up more than i’d like to be; a lot of things are in bloom, but there isn’t enough color yet to satisfy me. i’m feeling green-greedy.
anyone in the boise area willing to take some lemon balm off my hands? it’s spread all over the place on both banks of the creek, and i would much rather give it away than destroy it when i start planting back there. i really, really don’t need this much lemon balm. no one does.
i’m in love with the leaves of burgundy bush bean plants. they’re flecked with the same color purple the bean pods will be. 
the other day i ate some dandelion greens for the first time. not bad! kind of bitter, but they’d be good in a salad. 
i’m always struck by how unique and complex every dandelion flower is. when you see them dotting the grass they look like simple, uniform specks of yellow, but look close up and all these extraordinary textures and shapes and patterns show themselves. i love looking at things up close. you miss so much otherwise. 
You have a superb eye for form and detail, Em. Some of these pictures are scrummy. And I always feel sad when I have to mow the lawn for the first time in the spring. By then there are lots of dandelions and daisies dotting the green with yellow and white. I tell myself I'm only giving them a hair cut! My lawn is a mess by the standards of most 'gardeners,' but I can't bring myself to use weed-and-feed. The appearance of the first dandelion is such a delight. Maybe that can be today's blog.
ReplyDeletewow, i've never heard the word "scrummy" before. i like it! that is sad mowing over flowers...at my parents' cabin my dad always mows over a huge patch of wild strawberries that grow in the lawn. his priorities confuse me.
ReplyDeleteShort for 'scrumptious.' It probably came from Liverpool. Most abbreviations with 'y' on the end do. They it was who gave us the word 'butty' meaning a sandwich ('cos you put butter on them.) When the British police changed form using black cars to white ones with a red strip along the side, Liverpudlians called them 'jam butty cars.' Takes some of the gravitas away, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteurban dictionary says it’s a portmanteau of “scrumptious” and “yummy,” so maybe the “y” isn’t a purely decorative liverpudlyism. you put butter on sandwiches? like, dairy butter?
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