Scattelogical ramblings and desultory humor - Almost May

GROANNN (:-

Speaking of Romans, July and August were named for two guys. :)

pam

Victor. I was just thinking about that. April, May, and June. Otherwise you have to be named something else.

I think I did see an old western movie where somebody was named July.

O.K. Im finished with April. You can have it.

(Submitted my article on Marigolds - it was supposed to be done in April).

When I was learning geography in about 5th or 6th grade, I decided if I ever had a daughter I would name her Argentina.
I thought it was such a pretty name.

My mother was just glad I didn't take a liking to Uruguay.

Nancy

JULY JOHNSON
"Lonesome Dove" acted by Chris Cooper
a fav of mine Jo Ann

My DD's friends Mother's name is 'India' she named her DD 'Jade' which is my DD's BF

I knew there was a July wearing a cowboy hat!

I just got my retirement newsletter. The lead story is "The Food Problem" adapted from a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, which states that world wide food prices have increased 83% over the last three years.

While Americans spend about 16% of their income on food, Vietnamese spend around 65%, Indonesians, 50% and Nigerians 73%.

I have been talking to a visitor from London over the past few days. She says they grew some tomatoes in their yard, but gave up on the idea because you can buy fresh tomatoes in the store there.

It made me think: No you can't buy decent tomatoes in the store here. And if you do find some that are intact and ripe, they are likely to be coated with parafin. Oranges are almost impossible to find. The apples taste terrible - they are not even ripe and have been stored over the winter.

How lovely to be able to go to the store and find fresh wholesome locally grown food.

Does this happen where you live?

We have a few local sources.

It's called the back yard. Even if you grow and can them they are better then the stores. They do cost a tad less but more work.

We plant tomatoes in our flower beds,they bloom just like perennials.They bear just enough for BLT's for the season and are as welcome in late August as crocuses in March.

makes you wonder why food is so expensive in these 3d world countries. they are in climates where they could grow food year round. Of course, individuals may have very little land.

or no money to buy seed or no knowledge how to keep going.

Corruption, lack of freedom and all the power in the hands of a few.

I guess Nigeria is in a state of civil war also. It would be hard to garden or farm when you are in a refugee camp.

Well. I guess we should enjoy the cheap food we have!

Cheap??!!

Well, it doesn't cost you 73% of your salary does it?.

And, you don't have to eat it out of a communal pot with fellow refugees.

Yep. That's relatively a lot cheaper.

Not yet it doesn't.

I guess it never did make you enjoy your vegetables any more when your mother kept telling you about the starving children in China.

kid says: lets send 'em these peas and carrots in a care package!

The mothers in China told their children about the starving children in America according to my Chinese collegue! Guess mothers are the same world over.

I think today in China they tell about the fat children in America.

Perhaps the fat kids in America are just as malnourished as the starving ones.

Probably true.

Good point, Harper.

My Chinese (and Japanese, and Indian, and European) friends all had the same response when they first came to the US (mostly during the 1990s and 2000s): Good grief, these people are fat!

My son comes from a country where many of the children (and almost all children in his ethnic group) are severely malnourished. And it ain't because his people don't know how to grow food.

pam

Yes, food is often used as a cruel weapon.

it seems to me that the gardening that is done elsewhere (read 3rd world countries) is done mainly for existence.
I don't think that they have too much time/income to put towards "landscaping". Not to imply that they don't have that inclination. But when you have a small slice of land to grow on, the food source plants would come first, followed by herbs, etc.
We truly have so much available to us here...counting my blessings...

3rd world countries survied before and after the USA was founded. Why wouldnt they survive now. Maybe they just wait for the US to come in and hand them food instead of tools to work the earth.

Good morning everybody :)

I'm up early catching the worm...and then releasing him/her into my compost pile, where hopefully he/she will make lots of little baby worms.

Today's question: If you were a fruit or vegetable, what would you be? (I just asked my students this question as extra credit on their last exam and got some interesting results.)

We know Victor would be pantyhose. No, wait...

pam

That's a good question:
I think I would be an eggplant, same shape,love the color --- dark and mysterious.
Sherri: If the world food problem were solvable it would have been years ago,there are universities and private citizens working on how to bring nourishment to starving people. Cornell U. has been for many years.
I think the heads of government in the third world countries see all the food and money comming and they line their own pockets and store the food and make money on the blackmarket from their personal warehouses.

Not sure what I'd be Pam. Maybe a melon.

To get back to the % of income spent on food, I think it's more a question of disposable income. We are a wealthy developed nation that has, relatively, lavish housing and we spend lots of money on totally unnecessary things. In impoverished countries, most money is spent on staying alive. Imagine if your annual income was $2,000. A much larger percentage of that would be spent on food. It's not that the food is more expensive. In fact, they don't have the highly processed & prepared (and expensive) food we have or the amount of more expensive meat we have.

Schicken, do you really think people choose to let their children starve just so the U.S. will give them a handout?

Dave I was talking about 3rd world countries. Do they let them starve - no. Does it happen - yes. In a round about way I was trying to say that the US might as well Part own them. Heck we all pay for the food and whatever we send over there. There are food pantry's in the US that are naked now, our own people go hungry sometimes.

He is a picture of my house about 3 weeks ago. (I should have taken the bags of potting soil off the porch before I took the picture. LOL)

Pam, your son is adopted from a poor country? Good for you! I'm interested. Please tell more about him.

I like JoAnn's vegetable choice. Eggplants are such a gorgeous color. Wonder what I'd be...

Counting my blessings here too Katye.

"Oh, SNAP!" Sherrie! Ouch. I would happily pay for someone else to get food, or a step up, or an education, or get off the street, in spite of those that may be freeloading here or in other countries.

Cat, your house is so cute!! Those bags are not noticeable - I had to look to see what you were talking about. You were talking earlier about getting something to climb up your porch posts. Have you decided on anything? Looks like it gets great light.

Yank , I love your house!! But no cats on the doorstep?? LOL

Great house, Cat. Do you plant those window boxes?

Thanks, everyone. I have planted in the window boxes - they are very shallow and partially filled with foam to make them lighter weight. It is hard to get to them to water - I was thinking about trying lettuce this year. I planted windflowers that I got at the RU last year in the spot for the climbers. I'm starting painted lady beans to climb this year. I might move the windflowers and put in maypop next year.

Sounds nice! Do you use polymer crystals for your window boxes?

No - my 90 year old neighbor built the boxes and he put closed cell foam in the bottoms and I add light weight potting soil.

AYC. A very nice house. I know you will really enjoy it.

It looks like a picture book house.