Past Blogs

If you’ve enjoyed a juicy, fall apple lately, thank a rose. Animals aren’t the only ones that have families, plants do, too. Apples, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, strawberries and almonds are all members of Roseceae, the rose family.

The three largest flowering plant families are the sunflower family, Asteraceae, the orchid family, Orchidaceae, and the pea family, Fabaceae. These three groups make up 25 per cent of all the flowering plants on earth.

The family members within a group are sometimes surprising. For example, look at the lily family, Lilaceae. Daylilies, tulips, narcissus, hyacinths and hostas are bedfellows with my favorite vegetable, asparagus. Onions and garlic, the stinking lily, are also found in the lily clan.

Fabaceae, the pea family, is recognized by its fruit called pods. We gobble up the seeds (peas and beans) and devour all sorts of pods. The family excels in the flower department as well. One of the most spectacular plants in our meadow is false indigo or baptisia which grows into an immense “bush” with masses of purple flowers and pods.

Our cats and I are big fans of the mint family, Lamiaceae . I eat and drink it, the felines get high on it. They don’t care that mint family plants have square stems; I think that is a fascinating feature. Our cupboards are filled with other mint family plants; basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, lemon balm and lavender.

The innocent sounding buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, has more poisonous members than most families. So don’t eat the monkshood, delphinium or larkspur.

And on the topic of poison, the nightshade family, Solanaceae, includes potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and petunias. But it also harbors belladonna or nightshade and other deadly poisonous plants. This family is bipolar.

If you are feeling hungry, consult the 10,000 member strong grass family, Poaceae. These plants are the main food source for our planet’s 7 billion people. Take away wheat, corn, rice, oats, rye and barley and mass starvation would follow. To say that people are powered by grass is not hyperbole. Bring on the bread!

 

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Fall is being assertive. Memories of summer are rapidly fading as the maples flame and the nighttime temperatures flirt with freezing.

Our yard produced a bumper crop of asters this autumn in colors a grade school girl would love; pink, purple and magenta. The last stragglers of the monarch migration are flocking to these starry flowers and drinking like drunks. The bees are their drinking buddies.

Another straggler, a grosbeak, was in our feeders a few days ago.  He was busily chipping off the suet. I wanted to tell him to get going as his trip to Central America will be a long one.

Fall preparations are happening inside as well.  Yesterday, I threw an empty paper grocery bag on the kitchen floor. Our little brown tabby, Sasha, likes to hide in bags. But this time she worked hard to turn her bag into a snug nest. Perhaps this is an omen about the severity of the upcoming winter.

 

The mice are looking for winter homes, too.  As the temperatures drop, they’re heading inside. I spotted a wee mouse sitting on top of my beach boots in the garage. “That’s why I always shake out my boots before I put them on,”  I said to my husband.

The cats have earned their keep as mousers lately. Beatrix was seen streaking through the basement with a victim dangling from her mouth. Since we don’t live in the Netherlands, I will not feel  compelled to photograph the mouse. See the DutchNews.nl article below.

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Wanted: Dutch cats to catch mice for research

All in the name of scientific research. Photo: Lxowle via wikimedia commons

Dutch radio show Vroege Vogels (early birds) and nature monitoring website Waarneming.nl are appealing for Dutch cats and their owners to help determine the make-up of the Netherlands’ mouse population.

Cat owners are being asked to send in photographs of mice caught by their pets along with details of where the animal was caught. Mice experts will then assess the type of mouse in an effort to build up a detailed picture of the spread of different types of mice.

‘Most cat owners don’t really appreciate it if Tiger or Minoes bring in a dead mouse, but the catch can be of great value to researchers,’ a spokesman for the project told RTL news. ‘So please take a couple of pictures of the victim and send them to us.’

There are at least 11 different species of mouse in the Netherlands, RTL said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Robots are a hot topic at the moment. Reports  heralding the incredible advances in robotics are popping up all over the various media.

The word robot was introduced into the English language by the Czech author and playwright, Karel Capek, in his 1920 hit play R.U.R. or Rossum’s Universal Robots. “Robota” was an old Slavic word, referring to work without pay that peasants had to do two or three days a week on the lands of noblemen.

R.U.R. tells the story of a company using the latest scientific advances to mass produce workers who had everything but a soul. These robot workers were to do the jobs humans did not want. Inevitably, the robots rebel and turn against their human creators, a scenario akin to the famous “I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that” line when the computer takes over in the movie, “2001: A Space Odyssey”.

Modern definitions of the word robot vary. “An automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed to humans or a machine in the form of a human,” is Webster’s entry. The British Department of Labor declares a robot to be, “a reprogrammable manipulator device.”

I don’t think we are at risk of assault from out of control bots. The real danger appears to be in becoming one.

Chips can now be implanted in humans to automatically dispense medications. It’s not far fetched to assume that the next advance could be implants to control mood and behavior or nanobots to augment our immune systems. Since many people cannot read maps, personal GPS implants might be the thing of the future as well.

Personally, I don’t think being a robot would be any fun. As a child, I longed to be a grown up so I could control my own life. My parents were wonderful people, but they did tell me when I had to go to bed, force cod liver oil down my throat, pick out the clothes I wore and the food I ate. I’ve never regretted becoming an independent adult.

Life can be made easier through human robotic devices to the point where it no longer qualifies as a life. Beware of the bots. They’re coming to get us…..literally.

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I have long subscribed to the theory that anybody who has a friend from New Jersey is a fortunate person. I have been exceptionally blessed with a number of wonderful friends from the Garden State, and I’m convinced that people from New Jersey are a breed apart. Perhaps we ordinary folks would be, too, if we came from places called Hoboken, Lower Squankum, Cheesequake, Brass Castle and “The Oranges”. How can you have a city named “The Oranges”?

Perhaps the reason for Jersey’s uniqueness lies in New York. All of New Jersey has to have a killer inferiority complex. It can’t possibly compete with the Big Apple. So the populace…..the most dense in the nation, by the way…..simply creates their own little crazy universe.

Meditate on this fact for a moment. Trenton and Princeton are in the same state. As we all know, Stephanie Plum is from Trenton and Einstein lived in Princeton.

I won’t even touch the topics of Newark, Atlantic City or Margate where some real estate czars built an elephant shaped hotel.

Tourism is the second largest industry despite the fact that the state leads the nation in car thefts and toxic waste dumps (108). On a brighter note, they also have the most diners and more race horses than Kentucky.

Tourist attractions abound. Cape May with its elegant Victorian homes is a birders’paradise. But don’t miss the world’s largest statue of a tooth, the world’s largest lightbulb, and the world’s largest Spoon Museum. For adventure, take in the annual Cockroach Derby at Rutger’s University (which is not called The University of New Jersey).

So go right out and find a friend from Jersey. Your life will never be dull again.

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The vote is in, and the Scots have decided to keep the United Kingdom united. Whichever way the vote had gone, my husband (Clan MacGregor) and I (Bohemian) remain committed to seeing Scotland someday. An impediment has prevented travel there thus far.  More on that later.

Since I have no first hand knowledge of the country, my impressions are all gleaned from second hand sources,  mainly books.

My mother read Robert Burns’ poems to me as a child. These lines and others are a permanent part of my poetic memory:

O, wad some Power the giftie gie us,
To see oursels as others see us!

Gorgeous, picture-filled books on the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife, Margaret MacDonald, have fueled my desire to see Edinburgh and Glasgow. These leaders of the Arts and Crafts Movement in Scotland created buildings, furniture and textiles of unsurpassed elegance. I want to see what remains.

And then there is Alexander McCall Smith, one of my favorite authors. I’ve read all his Isabel Dalhousie books which are set in Edinburgh, so I’ve  seen the city through her (his) eyes. The entire Scottish Travel Bureau could not have done a better sales job than Mr. Smith.

My husband and I are ardent travelers who love to rent a small car and simply explore new places. We have no timetables or fixed agendas. But we both  know that a rambling, carefree road trip in Scotland would completely lack the carefree part. Driving on the left side of the road takes full concentration for us lifetime right hand side drivers. We proved this point on a two by seven mile island in the Turks and Caicos, a left side driving place. We were there for a wedding and had some spare time to wander. Fortunately, the car we rented was already a wreck. We were headed out of the rental car lot and noticed the attendant frantically waving at us……we were headed for the wrong lane. Things did not get easier. I always knew when my husband was about to make a turn; the windshield wipers would turn on.

Scotland is still in our future, but it will be on foot, train or bus.

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