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3252. thoughtful - 10/4/2005 11:22:48 PM oh. sorry. I guess I'm not up on my animal parts.
Same question though...don't camels get mean? and bite? 3253. arkymalarky - 10/5/2005 12:05:45 AM You gotta do what you gotta do. Bob still remembers from his childhood the neighbor having to do something similar for a bull with vd. I don't think people generally try that sort of thing without help, but the bull doesn't mind. As if there aren't enough reasons not to keep livestock--and please, no Arky jokes about hillbillies and their livestock. I'm sure I've already heard them. 3254. thoughtful - 10/5/2005 6:40:16 PM I think I'll stick with the apple crisp, thanks. 3255. PelleNilsson - 10/6/2005 6:51:32 PM Progress Pic No.1
 3256. ronski - 10/7/2005 10:53:17 PM That's colchicum, Pelle. After it blooms, plant it outdoors somewhere about six inches below soil level. In the spring, it will send up several large, dark green, roundish leaves. They will dry and die off late in the summer. The lavender-pink blossoms will follow.
Colchicum, colchique in French, was traditionally used to treat gout, for which it remains effective.
If you're living high on the hog these days... 3257. alistairConnor - 10/7/2005 11:40:57 PM Colchiques dans les prés fleurissent, fleurissent
Colchiques dans les prés, c'est la fin de l'été.
La feuille d'automne emportée par le vent
En ronde monotone tombe en tourbillonnant.
Châtaignes dans les bois, se fendent, se fendent,
Châtaignes dans les bois, se fendent sous nos pas.
La feuille d'automne emportée par le vent
En ronde monotone tombe en tourbillonnant
Nuages dans le ciel, s'étirent, s'étirent
Nuages dans le ciel s'étirent comme une aile
La feuille d'automne emportée par le vent
En ronde monotone, tombe en tourbillonnant
Et ce chant dans mon coeur, murmure, murmure
Et ce chant dans mon coeur appelle le bonheur 3258. alistairConnor - 10/7/2005 11:49:14 PM We have eaten the first chestnuts of the year.
A late rose. Apples, rose hips, etc. 3259. arkymalarky - 10/8/2005 1:52:58 AM We had our first really cool day today. It was wonderful. 3260. ronski - 10/8/2005 3:06:21 AM AC,
Thanks for posting the song. I was going to when I got home. I also love the rose and the asters. Beautiful.
(Chestnuts, I must say, I can take or leave; glace, or in turkey stuffing, or on a NYC street corner in winter -- they just don't do much for me. The trees are pretty, though. And the nuts themselves are pretty, for decoration.) 3261. Ulgine Barrows - 10/8/2005 4:26:48 AM 3255. PelleNilsson, I know those are flowers, but they also look like a dead chicken with its feet stuck up in the air. 3262. judithathome - 10/8/2005 5:03:19 AM It was cool....or cold, depending on what you're used to...here today, too, arks! 3263. prolph - 10/8/2005 5:40:39 AM Alistair:
I've noticed a charming tinge of romance in your posts lately but seriopsly
dout tuberculousis is. Did you all get tuberculin tests? Also there are no more sanitariums to go to. Just medication that works.
Great garden pictire; that's romanric. Patsy. 3264. alistairConnor - 10/8/2005 3:40:01 PM Thanks Patsy -- I'm fine really... I'm going to get a HIV test though -- a formality, but that's modern romance. 3265. PelleNilsson - 10/8/2005 4:55:56 PM Hello Ronski. Nice to see you again. Yes, the scientific name of the plant in question is Colchicum Autumnali which, apparently, the frog eaters have adopted. But do you deny that it is called Saffron Meadow among non-snobbish, non-expert Anglos? If so I have to notify the authorities here.
Meanwhile
Progress Pic No.2
 3266. ronski - 10/8/2005 8:29:37 PM The pictures are great. Meadow saffron is indeed the name, certainly in the dictionary, but here in the U.S. I have never seen or heard it called that, only colchicum. It is sold around the same time as bulbs for autumn-blooming crocus, including the saffron crocus, and sternbergia, a crocus lookalike that is bright yellow. You plant them in August, and in a few weeks you have blooms, and they winter over and even spread if happy.
There are no crocus, colchicum, tulips, narcissus, or hyacinths native to North America, but we do have native bublbous fritillaries and some interesting bulblike or cormlike plants like calochortus and brodeia, all from the western U.S. 3268. ronski - 10/8/2005 9:28:07 PM Droughtbuster: five inches of rain from Tammy combined with a cold front (temperature dropped ten degrees F. in an hour). More rain due. 3269. ronski - 10/9/2005 5:04:09 PM Ten and a quarter inches of rain. Fifty degrees F. It may every day a bit for almost a week, due to the stalled front. 3270. arkymalarky - 10/9/2005 7:10:58 PM Wow. That's a lot of rain. We were projected to get as much as 24 inches from Rita and ended up with about six, and the ground pretty much soaked it all up since it had been so dry before then.
It's gorgeous here today and projected to be in the 70s. I hope we've seen the last of the 90s, but I'm not holding my breath. 3271. wonkers2 - 10/9/2005 9:09:04 PM It's a perfect Michigan fall day here as well. Bright sun and 60 degrees or thereabouts. It's been a warm fall. My wife's flower garden is still in bloom. 3272. alistairConnor - 10/9/2005 10:23:57 PM The day could not have been more perfect. Clear blue, warm sun.
I gave myself a bad fright today.
I decided to take the kids and the ponies for a hike. A vague plan, a round trip of 15 or 20 km. I prepared a picnic lunch, absent mindedly, as the girls prepared their mounts. We struck off through the woods, making heavy work of the steep stony paths heading up to the village of Chatelus. I soon cursed myself for forgetting my camera. We counted about 30 horse riders coming the other way - never seen so many, and realised in Chatelus what it was about : organised circuits for horses and horse-drawn carriages. We took the bridle path that arrives directly under the walls of the castle, and continued past the calvary on a track that leads down to the stream.
I had no clear idea of the path, though I have necessarily been that way before : I don't have a good memory for tracks. But I knew there must be good picnic spots down by the river. Indeed, when we came to the confluence of the stream we were following and a larger one, of which our own stream is a tributary, we found all we could wish for - water for the ponies, grass, sun and shade for us, bridges and fords to mess around.
Our picnic was sufficient but not opulent, and I thought to myself, it's a shame I didn't bring some eggs. In fact, I remembered that I had intended to boil some eggs; indeed, I clearly remembered putting some eggs on to boil.
...
oh my god! so they are still on the gas! This is 2 pm, we left the house three hours ago. I didn't bring my phone, which wouldn't work in this accursed valley, and anyway, anyone I could phone who is close enough would be out on such a brilliant day. If I run to burst my lungs, I can be home in about an hour. But I'm a bit diffident about leaving the girls to fend for themselves.
So maybe the house is burning down as I stand here panicking. Or, just as likely, it is just starting to smoulder now, and will be beyond saving by the time I raise the alarm?
After three or four minutes of agitation, I calm down enough to analyse my actions this morning... Yes, I had intended to boil some eggs; which pot?... etc and I realised that the eggs I remembered boiling were from last night, for the cauliflower cheese. I had never gotten around to boiling them this morning.
The day ended most happily and uneventfully.
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