Saturdays in the Garden - In the Country of Animal Pals

OUTSIDE

Driving home between 4:30 and 5:00, I've been catching the contrast of a beautiful sunset behind me and an early moon sitting on the treetops in front.  It's made for a lovely drive home especially since my path takes me along the river and through the state park where my office is located.

The birds feeders also went up at work this week and were almost immediately hopping.  The Tufted Titmice are my favorites as they have spunk and attitude and go for their food with a gusto.

Tufted Titmouse in Profile

Also two more seed catalogs came this week including my very most favorite - Seed Savers.  Not only do they have an awesome variety of heirloom vegetables, they also have a mission to preserve our genetically diverse food supply.  In their own words their mission is:

Seed Savers Exchange offers an alternative model to big agriculture through our work, encouraging participatory preservation among our members, and by signing the safe seed pledge. Seed Savers Exchange knows that the future of our planet depends on a genetically diverse food supply and carries out our important work by:

• Maintaining thousands of varieties of different plant types—from amaranth to zucchini—in one of the largest seed banks of its kind in North America.
• Regenerating seed in isolation gardens and storing them in ideal conditions.
• Documenting valuable cultural information on varieties and their histories.
• Distributing heirloom varieties to members and the public through the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook and the Seed Savers Exchange Catalog
• Storing varieties in back-up locations at the USDA Seed Bank in Fort Collins, CO and at Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. These off-site deposits remain the property of SSE.

But it's not all just saving the world.  Their varieties produce the sweetest and the best produce.  Last year I made the mistake of ordering a hybrid variety of yellow pear tomato from elsewhere (I had my deluded reasons) and I could barely force myself to eat them.  The Beam's Pear variety from Seed Savers on the other hand is practically like candy.  Okay, now I'm getting creepy and sound like I'm delivering an infomercial. ahem.  Now that this catalog is here I feel like I can officially begin to dream about next year's garden. 

LIFE

My life this week is partially about stealing things from other people.   The Bloggess posted this lovely cartoon of a Map of the Introvert's Heart  by Gemma Correll and I think it couldn't be more perfect.  I am currently spending a good bit of time in the Region of Hibernation.

 And here are some of the denizens of the Country of Animal Pals:

BOOKS AND BLOGGING 

I have six books that I need to read in December which is gonna be tough because a couple of them are big honkers.  Four of the books are to complete the  Eclectic Reader Challenge and these are:  A Sherlock Holmes Anthology, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins and Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.  I also want to read the first two books in the new Veronica Mars mystery series because book 2 is an ARC and is published January 20th.

It was a big week for finishing and starting books.  I'm actually about halfway through The Woman in White which I've been listening to being narrated by Ian Holm.  It's fantastic and features some of the most messed up Male-Female relationships I've ever encountered.  I also began Sabriel by Garth Nix which is as imaginative and fantastic as I thought it would be and have read the first story (by Stephen King) of the Anthology shown above.  Otherwise this week I finished How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky by Lydia Netzer which despite some early doubt, I ended up loving. I also finished The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford and In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce. Phew!

Last Week on the Blog:

SUNDAY: Sundays through the Stargate: Season 4 - the shippiest of Stargate SG1 seasons and otherwise pretty awesome as well.
TUESDAY: Top Ten Tuesday - 2015's Anticipated Books.  I chose books from my 100 Books Project list.
WEDNESDAY: Review of Perilous Seas by Dave Duncan.  Book three in the A Man of His Word series.
THURSDAY: Review of Clown and Emperor by Dave Duncan.  Book four and the final book in the A Man of His Word series.

Next Week on the Blog:

SUNDAY: Sundays Through the Stargate: Season 5.  The least shippy of seasons but still great.
TUESDAY: Top Ten Tuesday! This week's topic is the Top Ten New to Me Authors of 2014.
WEDNESDAY: Review of The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford (link above).
THURSDAY: Review of The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (link above).

Things to Remember

 

The buttercups in May,
The wild rose on the spray,
The poppy in the hay,

The primrose in the dell,
The freckled foxglove bell,
The honeysuckle’s smell 

 

Are things I would remember
When cheerless, raw November
Makes room for dark December.

James Reeves

(I also stole this poem from someone's blog because I love it and then didn't note who. Whoever you are  - thanks!)