The Empty Cabinets of my Mind

Dear Readers

I may be offline for a few weeks or more due to a family emergency, or if a miracle happens, and I DO BELIEVE IN MIRACLES, then less time. 

A Solemn Reminder

When walking along the river, I didn't notice what appears to be some kind of memorial at the base of the palm tree in the photo below:

It caught my eye in the photo later.   It is hard to tell exactly what it is, but presumably, it is yet another solemn reminder to exercise care when boating, as it appears to mark a spot where some kind of accident happened.  I don't know whether alcohol was involved, but if it was a boating accident, Arizona Game and Fish reminds us that alcohol "contributes to nearly one-third of all fatal boating accidents nationwide.

This photo was taken from the Nevada side of the Colorado River, facing Arizona.   With Needles a short hop to the south, this is part of the Tri-State Area where Arizona, California, and Nevada intersect. 

Hearing about icy temperatures on the East Coast makes me very happy to be here, enjoying January day temperatures in the mid-70's and growing tomatoes, cucumbers, and other veggies just outside our front door. 

Is Change Really Good?

When working my way through college, I had a plethora of part-time jobs.  One supervisor who was no worse than any of the others and better than many of them used to go around telling her workers with great frequency that "Change is Good."   The only problem was that she usually said this right after something bad had happened.  She may have convinced herself that change was good, but she sure didn't fool us.

A site called ubercool, which sells marketing insights, has a project they call Reinventing America, through which they are soliciting ideas for positive change:

Reinventing America

Some of the ideas there, especially the ones about teaching business ethics, frugality, and  the value of a simpler life are appealing.  They hearken back to Walden Pond, which makes me wonder.  Are students still reading Thoreau in our schools?  I sure hope so. 

A Roadrunner Running along the Wall

I so much wanted to take his picture before he ran away, that I tried talking some bird-talk at him.  Wow!  It worked.  Instead of dashing off, as these birds usually do when I approach them, camera in hand, he looked at me most curiously, turn this way, and that, and even let me get a reasonably close shot.

Thank you, little fella!

Stuff is Good

There is a new site that lets you show off your stuff.  Since some of my "stuff" is this blog, I showed it off first. 

The site, called Acobay, is in beta as of this writing:

Acobay

It describes itself as a social networking site, but the twist is that it tries to group people according to their interests.  One of the high-tech gadgets I like is my Helio Ocean smart phone, so I looked for it in the category "cellphones" but it was not there.  So I added it as "stuff" under the category "Anything."  It is unclear whether anyone will find it there or not, but we'll see.  It would be kind of fun to compare notes with other Ocean owners, as I have yet to find an Ocean forum online. 

They advertise that the more "stuff" you post about, the more people will find your blog, which should result in page views.  I like that idea.

Looks Like We Won't Have to Wait Long

I am so excited that this is finally starting to look like a cucumber:

 

Ok, you are thinking, "She acts like she never grew a cucumber before!"  Well, you are right! 

But growing this in water without dirt or bugs adds a new dimension to it.  I love cucumbers!

Cannot Wait to Eat This One

Barring unforseen disturbances in the weather, this one looks like it is going to pull through the winter on our Arizona porch:

We have some tomatillo plants started, too, and today I put one out on the porch:

My first tomatillo experiment

My Cucumber Grow Log

More Girls

For the past few months we have been inundated with male cucumber flowers but girl flowers were few and far between.  However, the new year brought excitement to our hydroponic garden because suddenly, we have a whole bunch of these:

  Here she is again after what we hope has been successful hand-pollination:

If you are interested in knowing more about my method of growing these cucumber plants in water, please visit my gardening blog:

Ann's Air Gardens

Also in progress is a glossary of terms I am running across in the process of learning to grow plants dirt-free, and my grow logs will be linked to the entries therein.   I haven't gotten very far on my cucumber page yet, but at the top of each page there is a link called Glossary that takes you there, and there are about a dozen pages so far, chronicling my exeriments with different flowers, herbs, salad greens, beans, tomatoes, etc.