Month: May 2019

Sad garden

Plants growing in a garden
I had a nice afternoon yesterday. Mom and Dad came up to help with my garden.

A friend helped expand it the day before. The new part was horrible… about half of it was *full* of rocks. We gave up after I had had carted almost 10 buckets and filled up 4 holes in my driveway. Dad was digging and I was picking up the stones.

There were so many rocks that we had to get more soil. Fortunately, my neighbor was working on her garden and offered some that she didn’t need.

I couldn’t decide what to plant, but we planted zucchini, onions, tomatoes and flowers. I had wanted to plant peppers but the Garden Gate was closed for Memorial Day. I went up today and bought a dozen various pepper plants. I’ll put those in later today after it cools off a little.

What was sad about the event was that mom found a nest of dead baby rabbits in the old garden. We carefully got rid of them, to avoid any possible disease from the remains. There’s been a rabbit in my back yard for years. I’m not sure if the babies belonged to it.

After the garden party, I went to the Y and walked a mile.

Spices for Cauliflower

A serving dish of hot food
I have an excellent cookbook “Rodale’s Basic Natural Foods Cookbook” edited by Charles Gerras. Mine is the 1984 edition.

It has lots of useful tables. How to prepare seafood, cooking methods for vegetables and quite a few others.

One table includes information about spice/vegetable combinations. The attached PDF summarizes the information. I haven’t tested many of the combinations personally but I trust the source.

(Although it’s not in the chart, I discovered that celery seed goes well with cauliflower.)

Spice Table

Climate change and the coal strike of 1977-78: Turn down the lights

A finger pressing a switch
When you read the history of the 1977-1978 Coal Strike, the reports talk about the negotiations, the rejected agreement and who the losers were in the final contract.

However, the effect of the strike on energy consumption is glossed over.

That year, I was a student at DeKalb High School in Waterloo, Indiana. The school took steps to reduce energy usage. I remember that we reduced lighting in the classrooms and hallways. We changed policies in the cafeteria and took other steps to cut back energy usage.

None of the changes that the school took required waiting for greater availability of renewable energy sources or capital outlays by industry.

Reducing the use of lighting in public spaces will not eliminate the imperative to reduce CO2 emissions. However, it will be a step in the right direction. It can be done overnight and does not need the cooperation of any elected officials.

Turn down the lights. It’s a very visible signal that CO2 emissions need to be lowered. It can be a start and it’s available everywhere.

Need any Passengers?

Headphones
I was just looking at my most recent mix CDs. I call them Bill’s Quirky Music since they’re pretty eclectic and some are far off the beaten path.

Out of the 118 songs on BQM X through BQM XVII there are 10 by Passenger. Four Horses is one of my favorites of those.

If I go back to all BQMs, Asia, Alan Parsons and Saga challenge Passenger for supremacy.

Although it’s not difficult, I was able to get my iPhone to play music from my desktop computer through iTunes sharing. However, it isn’t as useful as it once was because I listen to the desktop on Bluetooth speakers.