Currently reading thread...

gala · 21-04-09 05:23:13

I was just gonna ask you, nihpuad, what you're growing in that garden and what's shaking with that - any more details of that you can link me to? If not, just tell me about it - I love garden chat. I gots one too. I understand very little about how things grow but I put some things in the ground and they do just that. Right now I'm reading The Best of Jackie French: a practical guide to everything from aphids to zuchinni chocolate cake to help me understand some of those things. How things grow is one of those things that is so bafflingly simple. Sometimes I have a hard time getting my head around that stuff.

nihpuad · 21-04-09 06:24:27

gala wrote:

I was just gonna ask you, nihpuad, what you're growing in that garden and what's shaking with that - any more details of that you can link me to?

Here's where I have to confess (to both you and ngaio) that I've already blurted out everything I know about gardening! I've been growing hot peppers -- jalapenos, cayennes, habaneros -- for several years, but they're basically unkillable: It's just a matter of getting the plants (which I buy as seedlings from a nursery) in the ground and then picking the pods a couple months later. Unless there's a true drought, you don't even need to water much, because they like it dry (the hotter and drier the climate, the hotter the peppers).

Last year I put in a handful of tomato plants, and the tomatoes we got were delicious... but we only got enough for the occasional snack, not enough to cook with. But my wife would like more tomatoes, and I thought if I were going to expand the patch I should try some other stuff, too... so this year I'm going to plant snow peas, long Asian beans, cucumbers, and watermelons (all of which I'm starting from seeds), in addition to the peppers and tomatoes. But since I really don't know anything about gardening, I'll probably end up killing 'em all this year; hopefully I'll learn from experience (i.e., I'm already looking past my anticipated crop failure to next year!). The thing is, if we do get anything useful out of the garden, it'll encourage us to cook more and eat out less, which can only be a good thing.

As for herbs, I've tried cilantro, mint, chives, rosemary, and sage, and this year I'm going to try basil, oregano, and hops (which is technically a flower, I think, not an herb); so far, I've had no luck in killing any of them! Be careful with mint, though: Not only is it unkillable, but it'll pretty much overrun anything you plant in the same container.

gala wrote:

Right now I'm reading The Best of Jackie French: a practical guide to everything from aphids to zuchinni chocolate cake to help me understand some of those things.

Excellent job of the obligatory on-topic tie-in!

ngaio · 22-04-09 01:12:45

Well even though I grew up on a farm, you know more about gardening than I do!

Anyway, I'm drooling at the thought of all those home grown things... my parents are currently living in Papua New Guinea and when I visited them recently, we spent almost the whole time eating home grown fruit and vegetables from my mother and neighour's gardens (including pineapples which are grown around the borders of some houses because the plants are incredibly spikey and double as security fences). It was awesome, especially as so many things grow ridiculously quick there in the humid, tropical environment, like you can almost see stuff grow before your eyes.

Folly · 22-04-09 03:03:17

I'm going to copy you and grow hot peppers. Yum! Good to hear they are so easy to grow. I have my own little windowsill garden of carnivourous plants plus some crazy looking cacti and succulents. But I don't give them as much attention as they need, and some were suffering greatly from recent heatwaves. The carnivourous plants need so much water. I still have to get them back from my neighbour who hopefully wtaered them while I was away for three weeks. Fingers crossed!

I am too lazy to read anything about gardening apart from the labels the plants come with. But Jackie French is a legend.

ngaio · 22-04-09 04:06:18

Mmmm, I've got some succulents on my balcony... they're great, did fine through the heatwave. However, I also have a fern plant (homesick for New Zealand!) that almost died, but for my collecting shower water for it.

What I really want is a swan plant to attrach monarch butterflies... however they require direct sunlight. Might give one a go anyway and if it starts to look unwell, I'll give it to a chum,

Last edited by ngaio (22-04-09 04:06:39)

Folly · 22-04-09 04:49:24

that sounds interesting, is it an attractive plant?

ngaio · 22-04-09 05:10:05

It's fairly plain looking but the seed pods are really cool. Also, monarch butterfly catterpillars are nifty and make absolutely gorgeous crysalis (a light mintish green with a gold "embellishment") that are fascinating to watch change during the metamorphosis within.. Plus a butterfly comes out! Hooray!

Last edited by ngaio (22-04-09 05:10:41)

neukgraag · 23-04-09 00:23:40

ngaio wrote:

Anyway, I'm drooling at the thought of all those home grown things... my parents are currently living in Papua New Guinea and when I visited them recently, we spent almost the whole time eating home grown fruit and vegetables from my mother and neighour's gardens (including pineapples which are grown around the borders of some houses because the plants are incredibly spikey and double as security fences). It was awesome, especially as so many things grow ridiculously quick there in the humid, tropical environment, like you can almost see stuff grow before your eyes.

Papua New Guinea - a big island between Australia and Indonesia - is where some of the scenes in the movie Earth were taken, which I will be seeing tomorrow. Today, Earth Day, was the opening day of this new Disney movie. "Earth," is a movie about animals and their dramatic journeys. Over the course of five years, the filmmakers collected video footage from some of the most remote places on the planet, including the Aurora Australis in Antarctica, the peaks of the Himalayas, and the tropical birds of Papua New Guinea, to reveal the earth's intrinsic beauty and harsh realities.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/04 … index.html

hyperballad · 23-04-09 01:22:14

I have a veritable army of cacti in my garden... Every so often I cut them up and repot them, I've got something close to 20 now. Some are so big I'm going to have to plant them in the ground at a friends property soon.

And they're mostly of the San Pedro variety

Folly · 23-04-09 02:04:05

Are you for real! You have san pedro! Holy shit. I took that while I was in Peru, but disappointingly didn't have any hallucinations. My mate I just travelled with has really found it a life changing experience, she has the flower tattooed on her neck. Peruvians claim it has cured cancer along with improving mental health. I did feel more in tune with nature which is something new for my cynical city girl self.
Isn't that a little *naughty* of you to have those?

adele_w · 23-04-09 02:16:19

San Pedro are legal to grow for 'gardening and ornamental purposes' but not for consumption. Ha! I'm sure hyperballad just loves looking at them.

hyperballad · 23-04-09 02:49:44

Hey Folly - what adele_w says

Maybe one day I will eat them... They're kinda my babies though. It takes a whole lotta cactus to make you trip, so I'd hopefully be able to bug my local scientist to extract what I need from the cacti rather than having to eat it.

I have had mescaline before and saw about 13 thousand different colors, I felt so close to nature, the earth and my physical self. Music becomes something that is so poignant it brings you to tears. It was pretty damn beautiful...

Not something I'd do everyday, but a wonderful, if not intense psychadelic experience.

(Mescaline or 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine is a naturally-occurring psychedelic alkaloid of the phenethylamine class i.e psychadelic cacti)

nihpuad · 23-04-09 05:51:56

hyperballad wrote:

I have had mescaline before and saw about 13 thousand different colors, I felt so close to nature, the earth and my physical self. Music becomes something that is so poignant it brings you to tears. It was pretty damn beautiful...
Not something I'd do everyday, but a wonderful, if not intense psychadelic experience.
(Mescaline or 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine is a naturally-occurring psychedelic alkaloid of the phenethylamine class i.e psychadelic cacti)

To steer this thread back toward its nominal topic.. I did mention I'm reading (actually listening to) a biography of Timothy Leary, didn't I? Never mind all the drugs he did; that man's life was a hallucination!

hyperballad · 23-04-09 06:30:20

That would be an interesting read. Must get my hands on a copy.

Have you read The Electric Cool Aid Acid Test? Thats a total trip, it reads like being on acid. If you haven't, read that one next!

I read some essays by Timothy Leary a little while back and also one of his books: Turn on. Tune in. Drop out. Whilst I don't agree you have to 'drop out' in the way he describes it still opened my mind to other possibilities of how to live my life and made me aware of the conditioning we under go throughout our lives without even realising.

Its pretty apparent he was a guy determined to push at society until he illicited a reaction... And boy did he get some.

Last edited by hyperballad (23-04-09 06:31:05)

gala · 26-04-09 12:51:56

Nigel Slater, the kitchen diaries. Perfect.

adele_w · 27-04-09 03:23:15

I am flitting back and forth through a pile of excellent reading at the moment and it says a bit about what is happening in my head currently as well as what I'm trying to make happen in my head. Haruki Murakami's Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. He's a genius. Tom Robbins' Still Life With Woodpecker. Another genius, and I don't bandy the term about! Inner Paths to Outer Space - Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics and other Spirtitual Technologies. Erotism: Death and Sensuality by Georges Bataille. And The Cinematic, a collection of writings about the interrelationship between still photography and cinematic artforms.

nihpuad · 27-04-09 04:34:20

I finished the Timothy Leary bio today, and have run out of audiobooks in my current library; I'll have to go shopping at audible.com!

nihpuad · 27-04-09 04:35:34

hyperballad wrote:

Have you read The Electric Cool Aid Acid Test?

Years ago, in high school or perhaps college; prob'ly time to read it again.

hyperballad · 01-05-09 06:18:49

Okay getting back into Jean M. Auel series again. Read it a looooooong time ago. Clan of the Cave Bear is the first book and I'm about half way in, such beautifully written descriptions and the main characters experiences are so moving... First time a book has made me cry for some time.

nihpuad · 01-05-09 06:38:40

There was another novel about prehistoric humans that came out (IIRC) about the same time as Cave Bear called Dance of the Tiger, by Bjorn Kurten, an actual paleoanthropologist. It's worth looking up; I really enjoyed it.

Of course, there's no naked Rae Dawn Chong, but...

Last edited by nihpuad (01-05-09 06:39:01)

ngaio · 18-06-09 08:08:00

Just finished The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger which was AWESOME and
I highly recommend it. I passed it along to my boyfriend and he's loving it too.

Currently reading Breathing in Colour by Clare Jay when I'm on the train and at home I'm reading Scott McCloud's "Making Comics" and "The Ethical Slut" by Dossie Easton and Catherine A. Liszt (thanks to Gala for lending me that one!).

Last edited by ngaio (18-06-09 08:08:34)

hyperballad · 18-06-09 08:34:39

Finished "Drugs are Nice: A Postpunk Memoir" by Lisa Crystal Carver

Some parts of this book are really sad... I had several teary moments, but it's a good and incredibly interesting read. This is one hella amazing woman who pushed herself to absolute extremes.

Her mindset, strength and honest fragility are well expressed.

Very very cool.

VeronicaF · 19-06-09 01:28:44

Just read "Beautiful Boy" by David Sheff. Really sad but interesting. A dads take on his sons meth addiction.

And now for something more uplifting...I'm now too lazy to read so I'm listening to "Snowcrash" by Neil Stephenson. Metaverse ftw!

hyperballad · 19-06-09 01:33:06

OMG. Snowcrash is a farking awesome book! I've read and reread that one many times over the years, my book club did that book last year too - everyone loved it.

It's very cool for how old it is too.

ngaio · 19-06-09 01:52:10

I tried reading a Neil Stephenson book, Quicksilver, got about halfway through but was just finding myself losing interest. Maybe I should try Snowcrash because most everyone I know is mad about Neil Stephenson...

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