Aug 20 2022 - Let the Crabgrass

 

Do you wonder about crabgrass?  I decided to check on whether it is an annual as it comes up in late July and isn't there when spring comes around.  Yes - it is named after crabs with its long grass legs. And I find this wonderfully entertaining introduction to it in a blog: "Americans did two interesting things when they moved from the farm to suburbia: They surrounded their homes with toxic ornamentals and attacked edible plants as if they were life threatening. While we try to get rid of  crabgrass in America in parts of Africa crabgrass (fonio) is a staple grain, and as forage it can produce a whopping 17 tons per acre. Crabgrass seed can be used as a flour, couscous or as a grain, such as in porridge or fermented for use in beer making...  Stone Age dwellers in Switzerland cultivated crabgrass and it was important food crop in China by 2700 B.C. It’s a traditional food in India and Africa." Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Hungarians called it kasha/kasza.  That means you can use the baking soda to kill the crabgrass or as an ingredient in crabgrass/kasha muffins.  So go into your health food store today and buy some kasha.  Well, it is buckwheat actually.    There's more HERE.  Crabgrass as a story  doesn't end there - it reaches into the fantasy world of  fandom:  "Henry Crabgrass was a patch of crabgrass near Mollymauk Tealeaf's grave, who temporarily achieved sentience when Jester talked to them using Speak With Plants through the Charm of Plant Command. They were a cluster of crabgrass roots that encompassed a hive crabgrass mind."  Henry became the advocate for getting consent - no means no.  You can read about it HERE in critical roles.

I have a lot of pictures of corn - I take them in November when the wind is blowing fiercely and the motion blur makes beautiful abstracts.  But instead our picture is a comparison of the end stop of bicycles in Toronto vs. Niagara.  I think this might explain why the traffic on the QEW is heading towards Niagara every Saturday.   But remember, beautiful lush greenery also means crabgrass at one's feet. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Aug 9 2020 - And then there were Bicycle seat back rests!

 

There is a website dedicated to bicycle seats.  There are ones with back rests.  There are all kinds of seats - comfort seats, tailbone - coccyx relief seats, sport saddles, new arrivals, seat posts, and so on. The site business is located in Rexford, MT.  There are dozens of seats now available.  Arthur Garford is credited with inventing the padded bicycle seat in 1892.   The bicycle first came along in 1817.  The first verifiable claim for a useable bicycle is Baron Karl von Drais, a civil servant in Germany.  He called it the running machine.  It was two-wheeled, steerable, and human propelled.  The year before had been the Year without a Summer because of the volcanic eruption of Tambora:  Crops failed and horses died of starvation.  It was a catastrophic year, with no transportation available.  The summers came back and the bicycle stayed with us.  I found this joke amongst the top 10 bicycle jokes: Two nerds are riding along on a tandem bicycle when, suddenly, the one on the front slams on the brakes, gets off, and starts letting air out of the tires. The one on the back says: "HEY! What are you doing that for?!" The first nerd says, "My seat was too high and was hurting my butt. I wanted to lower it a bit." So the one in the back has had enough. He jumps off, loosens his own seat and spins it round to face the other direction. Now it's the first guy's turn to wonder what's going on. "What are you doing?" he asks his friend. "Look, mate," says the rider in the back, "if you're going to do stupid stuff like that, I'm going home!!" This scene comes from last year's train convention  - with its airplane in the sky and got out the handy Skylum software.

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