What annoys the heck out of me

Thinking that you finally figured out something and finding out that you still don’t understand squat.  That stands for men as well as for web programming.  Not that anyone can make sense out of a man.

People that listen to their car sound system so loud, you can hear it from your living room that is two blocks away, even if your windows are closed.  Although, I must confess, I’m probably guilty of that one. Oh…. but just once or twice.

Reading articles in the paper written as if government scandals, corruption and bribery were a new thing.  It’s been the way of the world since God created Adam and Eve.  Not that I think that God literally created Man.  I would rather think that evolution was responsible for that.

The stock market being more temperamental than a 2 year-old or acting as if it has bipolar disease.  Maybe it needs a couple of sessions on a psychiatrist couch and a big dose of xanax.

The American government playing at who’s gonna say uncle first, while the rest of the world is losing faith in Uncle Sam. 

Seeing a car, well more realistically, a blur speed by at 160km/h and not hearing police sirens.  But have police sirens blast at you, on a Sunday afternoon, on a quiet street because you slid your stop just a little bit too much.

Being stuck in traffic on the Champlain Bridge, hoping that you won’t fall in the river.  That darn thing is only 50 years old (built 1962) and decaying fast.  If it was a person it would be in intensive care plugged into a ventilator on high doses of morphine.  When you compare it to the Pont Victoria that’s been there since the late 1800’s it’s pretty pathetic.

All relaxed watching TV when you're suddently jolted out of your couch, thinking that you've been attacked by a screaming army.  When in fact it's only the commercial break on TV.  Do they really think we'll listen to them if they scream in your ears? Don't they know we all have a mute button on our remote.

TV stations featuring movies with less commercials when in fact they may be less frequent but are twice as long.  Which can be considered a good thing since it gives you the time to clean the dishes, vacuum, put the kids to bed and feed the cats without missing a word of your movie.

Here is a link to a site that lists commun people pet peeves but, be careful if long lists annoy you because there's about 500 of them. GetAnnoyed.com

Disclaimer: The comments on this post are personal thoughts of the author and are not meant to offend or disrespect anybody but, just to expose the author’s opinion and point of view.  Pictures for this post were tacken on the Web and, as far as the author knows copyrights were not violated.  If this is one of your pictures and you don't want it used by a third party please let me know. 

Invasion of the curcubitaceae

Doesn't it sound like the title of a bad horror movie? 
Remember the “Invasion of the body snatchers” where human clones came out of a cucumber like gooey cocoon. 

Yes, I am that old!

Part of the herb garden

Ok, you must be wondering where I'm coming from. 

Last spring, like every spring for the last three years, my boyfriend and I planted our garden.  As always we planted the favorites and the no brainer to take care of tomatoes, carrots lettuce and cucumbers. And for the first time we planted water melons and cantaloupes.  They joined our growing collection of fine herbs (parsley, 2 kinds of thyme, oregano, tarragon, 2 kinds of mint, 3 types of basil, rosemary, savory, hyssop and sage).

Giant invading cucumber plants

Then started the anxiety, the waiting and checking; will it grow or will it die? I slaved in the hot sun watering and fertilizing, removing weeds until our crop grew enough so that I could not see them anymore (ok my boyfriend helped).  And it grew, for the most part anyway, and then it continued growing and growing and growing some more.  And that’s where I'm coming from; we are invaded by cucumbers and melons (all members if the curcubitaceae family).   They’re everywhere, in the flower beds, around tomato plants, in the fine herbs garden and, even sneaking through the fence in the neighbor’s yard.  A good thing there’s a cedar hedge so they wind around the trees and he won’t be snatched by giant cucumbers and….giant they are.  There is so many leaves that they remain invisible until it’s too late and then they jump in our face. However, there is one thing I can’t hold against them: they are good, sweet and crunchy with next to no seeds and they make great creamy soup.  You can try our recipe below, courtesy of Chris, my boyfriend.

Melons and Cantaloupes

As for the melon, well they are growing leaves and, some melons.  Let’s say that for the amount of foliage there is little fruit.  They are a great cat hiding place when they don’t want to come in and I’m looking for them.  We will still get to harvest a few.  There is one cantaloupe almost ready to pick and 3 or 4 others not too far behind.  We are not that lucky with the water melons, so far there are three, one that is dying, another one that looks sick and a third one that maybe our winner.  Seems like my waiting anxiety is not over yet.  If you are interested here is a link to a cool story about "The Return of the Montreal Melon" a kind of melon that was grown in NDG until World War II than disappeared.  It made a come back in the Cantaloup garden which promotes community and urban gardening as well as organic heritage seeds and plants.  They are working with the organisation Action Communiterre.

I don't know about this melon

Almost ready cantaloupe

Giant cucumbers, largest one = 18 inches

     

Now, about my tomatoes……………. I think I’ll spare you that one or, maybe another time.

Urban Garden

There is an article by Marie-Claude Lortie in La Presse today talking about a trend in San Francisco promoting sharing and establishing temporary businesses.  It made me remember something interesting and innovating I saw a couple weeks ago in Laval. 
 
We were walking in Centropolis, a sort of outdoor mall with boutiques and restaurants, before seeing a movie at the Colossus.  Being a flower fanatic, I was looking around at the plants surrounding the fountain in the center of the complex and, I saw what looked like green pepper plants.  I looked more carefully and it really was green peppers growing in the flower garden.  In fact it was more than just green peppers; there were also, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, chili and jalapeño peppers, broccolis, cabbages, eggplants, zucchinis and Swiss chard of different colors, all of them mixed in with flowers.    

I thought it was a brilliant idea.  First of all, it was beautiful with all its colors but, it was also edible and restaurants seem to be using the vegetables in their cuisine.  Fresh produce, low cost, ecological and pleasing to the eyes. Fantastic. 

The pictures were taken by my boyfriend with his iPhone. I did not have my camera with me.  Note to myself: Always bring your camera with you.

Swiss chard surrounded by flowers

Chili peppers

Bright Red



Lobélie du cardinal

I have been waiting for this one to bloom for a while.  I first saw it in a book last year and could not believe that this flower could be found growing wild, it's just too beautiful.  Image my surprise when I found it, last August, on the path I follow along la rivière des Mille Iles almost every day.  I took pictures, of course, but they did not turn out very well so I had to wait until now to get a decent one.  La lobélie du cardinal is one of our most magnificent indigenous flowers.  It was brought back to France by the discoverers of America to show the beauties of the New World. Some say that it got its name because the members of the Catholic Church liked it.  There is no other flower with that pure red color in Quebec. 
The little whitish dot at the top of the flower is not a drop of water but the anthers, part of the stamen which is the male part of the flower and, that was my little botanical lecture.