pull tabs

i am just old enough to remember my father opening cans of beer with a churchkey can opener. i then remember him opening steel cans of beer with ring tabs, which pulled free of the can, and supposedly cut fingers open, because I remember being leery of them. finally i remember my dad opening aluminum cans of beer with pull tabs, which remained attached to the now recyclable can, and which looked just like these slices of hungarian hot pepper. i guess what i remember most, now that i think of it, is my dad opening cans of beer.

hot hungarian peppers

seeding

plants are always there to comfort you when you need to return to ancient rhythms and truths. my husband’s mother just died, and this image reminds me that  i am past the growth phase, and past the fruiting phase, and find myself in the phase when thoughts of what will come after me–my seeding phase if you will–is, and should be, occupying my thoughts.

grass gone to seed

spicy little devils

a little bit of keith haring habanero pepper to spice up your saturday morning. wash your hands. do not touch your eyes or your genitals. let’s be careful out there.

habanero peppers

family resemblance

did you know that yesterday’s celery is in the same family as queen anne’s lace?  i was surprised too. apparently, if celery is left to flower it will get those tiny flowers that aggregate in terminal umbels–the distinguishing feature of the whole family. umbellifers must have the most beautiful family reunions.

queen anne’s lace (Daucus carota)

serpentine!

one of my favorite scenes in any movie i’ve ever watched is from the in-laws where alan arkin and peter falk are sustaining deadly gunfire, and decide that they need to run away from the bullets by running serpentine, zigzagging back and forth between an airplane and the getaway vehicle. then they realize they don’t have the keys. the keys are with the dead guy who just got shot. so arkin runs back to the dead guy to get the keys to the getaway vehicle, but makes the terrible mistake of running to get the keys, and also running back through the gunfire, in a straight line. he arrives safely, but his buddy reminds him he is supposed to run serpentine. so he returns to the dead body, through more gunfire, then runs properly, in serpentine fashion, back to the getaway car. watch the scene. watch it ten times in a row, and tell me if you’re not still laughing.

celery (Apium graveolens)