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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

From the kitchen sink window a terrapin undulates downhill over the  
mulch of the back garden. It appears to be heading toward the baby  
lettuce. Pauses with head stretched high like a periscope--the head  
reminds me of Spielberg's ET. Is it a girl sniffing the air for a  
boyfriend, or a boy inhaling for the irresistible perfume of a girl? 
Lettuce spared, it changes direction and goes back up the slope to the  
sod. Across the sod behind the hibiscus that is pushing up new shoots.  
Now back down into the garden, perhaps that is where the breeze comes  
from, angling across through the young pepper and tomato plants to the  
excavation where a hydrant was installed yesterday. Threads its way  
between the hole and the new hose bib manifold out onto the top of the  
stone wall. Peers over the edge like a child looking at a dropped toy  
on the floor below its crib. Decides against a dive. The garden  
rejected, it moves along and off the end of the wall and onto the sod,  
goes around the corner and disappears, still searching.

One could learn a lot from a terrapin.

The three-toed box turtle, also called terrapin, known to biologists  
as Terrapene Carolina triunguis, has been reported to live as long as  
138 years in the wild. I want to know who kept track. It is also said  
that an age of eighty to a hundred years is normal. Common life  
stoppers are vehicles and collectors. Three-toed box turtles prefer  
wooded areas, but are also found in lawns and pastures. In Missouri,  
courtship--this I have not seen, and mating, this I have photographed-- 
takes place from late April well into summer. Most egg-laying takes  
place from mid-May to early July. A female digs a three- to four-inch  
hole in a patch of loose soil. Three to eight elongated white eggs are  
laid, covered with dirt and abandoned. I have occasionally happened  
onto one of these nests, typically in leaf litter near an oak tree. As  
is the case with all turtles, the eggs and the young are on their own.  
It is noteworthy that this parenting style has been successful for  
thousands of years.

Now the next time a city friend asks what on earth do you country folk  
do for entertainment you will have turtle watching as an additional  
answer.
> From lisakvperry AT gmail.com  Fri May  9 10:29:12 2008
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Date: Fri, 9 May 2008 10:29:10 -0400
From: "Lisa K.V. Perry" <lisakvperry AT gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: [Homestead] Broccoli again
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On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 9:32 PM, Robert Walton <waltonrp AT gmail.com> wrote:

> Sun probably isn't the problem, some of mine did the same, old leaves
> died off. How does the center of the plant look. In a couple of weeks,
> the plants ought to perk up and send out new leaves that start to grow
> bigger, like a cabbage which it is.

Thanks, Rob. The center of the plant looks fine. Guess I was jumping the
gun. My last experience w/ broccoli was awful, hope this time around is
better.

Received a royal drenching here last night with more to come.

Lisa