Warning! Words Ahead!

Every time I think of walking away from Blogging something hideous comes up that I feel requires comment.

I have noted this week, on two gardening blog sites, a warning placed at the bottom of the page, alerting our newest citizens, the Thumbsters, that into their sub-literate, post-literate, a-literate world has come a blog post or article requiring that they read WORDS.

389 words! is one warning. OMG the Thumbsters howl. Really, they say, then forget it.

5,200 words ! warns the website describing xeric gardens that do not waste water.

5200 words whine the Thumbsters. Has the writer never heard of an Easy Read? And who even knew there were that many words. We thought, like, you know, that there were only 140.

Imagine the relief of  senior high school Thumbsters discarding their Iliads, and Chaucer, and "Bleak House" at McKay Used Books. Books that weigh more than three I-phones, full of boring descriptions and unlikeable characters.  The days of "The Dead Poets Society" are over.

The day of the Text Message Novel is at hand-

And don't worry. It won't be a "Long Read".


*My discouragement earlier this week was caused by an apartment flooded by a corroded hot water heater and by a gum abcess. Enough to turn anyone into a pessimist.

There, I've said it in twenty eight words. Just enough not to abuse our tee-tiny attention spans!

Go Watch The Lightning Bugs

Do not turn on the news tonight. Seeing it will do you no good. There is not one thing one can do about any of it, and  going outside to see the lightning bugs will ease your spirit. Listen for the nighthawks, and watch for the clouds bringing tomorrow's rain.

Hate and war and revenge will never go away. The original sin was Cain killing Abel, and every day Cain's descendants kill their brother again. 

Here is what A.E Houseman wrote:

" Stars, I have seen them fall

But when they drop and die

No star is lost at all

From the star-sown sky.

The toil of all that be

Helps not the primal fault:

It rains into the sea,

And still the sea is salt"

My Other Blog

My other blog-Tales of a Nashville Gardener- is now The Nashville Gardener. I was forced to leave Wordpress because of technical glitches with photo uploads.

"Have Fun Storming the Castle".

A month ago, when last I posted, the War with the Rabbits had just begun.

Now it is escalating beyond repellent granules to violence and the building of fortifications.

The other night I turned the hose on one of the unholy snackers, and sent him fleeing into the next yard, where I hoped he might meet the big black and white cat. The next day, after planting some hardy begonias, I built a stick fort, hoping a good stab in the belly might be a deterrent.

The weather is not helping. Almost a month without rain means that the lawn is dry hay, and the flower garden is honey and figs and paradise.

Every time I drive over to this garden at least six members of the Rodentry are sneaking around, having just sampled choice bits of this and that.

Where are the coyotes when you need them?