First Fruits

June 24, 2008 -- 5 ripe blueberries! From the 3-yr-old Northblue plant. Large and tasty -- well, a little mushy, truth be told, but then the first tomato from a plant is often less than great. Northsky also has lots of berries, much smaller, and not apparently near to ripening.

I also ate 3 strawberries from the 6 June-bearing and 6 everbearing plants I set out a couple of months ago. Very tasty. They aren't supposed to be allowed to bear their first year, but I have only so much strength.

I'm wondering now if religions that offer "first fruits" to their gods in sacrifice do so because those tend not to be worth the eating anyway.

First Fruit - Blueberries!

I just ate 5 blueberries, the best blueberries I've ever had, because they were grown in my garden! These are Northblue, and it's June 24, 2008, for the record. I got this and a Northsky bush in summer 2006 from the nursery/garden store near the new elementary school in N. Liberty. I want to say Prairie Gdn Ctr, but then they all seem to be called that.

Truth be told, they were kind of mushy, but had a blueberry flavor. Often the firstfruits, such as with tomatoes, are not the very best quality. Even if these never improve, still -- I grew them!

I"ve also had, every two or three days, one strawberry, from the 6 June-bearing and 6 ever-bearing plants I set out a month or two ago. Again, I shouldn't really even be harvesting the first year, so that they can develop a strong root system, but how can I not?

The Northsky bush has about as many berries on it, smaller, and not yet ripening. Many things are late this year -- the catalpa bloomed, for the first time I know of since my childhood, not during the week of Mother's birthday, June 7, but just a few days ago -- about 2 weeks late.

NOTE: I wrote this post yesterday, but Blogger was down -- no wonder professinal bloggers switch to something else -- and couldn't post it.

Geraniums

The real kind, not pelargoniums, which I dislike. I have Johnson's Blue and Wargrave Pink. Common name Hardy Cranesbill. The blue should reach 2' wide by 18" tall, the pink can get to 36" wide by 2' tall, though mine haven't yet (2nd year). Bloom in summer (mine have just started) and prefer well-drained soil and full sun to part shade. Z4-8. The pink have wider leaves than the blue.

Thought I would start putting notes here on the Internet where they are unlikely to be lost.

Celebrate Small Successes

A most pleasing color combination, to my eye, is spiderwort with HP Sophie's Perpetual. (The southernmost spiderwort needs to be removed entirely and transplanted elsewhere, perhaps near General Jack? Sophie needs more air.) Now opening on the opposite pillar is a clematis that is about the same color as the spiderwort.

Another good combination is a lavender/pink delphinium with HP Marchioness of Londonderry, and a pink Canterbury bell just down the way, with geranium 'Wargrave Pink' farther down. The spiderwort also goes well with both HP Henry Nevard and HP Empereur du Maroc, along with HP Frau Karl Druschki. The lavender color is picked up down there by some pansies, and matched some of the iris earlier.

Seems like I dug the spiderwort out of a roadway somewhere, but what a find! The clumps increase yearly, blossoms open in the morning and close in the afternoon, healthy and laughs at both drought and too much rain. And it goes with everything.

There's a light purple monarda about to open; I don't remember that it does or doesn't blend well. Another monarda is red, and the pink achillea near it is beginning to open. The coreopsis hasn't opened yet.

I picked the first flower from DA Tamora just now. I shouldn't let roses bloom their first year, but this is such a great flower. Wonderful scent.

Roses Roses Roses

As of yesterday evening, I have a bouquet of 8 red roses (including 2 deep pink). I picked two more from General Jack, one more from Lorne, and the first from Baron Girod de l'Ain. The Baron shows no white yet, but that may come with later blooms.

Today is Mother's 86th birthday. The air is still heavy and redolent with honeysuckle and honey locust. As it is Mother's birthday, some of the fragrance may be catalpa, as well.

Just because it's June!

Today the first roses of the year bloomed: L'Empereur du Maroc, Marchioness of Lorne, and General Jacqueminot. Meanwhile, the first peonies are still a-bloom and the later ones are opening. Of the German iris, the earliest are done but Edith Wofford and her ilk are still going strong.

This is the first year I haven't had a sad gap between iris and anything else. The Hybrid Perpetuals are finally coming into their own, thanks to two years of 7-foot fencing.

A couple of delphiniums are thinking about blooming.

Today I received -- and planted -- the final four of the 10 roses I ordered this year.

It was 80 and overcast, all evening as I planted and then mowed for an hour. The air was so thick with humidity and a very strong scent that it was challenging just to breathe. Honeysuckle, honey locust, and catalpa are all in bloom at once. The highbush cranberry viburnum is just going out of bloom as well.

The Voices of Heaven

Frederick Pohl, 1994

I think the only other Pohl I've read is The Space Merchants. In Voices, I was constantly distracted from the narrative flow by the narrator's/author's trick of introducing a topic, then backing off for a few paragraphs or pages, then getting back into it. Not just once or twice, for big plot reveals, but constantly. It's like walking arm in arm with someone, getting into a good stride, but the other person keeps taking a step BACKWARD every now and then. Most annoying.

The title is a bit off-kilter. The "heaven" or sixth-stage forms of the native people do not speak; it is the third through fifth forms that speak to the human settlers. I know; the heaven of Christianity is also one of the threads of the novel, but if one of the characters was hearing voices from his or her heaven, I missed it.

Helge, a character mentioned repeatedly in Chapter 4, becomes Helga in Chapter 27 - poor editing.

The native people, and their interactions with humans, remind me a lot of those in Speaker for the Dead.

Some of the key moments receive little attention. Notably when the narrator is shanghaied - he comes to terms with the fact, after a decade or two of cold-sleep and many lightyears of distance away from home and loved ones, with surprising acceptance, almost complacency.

Too much acceptance of mainstream, and even fringe, Christianity for my taste, but that's just my taste. It is what the novel is about, after all.

I did think they would go ahead and intentionally or otherwise split the Pangaea-like continent into parts, which would solve several of the colonists' problems. Oh well, not my plot.

I love the cover art, by Ron Walotsky.