6 • March 2016 • UPBEAT TIMES, INC. Pouring Magic on the Land Weird Facts & Fun Trivia - 2 by Kimberly Childers • kimberlychilders@att.net


SANTA ROSA, CA. ~ Oh, the delightful rain, makes me want to live somewhere it rains a few times a month, at least. I imagine big thunderheads moving across the sky above rolling hills and pouring their magic on the land. Sometimes a damp gray day is perfect for reading, researching and cups of hot jasmine tea with kittens purring and snuggling next to me wound up in a ball of soſt , Siamese fur. My desk is suddenly piled


high with glossy, colorful seed catalogs! Overwhelming, but a joy to shuffl e through, page af- ter page of tantalizing delights. T ere are seeds of age old cu- linary herbs to plant, seeds of


medicinal herbs to grow and harvest, seeds of teas to soothe your ails or savor their intrigu- ing fl avors.


Locally there are plenty of nurseries that carry ample amounts of top notch seeds, the crème de la crème if you will, but. . . Check out Mc- Clure & Zimmer- man, quality fl ow- er bulb brokers, off ering hundreds of spring, summer and fall planted bulbs, corms, tubers and root stalks. A catalog full of simple black and white photos, el- egant drawings throughout, and an entire back cover off er- ing almost twenty varieties of


‘captivating cannas’. T e fi rst page off ers a bit of insight for the gardener from T e Book of


and greenhouses. T eir pol- ished cover has a perfect shot of ‘Madame Marmande, a lus- cious gourmet to- mato with a French accent.


succulent, sen-


Juicy and deep,


rich and fragrant, a popular new summertime


sation!’ T ey also ship live plants if you need a little help getting things growing!


three pages of basil seeds, three pages of cucumber seeds and seven tanta-


Bulbs by F.F. Rockwell, origi- nally published in 1927. ‘Nature is a teacher. Nothing can take the place of real world experi- ence and observation. T ough the internet contains a wealth of information on gardening, no amount of You Tube videos or fl ashy websites can teach as much as getting your hands dirty and planting something.‘ A name we all recognize,


Burpee, with amazing seeds. Burpee has been around for 140 years! T eir marvelous seed catalogue is thick with page aſt er page of enticing veg- etable, fl ower, herb seeds as well as seed starting supplies


lizing pages of tomatoes! T ey also off er free shipping on any size order and a pollinator gar- den seed packet. Hey, we all want to help the pollinators and butterfl ies, right?! Call them if you like at 1(800) 888-1447 and order your own splendid cata- logue! Johnny Selected Seeds, an


employee owned company, has been around since 1973! T ey off er pages of tools and supplies for the most discerning garden- er and their thick catalogue is also packed with a dizzying col- lection of fl ower seeds, herbs, creative salad blends and seeds of many amazing greens . T e variety they off er astounds with glitzy photos of everything with paragraphs of information, de- scriptions, germination charts and much more! Select Seeds, is a smaller


catalogue full of rare and heir- loom fl owers and live plants too. T e cover boasts, ‘Bring- ing the fl owers our grandmoth- ers loved into our gardens since 1987!’ Your head will spin with poppies,


unusual marigolds,


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6 • March 2016 • UPBEAT TIMES, INC.


cosmos, cleome, violets, sweet peas scented geraniums, petu- nias, coreopsis, milkweed and several natives too. On the other hand. . .I hope is fi lled with


your compost ... continued on page 15 “Love is the absence of judgment.” ~ Dalai Lama XIV Mr. Bunyan on a break.


Established in 1847, the New England Confectionery Company (NECCO) is the oldest continuously operating candy company in the United States. NECCO’s delicious beginnings date back to the mid-19th century, when brothers Oliver and Daniel Chase of Boston invented and patented many candy-making devices. Oliver invented a lozenge cutter, the


fi rst American candy machine, and in 1850, he invented a machine for crushing sugar into a dust.


Wow,


The main sources of caffeine are tea, coffee, cola (kola), cocoa (chocolate), guarana, yerba mate and their relatives. All were discovered and used by primitive man.


JOKES & Humor # 3


As we waited for a bus in the frosty weather, the woman next to me mentioned that she makes a lot of mistakes when texting in the cold. I nodded knowingly. “It’s the early signs of typothermia.”


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