h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Will be doing a little gardening this evening, as soo as the sun sets behind the Santa Rosa Mts., which will give a couple of hours of twilight.

I'll be starting avocados and Mexican papayas in starter pots.

Little hope for the avocados in this desert climate.

On the other hand I've seen people succeed locally with thhe Mexican papaya.

Updates on my yard:

I moved a fourth pot of Coneflowers to my porch, to get it away from the ravenous bunnies.

Way in back, behind my oil tank, there's a nice little flower garden with perennial geraniums (both purple and white varieties), as well as some asters and a blueberry bush. I notice that the Labrador Violets there have lots of foliage and a lot of flowers .

Further forward along the side of my house, I see that the Solomon's seal and the Jacob's Ladder and the Turtlehead plants are up. The Virginia Rose has a lot of foliage, as does the Carolina Rose that lives in a pot.

There are some Solomon's seal plants up in front of my emergency door. Two trilliums are next to the house, one of them with a nice big bud. The Rudbeckia (Black eyed Susans) are up, as are the native perennial geranioums, the Columbine, the Buttercups, and of course the asters.

Just behind my porch, the Virginia Bluebells are blooming.

The native Anemones are up, not only the ones that I originally planted, but also three sets of Anemopnes that I transplanted to other places. They spread like crazy.

Why have you sealed your emergency door

I didn't. Solomon did it.

Well during lockdown I have become a granny again..Pity I'm not likely to see more than photos at this point. I can't imagine when I can jump on a train to go and visit.

But at least the Caesarean went well and it was a quick hospital stay and back home in a very short time.

ITIWBS, I noticed an odd "tree?" poking over the top of a fence down my street during a recent bike ride and wondered what it was. I thought it might be an avocado as there were roughly avocado sized green things along its trunk. As I'm sure you know, avocados don't grow along the trunk, but papayas do. I took a photo and let Google tell me what I was looking at.

This modern world is absolutely amazing sometimes.

You're lucky.

papayas are a superfood, so-called

http://www.georgebanco.com/blog/papaya-yet-another-superfood/

Not sure about that. I tried that method to identify a plant growing in my garden but had no success. Google/plant identifier apps made a few very wrong suggestions. Have since found out what it is by using books & looking for similar plants in the neighbourhood that are more established!

But in general it is amazing to have all this information & communication at our fingertips. What must it have been like in WWI & II when people had to rely on the postal service to correspond overseas?

With fewer, slower communications, they would have spent more time making their letters count. Besides, telephones were available in some places then, weren't they?

The ginger in the backyard sends up shoots in mid-April each year. I read that the red bulbs make good shampoo...

They go ugly in November...I have pulled them up by the roots a couple of times...last November I cut them near the ground to see if it makes a difference...the new growth looks vigorous...

I have my father's letters home (by V-mail) to mom...looks like about once a week for two years...

Letter writing was still important before e-mail...mid 90s?

Transatlantic telegraph cables were first lain in the mid 19th century. Transatlantic telephone was radio based until the 1940s.


I've read that the greatest, most world changing invention in history is arguably the telephone.


A surprisingly old invention is the facsimile machine (fax). Scottish inventor Alexander Bain received a patent for his "Electric Printing Telegraph" in 1843.

I just heard an aeroplane go over!

I miss the local Spitfire from the Solent Airport which was the old Deadelus Navy airfield..They aren't taking anyone up these days due to the lockdown. I really miss the sound of the Merlin engine.

Yes, we used to get all sorts from the local air museum. We still get the hourly bus (usually empty apart from the driver) going by.

Airplanes usually go over. It's only the odd one that goes under.

Well, President Big Brain is calling for ships to be shot down, so why can't planes fly under?

Planes can fly under - clouds/ other planes/ bridges (unusual) /stars....
Sorry that I didn't specify what the plane was flying over...

"I've read that the greatest, most world changing invention in history is arguably the telephone."


I must disagree. While telephones are certainly high on the list, written language clearly FAR outstrips them.

(For the sake of argument we'll say that spoken language evolved naturally and thus doesn't count as an invention.)

Good point. What I read may have specified "modern" invention, probably regarding post industrial age inventions.