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

Lovely story about your grandmother and the two pigs.

Nice to meet you again my friends.

I hope to have the courage to let you know about the medical results I was given today. Not at all good, altho I know my darling Dick always told me that "10 out of 10 die"

Anyway, I hope to have the courage to face up to the disagreeable fact very soon.

I have unsubscribed from that other thread as it really did upset
me.

Now I want to have a marvellous cartoon of a huge octopus with a large laughing eye, and waving frantically around with all her tentacles. That will take the place of my faithful wheelchair. !!

With affection

Christiane
AR80
Friday 20th July 2010 19.59 BST

There's a website that claims to have evidence that octopuses live in trees in oregon. I'm sceptical, though. And now you want to ride in an octopus instead of a wheelchair, Christiane? Where would you find such an octopus?

We drive in the country a lot and occasionally, you can smell sweetgrass. It's so beautiful. There's also the smell of milkweed.

Milkweed is wonderful and fascinating. I'm hoping to have some take root next to my house. The blue chicory that I love (and that attracts goldfinches) has already arrived next to my driveway. The goldfinches also like coneflowers, which I've planted nearby.

My neighbor mows my lawn when he mows his own. There are lots of nice wildflowers along the edges--cinquefoil, purple clover, white clover, yellow clover, small light purple asters with yellow centers on tall stalks, Queen Anne's Lace/wild carrot, blue chicory, some late-blooming dandelions, etc. There are wild white roses growing next to my oil tank.

A little more on the evolution of plants...

The emergence of a new type of blue green algae that produced a copious gelatinous coat and the first indications of filamentous structure marked the transition from the Proterozoic to the Cambrian. (Giovanni Arduino's 'Primary' to his 'Secondary'.)

That algae can still be cultured from fossilized spores embedded in the Cambrian rocks with merely the addition of rainwater. Fried up like scrambled eggs, its looks like puree of spinach, but tastes and smells like scrambled eggs. Its emergence and spread over sea and land fed the Cambrian explosion of new life forms.

Mosses and ferns emerge with the Carboniferous and converted the primeval atmosphere of the era prior to the Carboniferous from a CO2 dominated atmosphere into an atmosphere essentially similar to the one we have now. Human beings could not have breathed the air prior to the Carboniferous.

Flowering plants and modern mammals arrive at about the same time, with the end of the Cretaceous and the extinction of the dinosaurs, marking the beginning of the 'Tertiary'.

I'm still trying to get a growth of chicory started. I've succeeded twice in rooting cores of endive from the supermarket, but both times the plants failed prior to flowering. I want that particular chicory for reasons that should be obvious. I'll try again in the cooler autumn months.

Hi ITIWBS

What a wealth of knowledge you have about plantlife and what a welcome addition to this thread.

Dare I suggest that the chicory you are seeking is for making a brew of coffee? I seem to remember that the local residents where I lived in South Africa brewed a sort of coffee with wild chicory

I am really fascinated with your vast knowledge of the plant Kingdom.

Thank you again for brightening all our lives

Christiane
AR80

Saturday 31st July 2010 8.40 BST

Hi dear Paul,
I shall fly over in my magnificent coach and horses and a drink a cup of your chicory coffee; do they have blue flowers.? I think maybe they do.

I had a bird come and visit my verandah garden the other morning. I am sure that it was after a "weed" which I have let grow in one of the tubs. I have actually plucked it's seedlings from the Artic rose growing absolutely beautifully in the adjoining rub!!
Have a good weekend.

With affection
Christiane

Saturday 31st July 2010 8,45 BST

Chickory has a great many uses, the smaller roots, dried and roasted make a brew similar to coffee in flavor. The largest roots, allowed to bud out in darkness*, prior to a little greening in sunlight, are the salad vegetable endive. The roots can also be peeled and used for soup and stew vegetables. Coarse greens from the early spring basal rosette can be used like parsley.

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&rlz=1B3MOZA_enUS383US385&as_epq=Endive&as_oq=&as_eq=Canada+Newfoundland+Michigan+northwest+extended+middle+finger+northwest+asia+europe+diimmm&num=10&lr=&as_filetype=&as_sitesearch=&as_qdr=all&as_rights=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=images&q=Chicory+%22Endive%22+-Canada+-Newfoundland+-Michigan+-northwest+-extended+-middle+-finger+-northwest+-asia+-europe+-diimmm&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=uepTTM3aH4eisQOl58HaAg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDQQsAQwAw&biw=1280&bih=604

http://www.ehow.com/how_4545828_use-chicory-root.html

*The process is somewhat similar to growing mushrooms.

my parents used to drink chikory- during WW2 since the real thing was usually impossible to come by

some of that generation got so used to chickoy that they never returned to real

I love chicory because of its exquisite pale flowers that are a shade somewhere between blue and purple. The goldfinches eat the seeds and use the other parts of the plant for nest-building materials. never look for chicory blossoms in the afternoon or evening, because they have already closed up. In the morning, though, they are out in their full glory.

The blue flowers are something that the chicory has in common with most other members of the lettuce family. Chicory is among the hardiest perennials.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=&q=chicory+flowers&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3MOZA_enUS383US385&ie=UTF-8

Nowadays I go out to my car every morning to admire the blue chicory flowers. They grow next to the car.

Another favorite in the color group:

http://www.blackturtle.us/DV_SITES/SNOW/MARCH2009/pics.php?id=02

http://www.delange.org/Chia/Chia.htm

The first time I saw these growing in the wild I was entranced.

In the archaeology of the American southwest the chia is considered an important indicator of native American presence since it frequently grows along ancient trails or around ancient campsites. The native Americans carried it with them everywhere as a trail food.

A tremendous favorite of pollinator insects.

The flowers tend to be rather spiny to discourage tender mouthed animals like rabbits from eating them.

Seed usually available at health food stores and makes good sprouts.

Grows best in full sun locations and well drained sandy soils.

What is its USDA zone preference? I live in zone 6, which has colder winters than the Southwest U.S. does. I notice on the blogosphere that people who tried to grow it in Michigan [zone 4] could not do it because their growing season is too short.

But hybridized forms of Chia might make it. Chia is a salvia [i.e. sage], which does grow in Massachusetts, so hybrids of it might be feasible.

Good morning Paul,
I hope you had a good weekend.

I see you are now talking about salvias.
They used to grow in the |Karroo - rather furry flowers and I disliked them intensely.

Then when I had my own garden and met a most beautiful deep delphimium blue one I fell in love with them again.

The red one is very"common" I dislike that term with flowers. and then there are various other colours. I should plant some red ones on my verandah, but |I have some wonderful big red geraniums which give marvellous colour, and then have the yellow flower nemesia whose name you have given me, and then some small white sort of tiny flowers with oval petals. The flowers creep down through the foliage. It makes a most effective mass of colour. I hope to remember to ask my carer Kaylie, to place a photo of my verandah garden - perhaps on my home page - so that you can all see it.Lots happebed this weekend plus the fact that my phone stopped working on Thursday last and I have been bereft wthout it. Luckily I did not need it urgently, but as I really am totally housebound without Kaylie, I was worried that something might. Anyway I must now email the local BT and ask them to come pronto and fix it.
A firm had come in to fix up a Lifeline for me. They managed to break everything, so I had absolutely nothing. Except the good Lord to keep and eye on me and He did it very successfully. !!


with affection
Christiane
AR80

Monday 3rd August, 2010 6.27 BST

The flowers on your veranda sound beautiful, Christiane.
Reds, whites, purples, and yellows from the sound of it. Except for the reds, it would be very attractive to bees. The reds would attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

My petunias have gotten very longstemmed, and are not blooming at all now. I'm about to prune them in an effort to get them to bloom again. Wish me luck!

Sorrt to hear about the phone problems. I hope they get solved soon.

Adieu.

Reading through old mail I missed, happened on this. I haven't yet been able to find anything on climate zone preference for chia, will let you know when I do.

In so. Cal. the plant flowers at the beginning of summer, so I would expect given full sun, sandy and well drained soil it should flower in your climate zone at the end of summer.

Its found in California from below sea level in the Salton Sink to elevations approaching 10,000 feet in the San Bernardino Mts, so should have climate resiliency enough.

I'd just sow some out at the end of autumn, and again at the beginning of spring and see what happens.

I cut back the peutnias and got them blooming profusely again. However, as soon as they bloomed some kind of pest began to eat them again, and they quit.