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

I think it more likely to just be a combination of circumstances and who is involved. It wouldn't reflect well on anyone if sides were actively taken. So perhaps just another non-event that wafted through.

Well, I'm glad to see that you're still here. The grass is growing, and the paint is drying, and Rev Nick is here. Some things can be counted on.

The grass growing is a novelty for us, at this late point in the summer. Chicory now, that ing stuff will grow 4 inches reguardless of weather.

Do you mean blue chicory or white chicory? I have some blue chicory growing in the middle of my lawn, and I love the pale blue-purple hue of the tender blossom. The goldfinches love it, too.

Goldfinches are so lovely to watch. I wish more people cultivated native species of plants in order to promote wildlife.

They're blue chicory, and the flowers are pretty. It's the 15 to 25" stalks that seem to appear over-night that get to be quite unsightly.

And we have a mated pair of goldfinches that have taken to using our bird-bath. When the sun catches that little guy, he just glows!

MAke sure you wear sunglasses when looking at him!

Goldfinches make their nests in July or August, and they use chicory stuff to make them with. Or maybe they eat the chicory seeds.

I also like milkweed, because it feeds the Monarch butterflu at every stage of its life cycle: the leaves are eaten by the caterpillars, and then the adult butterfly sips nectar from the milkweed blossom. Just don't ever let milkweed grow in your raspberry patch, because at exactly the time you want to pick the ripe raspberries, the bees are pollinating the milkweed blossoms.

Paul, funny you should mention milkweed. We had a woman do a program for the kids about butterflies a few weeks ago. She brought milkweed seed to give to each child and explained that they needed to plant it in their yards to feed the monarchs.

I've actually seen the butterflies come to my milkweed blossoms.

My sister has a cottage in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and I've always wondered why there are so many butterflies around her place. Then I noticed what looked like a milkweed farm just down the road.

An entire farm of it? I thought it was bad enough to face milking 30 cows (by hand, of course) every morning ... But that many pods.

It's probably very therapeutic

Maybe for the milk-weed ...

i wouldn't know

Weeds may be easier to milk than cows. Not that I've milked either...

I've milked a cow. Trust me, you haven't missed much.

a faceful of udder and bucket of milk. What udder fun!

I've never seen a purple cow,
And never hope to see one,
But I can tell you this right now:
I'd rather see than be one.

Milking a cow or a goat has one similarity to splitting fire wood... You either have a 'knack' for it, or you don't. And you're wasting everyone's time. Many cows really don't take well to mauling.

But please take my word for it, there's nothing so good as milk still warm and frothy.

That's intuitive. Any mammal would have memories of its mother's milk.