Gary Numan

What is an 'open letter', as opposed to, say, an editorial, article, blog post, etc.?  

Not my recipe, I saw it on a barbecue website.

I was a bit amused that on that forum, a couple folks didn't know what 'oleo' was.  Then again, my daughters didn't know either when I recently asked them.  I had to explain that in the 70s and earlier, oleo was a healthy(!) alternative to evil, artery clogging butter.

Related story:  My mom told me that 70+ years ago (she's north of 90, BTW), it was illegal for food factories to color oleo/margarine yellow, lest customers would think it was actually butter.  To bypass the law, the opaque white margarine would be sold in a sealed clear plastic pouch, and also within was a small tablet of yellow food coloring.  A fun activity of my then preteen mom, was to bust open the yellow tablet and knead the margarine within the pouch til the yellow food coloring (gawd, I *hope* it was food coloring, now that I think about it!) would eventually change the oleo's color to a more palatable yellow color.

I don't prioritize.  I simply acknowledge the following:

Perusing the new seed catalogs is fun.
Making a huge list of seeds to buy is fun.
Paring the huge list down to something manageable (but still qualifying for free shipping!) is fun.
Preparing the order form is fun.

A week or two later:

Seeing the large envelope that you know is packed with new seeds, is fun.
Opening said envelope is REALLY fun.
Holding the seed packets in your hand is REALLY fun.
Integrating the new seeds with all the packets from last year you still have, is fun.
Admiring the collection, is fun.

Repeat once or twice more, depending on how many favorite seed companies you have.

We don't use logic when buying seeds, we do it because it's fun!

Yesterday I got my Southern Exposure, and Kitchen Garden Seeds catalogs.  Guess what I'm doing?

Aaaah, Christmas Wrapping!  Excellent choice.

Here's an unknown Xmas track, written by Burt Bacharach and performed by Herb Alpert.  Released as a single in the early '70s, it didn't hit, I think because of the painfully slooooow intro, but if you can live through the first 30 seconds, you're treated to a very catchy tune.

Hmmm, may be a box, after all.  Wiki says, referring to shrubs called Buxus,  'They are slow-growing evergreen shrubs and small trees, growing to 2–12 m (rarely 15 m) tall.'

Oh.  

Kinda looks like a Henry Box, from China, but what's the likelihood of that, if the 100+ year bush is indeed 100+ years old?

This is mostly abandoned land, untouched for at least 15 years, I think.

A neighbor said he thinks it's a boxwood, but I'm thinking not, mainly because boxwoods top out at 4 feet tall, and there's one of these nearby that looks > 12 feet.

Close-up of the leaves included here too.

One more thing:  I'm also thinking this bush is native to my area (Southeast US), as a tree guy looked at the aforementioned 12'+ bush/tree, and estimated its age at > 100 years.

Thanks for the replies everyone.



>> I usually need an app to tell me the ones with which I am not personally familiar

Same here, my go-to is the iNaturalist app, but it didn't identify the photo I took, though I'm now thinking I simply didn't take a good enough pic.



>> Check where the root begins. For dock, it just tapers down and is not really visible.

It just tapers down, no carrot-top.  


Gotta be a dock.  

After at least four overnight lows of 26 deg F, this weed continues to giggle at all the other greenery that is now brownery.  

Even my beloved comfrey is darkening.  But not this guy.  This, chickweed, and what I believe is nettle, are all that's left growing out there.

What is this weed?  Dock perhaps?

Honeycrisp was my favorite >5 years ago, but something happened, they're not perfect any more.  I suspect the pollination got screwed up somewhere.  Or diluted or something.

I then moved on to Pink Lady, still pretty good, but again, wonderful 5 years ago.

My current favorite, is Sweet Tango.

Conversely, Red Delicious?  DELICIOUS?  Anything but.  It's marketing.