Wet pre-fourth

Here in Lewisburg, the annual 4th of July parade is held in June: this year, it was today. We usually go and take bunches of photos--much easier now with the digital cam (I still believe you've gotta take twenty shots to get the right one). Anyway, we didn't go this year. Though since we live only half a block off Market Street, we could still hear the bands and bagpipers, the horses and fire trucks.

I'm grading essays half-heartedly, giving myself frequent distraction rewards. In the past, these would be in the form of Oreos or some other chocolate--grade a paper, get some candy--but now that the weight is slowly coming off, I reward myself by taking little trips out to the garden to poke around and see what's new. In the narrow alley between our house and the Kellys, we filled two large storage bins and planted tomatoes, hot Thai peppers, and birdhouse gourds--the latter on a netting-and-bamboo trellis we ran to the upstairs window sill. One of the gourd vines has raced about halfway to the window and I don't really know what it will do once it hits the top. In Houston one year, I planted luffa gourds near a telephone pole: they climbed up then snaked out along a phone line (big flapping leaves, long green gourds dangling over the street: quite a sight actually). So I guess it's possible that these vines will just rocket across the gap and grab hold of the house next door. Or punch through the window and eat the cat, like something out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Does anyone know an easy way to tell the difference between an American toad and a Fowler's toad? We may have both. I'm not sure. They are fairly small, and one hides in the mint bed, though we've seen another along the patio (Randy watched it snag a bug with its tongue!). And the one I saw in the lettuce a while ago looks different from the little one I saw yesterday hunkered in a flower pot.

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More garden stuff: A couple of weeks ago, on my way to work, I clipped a small sprig of blooming comfrey to put in a little egg-shaped vase on my desk. It wilted, dramatically (which reminds me of little Lily Kelly's impression of the wilted lettuce plant in their garden, sooo cute), for two days, then--surprisingly--perked back up. I hadn't remembered to bring anything else from the garden to replace it until Monday, when I cut a piece of the 'Moonbeam' coreopsis (feathery leaves, nice pale yellow blooms) to replace the comfrey. But when I pulled the comfrey from the vase, it had rooted! So I put it back. With the coreopsis. Which (come to think of it) will probably follow suit.

Anyone need a comfrey plant?

[photo: comfrey in bloom in our garden]