The following blog was originally published in 2000 on another web site that no longer exists. It’s hard to believe that’s been twenty-one years ago. I’ve updated it and taken a few pictures from the internet to dress it up, as well as a couple of my own. It never occurred to me that many years ago to actually photograph what we were doing. It was just a garden plot. We tilled it up and grew a few vegetables.
Garden. Just say the word and let the images flow through your mind. Garden. Garden… I think of moonlit walks down a well-worn path. A fountain bubbles and a swing moves gently in the breeze. Flowers bloom in perfect harmony and not a weed can be found. Of course, I’m dreaming. This kind of garden only exists on TV and in the yard of Martha Stewart. “It’s a good thing.”
Here in my yard, we have a vegetable garden which I’ m sharing with my brother, Michael. He has different things growing. There’s the cabbage that looks like Swiss cheese, beans trying to bloom and squash that isn’t sure it’s squash.
My husband, “The Pepper Man”, has several plants in the garden. Let’s see; there’s Serrano, Tabasco, Cayenne and a few more including a Habernero. The one pictured here doesn’t do it justice. It’s an almost wicked little thing with enough heat to make you believe hell is real. That is until you meet the newer variety called the Carolina Reaper. I can’t tell you how hot that is without using some profanity. If you want to read about the reaper,I’ll try to find a link to include here.
Charles makes his own hot sauce; mustard-based, and it’s more than just warm. He calls it “Brimstone” . I call it hot as &*#! If you like hot stuff, you would probably enjoy it. Me, I just don’t get it. We used to have one friend at church who said he liked it because it made his eyeballs sweat. I’m continually amazed at who likes it and who doesn’t. He has taken it to our favorite Mexican restaurant and…surprise! Some of them like it and some of them think it’s also too hot! Ole!
So here we are; watering, weeding and wondering: How do deer eat peppers? Why do rabbits nibble here and there? Can I clean up this ‘stuff’ lying around. Empty buckets, extra garden hoses, etc. are scattered hither and yon. I’ve picked up and cleaned up and I found a spider. Now, I don’t like spiders. Anything with eight legs is NOT a good thing. That includes lobster and crabs…I don’t eat either one. But spiders…they can big or small or somewhere in between. I don’t care. I DON’T LIKE SPIDERS! They give me the willies, the creeps and the heebie jeebies. After the second spider, I knew I should quite helping. But, I had to pick up a piece of plastic that Charles uses to keep the weeds down. I moved the plastic and lying underneath, all coiled up was — yep — a snake.
Now, I don’t mind snakes. In fact, the photo featured here is one I took with my cell phone. It is a harmless Garter snake. (They make great pets.) But, did you know the brain will process “snake” before it processes “nonpoisonous”? At least, mine did. I screamed, jumped, and the snake took off like a shot! For something with no legs, that thing disappeared like it had somewhere else it would rather be. Now; if only I could get spiders to do that.
Until next time; I’ll be just another rambling gardener.
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