Typically I could care less about silver hairs…thanks to heredity I’ve been getting them since I was in my early twenties. But a silver eyebrow hair? Give me a freaking break.

I am fairly confident the wildflower mix we threw down out front consisted of more than just zinnias, but zinnias are surely all you can see at the moment:

Plucked the first fruit off the parisian pickling cucumber yesterday. Impatient as I am, I tucked my camera under my arm and gently broke the cuke in half. The smell…holy gods, the smell. Imagine the cucumberiest-smelling cucumber you’ve ever smelled…then quadruple it. And the taste…holy gods, the taste. It was not the least bit bitter, even eating it with the skin on, as I surely was, right there in the garden.

It was slightly sweeter than the average cucumber, and had something no other cuke I’ve ever tasted had…depth. Yes, depth of flavor from a cucumber, kindly contain your astonishment. So if you’ve been eating grocery store cukes your entire life, do yourself a favor and buy a big old pot, fill it with potting mix, and plant one of these. Your tastebuds and family will thank you.

And now, ladees and gentlemens, I bring you a Tale of Miraculous Growth. Shortly after my much-anticipated purple strawflower sprout had been transplanted to its final home, the Girlchild’s fat-ass tuxedo cat jumped up there (chasing a bug no doubt), planted her aforementioned expansive ass on it and broke it at dirt level.

I was horrorstruck. I am a big (HUGE) fan of strawflowers, and having only ever seen white and yellow, I was REALLY looking forward to purple. (I now know there are a skosh more colors out there and am bygod growing every one of them this year.) Aaaanyway. Looking at my poor broken plant I noticed part of the stem was still intact, so I grabbed my trusty Rootone, powdered the hell out of the break, then buried it in dirt and supported it all around with stones.

And walla, my purple strawflower is about to reward me with a bloom!

Life is good.