Miscellaneous Rambling
Versatile Gardening Tool of the Year 2016: The plastic fork. I bought a big batch of them a few years ago. Our cat was ravishing my pots and I read that, if you line the pots with plastic forks, they deter felines. It worked (though, this year, they haven't worked as well). I now use them for all sorts of things: to mark seed plantings, so I can better distinguish between weeds and what I planted; to prop up seedlings; to mark rows; to write plant names on the handle. A nifty feature: If you need a wider gap to prop up a stem, you can make the gap by breaking off a prong.
I don't get over the Hermitary nearly enough. It frequently puts up good, thoughtful stuff that is perfect for this topsy-turvy age where the only safe route is the hermit's. Most recently, it posted this short piece about the Catholic convert Robert Lax. "Refreshingly, seventy-plus year old Lax wrote to a friend that 'I spend most of my time alone: reading, writing, walking. Think I'd like to do it for about 1000 years ... You take long walks ... write little notes or long papers. Read the most serious book you ever heard of and never got around to till now. Memorize Lao Tzu.'"
Ah, lay readers at Mass. I've heard about Paul's letter to the Philippines. I got teared up when I heard about that traitor, Judas Escargot. But last Sunday beat them all, when heard that Paul "might preach him among the Genitiles."
