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| Me with my head in a bag age 5 with Beagles |
I have a fondness for beagles. My dad had hunting beagles. I think. That is what I remember. It seems I have always had a bag on my head, following my own inner GPS. Like the modern GPS systems though, mine seems to steer me wrong sometimes.
There is a lot of things I have forgotten. Probably due to lead paint... was I one of those kids who chewed on wood work? I got my start with clay, making mud pies in the greenhouse and modeling little figures with the clay putty my grampa used for glazing windows. I have read since that there was a good deal of lead in putty as in paint before 1970.
So is my head feeling heavy from the 1,000 things on my mind or is it filled with lead?
Grampa was an old school florist. His father came from Bruschal Germany in 1881 to Brooklyn NY. Great grampa Karl and his sister came to American, part of the huddled Masses at Ellis Island looking for a better life and opportunity. One of 8 children born in Germany, Karl was only 16 when he and his older sister Barbara, 21, boarded a ship, steerage class, and got their first glimpse of Lady Liberty in New York harbor.
I have photos of them in Brooklyn in their gardens and greenhouses. Today it is hard to believe that Brooklyn still had dirt roads and farms. (My computer will not recognize my scanner, or the printer at the moment so I can't attach photos.) The greenhouse flower and vegetable business grew and they began to vacation in the country. They bought a house on Hayden Hill Road in Torrington, further up Torringford Street. Then my grampa Frank bought this house and 15 acres of farmland. He built his first greenhouse in 1935 I think.
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| Don't know this lady, but look at those beans! |
I love being in a greenhouse. The moist heat, smell of dirt and plants, bugs crawling around. Good earth. Out of the earth comes miraculous flowers. Flowers from little tiny seeds, nurtured with water, grow into perfect flowers. Just look at a fresh flower as it buds and opens. What a miracle! I have some magic beans growing in my jewel pots on the back porch right now. With the past 7 days of rain, they have sprouted and are now up and leafing out. Each day for the past 2 weeks, I have checked them and now they are here! Magic beans are sturdy, hardy, versatile plants. They grow from red, white and black speckled seeds about the size of large lima beans. They have swollen under the earth and have good sturdy stocks. They will grow 8' to 10' tall. They will be covered with perfect miracle bright red blossoms that last for weeks. The blossoms will turn into string beans up to 10" long! Really! Although slightly fuzzy pods, they will taste great in salads and fried with onions and bacon (Emilie's favorite). If you let some pods stay on the stalks till October, you can gather the red, white and black speckled beans and eat those in chili or save them for next year. Cycle of life again.
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| Scarlet Runner Beans! |
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