Wild Kingdom--Or Something Similar

I was sitting here goofing off on the computer yesterday when Durwood hollered, "come look at this animal!"  So I did and there was a groundhog/woodchuck ambling up the backyard.  It munched a bit of birdseed, waddled up the hill, climbed the retaining wall, sauntered across to a wide gap, and trundled through it off to the park (I assume).  Like I said, it's Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom around here.  Remember that show?  I used to love it.  Old Marlin Perkins would be sitting in the tent (sipping gin, I'm sure, it was just out of camera range) while Jim was out wrestling hyenas or sneaking up on rabid hippos.  The funny thing is when I was a kid it was in black & white, hell, all TV was in black & white, and I still sat glued to the tube whenever it was on.  That and any Jacques Cousteau special, also mostly in black & white, and I still grew up wanting to go underwater, and I have.  I haven't been on a safari or anything Wild Kingdom-y but I have done over 500 scuba dives since 1990 when I let Durwood talk me into taking a scuba class.  Thanks, sweetheart, I'm so glad you did, we did, and I did.

We went to the garden center yesterday and got most of the plants we wanted but they were strangely out of herbs.  I looked at them at one of those grocery parking lot greenhouses but 4 small plants were almost fifteen bucks so I took a pass.  I'm going to see what there is at the Farmer's Market this morning.  Surely the plants will be less than three bucks each, right?  Lordy, I hope so.  We've already spent $80 just on tomatoes, flowers, and straw for mulch.

June 1--Unknown, Cuisine Ambulante.  They tied rags around their feet with rough hemp ropes.  They were dirty and cold and hungry, always hungry.  It was a lucky day when they had a few pennies when the noodle cart came.  Some days they would be close enoough to the head of the queue that there would be a few vegetables and maybe a bit of gristle in their bowls of broth and noodles.  One happy day there was a piece of chicken in Li's bowl.  He ate it slowly, bone and all, and felt like the luckiest coolie in the gang.

Now it's time to fling some clothes on, get out my market basket, and go see what we can find.  Farmer's Market today!  Eeeee!
--Barbara