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Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 54 Entries.
Monday, January 1 View Page
"PB" this is 4 YOU. We haven´t met in 2017, it was a year of good things, a year of demanding things, a year of nerve-wracking moments, a year of many positive surprises, a year of despair, a year of patience. I haven´t had a chance to catch up with you in 2017, and I haven´t sent you any Christmas Greetings. Anyway, I still want to start into the new year with my best wishes to you for 2018. May you always have strong roots, reliable support whenever you need it. May you grow with every step you take. May you cope with the challenges 2018 will be bringing about for you. May these challenges help you rise above yourself. May 2018 be a shiny year for you, rays of sunlight without excessive heat and drought. May 2018 be a refreshing year for you, be refreshed by a friendly creature of water without being drowned in a flood. May you always kick into the right gear at the right time...as if you were driving automatic rather than manual. May you have the strength to survive and the patience to keep good things going. With friendly eyes I´m looking forward to catching up with you in 2018, Maybe...
 
Sunday, January 14 View Page
About a year ago we´ve had so much snow. But now, this winter is so much different. My dear snowflake, where are you, how are you doing? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0a9VDxsHkw
 
Wednesday, January 17 View Page
Great News!!! As I´m one of those folks who love to have some hazelnut spread on their bread for breakfast (and at various other times of day, and even without bread), I´m more than happy that a new recipe of my favorite hazelnut spread is available now, it´s a recipe WITHOUT PALM OIL, and I can tell you it´s still my favorite (taste-wise), the jar is empty already. (No need to write too much about palm oil here, I guess. You can find plenty of info on the www.)
 
Sunday, January 21 View Page
Sometimes things are so simple and so amazing at the same time, and sometimes it needs some help by someone else to discover the amazing character of simple things.
 
Sunday, January 21 View Page
Look what I´ve got from my kids, two nice hand-made birthday presents: A pair of coasters (out of felt), good for wine glasses, a nice gift for various occasions when I will enjoy life; and a guardian angel (out of wool, cardboard and wood), basically for every situation no matter if joyful or sad or dangerous ones. Well, with this interpretation and in combination with the love they have put into these gifts while they made them, it looks like they basically gave me gifts which essentially cover everything I need.
 
Sunday, January 21 View Page
This is Melli (Apis mellifera), a busy honeybee. I´ve got my guardian angel, and therefore this winged little girl Melli was in charge of doing something good for others. As she cannot gather pollen and nectar here in January, she decided to gather something else. She didn´t even have to fly far away. I simply gave her a good place on a table at my birthday party and Melli was in charge of collecting donations. Successful little girl, she claimed almost every gift which was brought to my birthday party :) ...guess why!?
 
Tuesday, January 30 View Page
A couple of weeks prior to my birthday party people (friends and family) started asking me if I had a particular wish (for a birthday present). Well, I could easily have said things such as a particular pumpkin seed or something for patch prep or anything else, but I felt that these things (material things in general) wouldn´t make me any happier. Therefore, my wish (and everyone had a chance to make a contribution) dealt with happiness in general. My wish was to make a gift to those of us who suffer from depression. Moments of anxiety, moments of the general inability of developing any motivation for whatsoever things one usually would like to do, moments when life seems to be hell on earth and one doesn´t know why, and when things such as friendly words or some whatsoever amazing perspectives just cannot serve as motivation…if these moments become a rather permanent situation in one´s life, just because of a tiny molecule which isn´t released in one´s organism in the right amount (or consumed too fast), one might indeed be inclined to call it Hell on Earth. Therefore, a donation to a foundation which supports research and other projects in order to help people who suffer from depression is probably the best gift one could dedicate to happiness in general. (Use of this LOGO is courtesy of “Stiftung Deutsche Depressionshilfe”, the foundation which received my birthday gift.) Whenever you find that you are already pretty happy and you need to think twice (or even more often) when others are asking if you have a wish (for a birthday gift or something like that), you can easily find a way of making it a gift which has the power to contribute to the happiness of others.
 
Thursday, February 22 View Page
Did some kind of indoor gardening :) In a couple of weeks it will be Easter weekend and many of us will perhaps prepare some pots of fresh Easter grass for decoration purposes (for hiding some Easter eggs inside the grass, it looks pretty nice on the breakfast table and on the window sill). Therefore, I did a germination test, I bought some generic wheat (for food purposes, here in Germany available in various stores in 1 kg packages at very reasonable price), placed some grains on soil, then covered it with some soil (just a little bit) and watered it, and after six days it´s already some nice Easter grass (another two days maybe and then it should be perfect). Hint: For those of you who want to grow "wheat grass", may it be for Easter deco, for food purposes (because "wheat grass" might be such a great super food, who knows) or for your pets (some indoor pets need some grass occasionally), you may either buy pretty expensive bags with some "wheat grass" seeds, which are sold for those particular purposes, or you may simply buy a large bag of wheat, which is the same (but it may save you alot of money if needed very often).
 
Monday, April 16 View Page
During the past couple of weeks most of the fresh green was limited to indoor greenery, even this little cat turned green, somehow :D Anyway, whereas others still have some snow on the patch, we´ve got a surprisingly warm and sunny first half of April (and fingers crossed the 2nd half will become a nice one, too) and garden/pumpkin patch will become green again very soon.
 
Monday, April 16 View Page
...and this is the set of babies supposed to paint my patch in beautiful green very soon (1871 Cutrupi 17, 1807* Holub 17, 1813 Northrup 13 and 104 (uow) Wagler 17). Now they are 10 days old (seeds started on 6th April). I haven´t filed any of them, I´ve just let them soak for about 20 minutes and then buried them (flat side) under 1.5 - 2 inches of seed starting mix. They came up within 5 - 7 days and almost all of them left their shell under the surface. Only the 1813s (both of them) managed to lift the seed coat above surface, but it was soft and the cotyledons already widened it enough so I could easily pull it off (very carefully and without any difficulty). Their size is essentially proportional to the time spent above ground, so one can easily tell that two of the 1807* emerged from the soil after 5 days, the last 1807* after 7 days.
 
Thursday, April 19 View Page
150 sqft competition entry. This year I will grow a 150 sqft competition plant again. Here you can see the patch layout. The part where the plant should eventually set a fruit (one fruit, of course) could provide sufficient room no matter on which side of the main vine the female will be sitting. Perhaps there will be some spare room for another one or two vines close to the fruit.
 
Thursday, April 19 View Page
And here is the full patch layout for 2018. The first half of April was surprisingly warm and sunny. Now I have a feeling it could become a WICKED pumpkin season. :D Yes, the plan is to have a green lady on the patch this year. This will be a story about my girls from Oz (the girls are witches, for those who don´t know about that story). So as actresses and actors we´ve got 1807 Holub 17, 1871 Cutrupi 17, 1813 Northrup 13 and 104 Wagler 17, three youngsters (from 2017) and one of the elder ones (from 2013). How do we assign the roles? One of them is green, so no doubt the 1807 will be “Elphaba”. There are two other youngsters, they will become “Fiyero” and “Glinda” (“Glinda” is short for “Galinda”, let´s just call her “Glinda”, she seems to prefer the short form of her name). The elder one could be the wizard, but usually pumpkins are females, and whereas I don´t want to replace the role of Fiyero by a witch, the role of the old wizard can perhaps be played by a witch. As the youngsters´ initials are E, F, G it would be great to have a witch named “D…”. “Dawn” sounds too sunny, so maybe “Da…”, “Dana”?, “Danae”?, “Danafe”…perfect, because this name once again contains the initials of Fiyero and Elphaba. Ok, here we go now, this year in Pumpking diary we will (hopefully) see “Danafe” (1813 Northrup 13), “Elphaba” (1807 Holub 17), “Glinda” (104 Wagler 17, I will keep my fingers crossed she will become shiny, maybe golden) and “Fiyero” (1871 Cutrupi 17, …oh well, it´s not a Stefano, but at least they´ve got the “o” in common). So far we´ve got two candidates for each role, a decision will be made in a couple of weeks. Their locations on the patch are: “Elphaba” next to “Fiyero” whereas her best friend “Glinda” is closer to the elder witch “Danafe”.
 
Monday, April 23 View Page
Plants of plot 1 :D 1871 (1) is the stronger plant, which is good. The two 1807* plants exhibit similar development. That´s not bad either.
 
Monday, April 23 View Page
Plants of plot 2 :D Looks like 1813 (2) and 104 (1) are the stronger plants (which is good for their further vine pattern).
 
Wednesday, April 25 View Page
There is a corner in my pumpkin patch where there are heaps of nettles growing every year. Today I decided it was time to pull some nettles. While touching the nettles an old fairy tale came to my mind, “The six swans”, it´s about six boys and their little sister. No need to go into detail too much, basically there was a curse (for some reason the six boys became swans) and there was a horrible promise (in order to release the boys from this curse, the little sister had to promise to be mute for a very long time, and during that time she had to harvest nettles, to spin some thread out of the nettles and to make six shirts out of this special thread, one for each of her brothers). Because of her being disallowed to speak (apparently also unable to write), nobody understood what she was doing. Well, if her brothers were pumpkin growers she could have found a way to communicate what it could be good for: With some golden straw or some other kind of yellow/golden thread she could have embroidered a yellow pumpkin flower on the shirt.
 
Wednesday, May 2 View Page
So far I´m happy with the growth of the AG plants. This warm and sunny weather is awesome :) Here are the 1871 and 1807* plants this afternoon.
 
Wednesday, May 2 View Page
...and here we see the 1813 and 104 plants this afternoon.
 
Wednesday, May 2 View Page
150 sqft contest entry. Now as we know who´s participating in this contest this year, I´ll reveal what I have planted on my 150 sft patch. It is the third 1807* Holub squash plant. This poor little seedling has got a little handicap, because it needed additional two days to escape from the seed shell. Its further development, however, is similar to the 1813 and 104 seedlings, which means it isn´t behind. Now we finally need a name for this little baby. Well, today is Wednesday (Odin´s day), and therefore I could call this baby "Odin´s child" or "Odin´s daughter", but her name will be "Little Sister", because of a couple of reasons: 1) This plant will be growing close to the spot where I pulled heaps of nettles (check out one of the earlier entries, the tale of the six swans, so this must be the little sister). 2) This will be the 2nd squash on my patch, hence this 2nd green girl must be the little sister of "Elphaba". 3) I´ll probably look after her as much as (or perhaps more than) I will do for the big ones, just like one will look after a dear little sister.
 
Friday, May 4 View Page
Hopefully, the pumpkin patch will turn into an Emerald City during the next three months. Meanwhile I have discovered another Emerald City (when I was walking through the Elbe Sandstone Mountains last weekend). A beautiful spot where there seems to be some magic about. This pic reminds me of some lines by Jim Steinman “…Will you make me some magic with your own two hands? Can you build an emerald city with these grains of sand? Can you give me something I can take home?...“
 
Friday, May 11 View Page
There´s so much sunshine here, especially the last couple of days, it feels like a dream :)
 
Sunday, May 13 View Page
'For vining out loud', I´ve never had such big plants at that time of year, I´m happy with their growth, and here´s one of the 1871 Cutrupi plants, they are the most aggressive ones. I´m impressed!!! Thank you for the seeds Stefano :)
 
Thursday, May 17 View Page
So far I´m happy with my plants :)
 
Wednesday, May 30 View Page
During the past couple of days I had to make some tough decisions, and these are the four plants which are now allowed to grow to "competition size". All of them have nice little females in their vine tips, so it looks like pollination could be finished by mid June.
 
Wednesday, May 30 View Page
150 sqft competition entry: Here´s my "little sister" 1807* Holub plant on the 150 sqft patch, she´s much smaller, but that´s because she´s growing in a corner of the patch which has more shade.
 
Sunday, June 3 View Page
At least one week ahead (according to pictures I had taken in previous years)...
 
Wednesday, June 6 View Page
They are growing :)
 
Thursday, June 7 View Page
Now one can see why I´m so happy with how the plants are doing this year :)
 
Thursday, June 7 View Page
150 sqft contest plant, still plenty of room available, and it looks like the vines are friendly and adhere to my proposed vine pattern. Also, I´ve discovered a female in the main vine tip (it´s the 3rd female of this plant already), which should end up in a position close to the proposed spot and it should open somewhen in 9 - 11 days (time will tell). Also, the first male opened (good news, the plant is not sterile). This time I took care and positioned the size reference can somewhere in the pic :)
 
Sunday, June 10 View Page
Is this my dear Elphaba? This morning I haven´t been at home, therefore this was an open pollination. However, she´s a beauty and in a perfect position (main vine somewhere at 13 ft). It would be my earliest pollination ever, but the plant is doing fine, it has at least 16 secondaries between stump and fruit which may be retained while the fruit grows, and I know that every day counts (in 2014 we#ve had an early start of fall in the middle of August), and the next decent female will open in 4 or 5 days, I guess. So if this one takes, I´ll go with growing this open pollinated one for weight, and for genetics I´ll perhaps grow a selfed one on a secondary. Time will tell...
 
Tuesday, June 19 View Page
Looks like this will be "Fiyero" (1871 x SELF, 11th June). Four days before pollination I thought I better go with the next female, because this one was in such a horrible position. The flower/tendril/secondary of the previous leaf node were pointing to the one side, the set of things at the next leaf node pointing to the other side, and this one...couldn´t quite decide and therefore everything was pointing to the sky. But then I decided to give it a try and carefully move the vine in order to hopefully bring this female into a more comfortable position. Looks like it was successful. I love the shape of this fruit.
 
Tuesday, June 19 View Page
There´s a new potential "Elphaba", actually two of them, because the open pollinated one slowed down growing and three days later another two females (1 and 3 leaf nodes after the first one) opened on the main vine. This time they are 1807 x SELF :) The old (x OPEN) one got culled, and I´m happy with the growth of the other two at 6 DAP. It will be a hard decision as to which of them should become the keeper. So far, I favor #1.
 
Tuesday, June 19 View Page
Time for an update of what the patch looks like now. Once again, I´m happy with how the plants are growing this year :) Now we can also see a bit more of the FP plants in the central parts of the patch.
 
Tuesday, June 19 View Page
Patch view from a different perspective. In the shade of the blue table there´s the potential keeper of my 1871 plant ("Fiyero").
 
Wednesday, June 20 View Page
Today I decided to place the potential keepers at the 1871 and 1807* plants on styrofoam/sand...as long as they are small enough to hold them in one hand while creating their bed of sand. In case of the greenie today was the first day when my favorite actually was a bit bigger than the 2nd fruit. Anyway, I´ll keep the 2nd greenie on the main vine for another couple of days, just in case.
 
Wednesday, June 20 View Page
When I look into the garden and see my kids´ FP plants I´m getting jealous (their FP plants are looking better than mine).
 
Tuesday, June 26 View Page
Patch today :)
 
Tuesday, June 26 View Page
150 sqft contest plant: Today I have drawn a "box" instead of just a few lines on the ground, this may give a better impression of the size of the plant, and one can see that there´s still a bit room left. I guess I will have to terminate all vines (maybe almost all) within the next two weeks. Check out the red arrow...who´s sitting there?
 
Tuesday, June 26 View Page
150 sqft contest fruit :) 1807* Holub x SIBB, 9 DAP. Looks like pollination was successful. Fingers crossed this fruit will grow...and grow...and grow. This will probably be "Little Sister", and after a while she will (hopefully) represent "little" merely as a part of her name, not by her impressive appearance ;)
 
Thursday, June 28 View Page
Baby pumpkins today. While I´m impressed by the growth of the 1871 and 1807*, the 104 and 1813 are quite behind with respect to my expectations. However, they are growing, and I just tell myself they simply spent some time on cell division rather than pumping the kin.
 
Thursday, June 28 View Page
150 sqft contest fruit: This could be a good one :)
 
Friday, July 6 View Page
Check this out: The fruit on the 1813 didn´t grow and it didn´t abort either. This made me have a closer look at the males, and it seems like I haven´t done that before (I should have, oh what a waste of time the past couple of weeks), this plant is sterile :( Today "Danafe" had to leave Emerald City. Oh well, as if I had seen it at the beginning of the season (when I assigned names to the plants and their potential fruit), the witch Danafe was the female version of the old wizzard, and some of you may know that the wizzard hasn´t been what he pretended to be. Danafe was the same.
 
Friday, July 6 View Page
Bye bye Danafe ~ Let the youngsters rule in Emerald City
 
Friday, July 6 View Page
Looks like the predictions made (by assigning their names) aren´t too far off. Here are the youngsters in Emerald City, and I find they represent their names´ characters nicely. Hm, this makes me scratch my head, because for Elphaba this would mean something like "It's time to try defying gravity I think I'll try defying gravity kiss me goodbye I'm defying gravity and you won't bring me down." Actually she´s growing like a balloon, and I´m worried she could go very very light. Fingers crossed she won´t!
 
Friday, August 3 View Page
150 sqft fruit, just noticed that I had forgotten to add this pic of the fruit. It´s 47 DAP now. Oooops, sorry, forgot to add the size reference can. Hope you don´t mind.
 
Tuesday, August 14 View Page
Did I say "WICKED" pumpkin season four months ago? It´s a cursed one! Bad things happening in Emerald City, the GREEN just ain´t what it used to be.
 
Friday, September 7 View Page
This is "Glinda" (104 uow Wagler 17 x 1871 Cutrupi 17), which became the 687 Wagler 18 the other day at the weigh-off in Fambach.
 
Friday, September 7 View Page
150 sqft entry: This is "Little Sister" just before I picked her, also for the weigh-off in Fambach.
 
Saturday, September 8 View Page
150 sqft contest, last entry: This is "Little Sister" on the scales, 207.8 kg, now official title is 458.1* Wagler 18 (1807* Holub x sibb).
 
Wednesday, September 19 View Page
"Elphaba" (1807 Holub x self) and "Fiyero" (1871 Cutrupi x self) at their last minutes in the patch, still holding hands (sort of) somewhere in the root zone. The little one in the background is their baby (1807 x 1871). Need to find a suitable name for the little bugger now.
 
Wednesday, September 19 View Page
Now "Fiyero" and "Elphaba" are cuddling together in my garage, waiting for the weigh-off.
 
Friday, October 5 View Page
Found a name for the little bugger (1807 x 1871), which is the 217* uow Wagler 18 now (went pretty much to chart). Her name will be "Wednesday". That´s just perfect, for so many reasons. First of all, this name came to my mind two days ago (on Wednesday), and again I thought that something like Odins Child could be good. However, I think she will reveal some characteristics associated with Wednesday Addams (wants to scare others, enormous strength in spite of her seemingly weak appearance), and Wednesday starts with "W" like Wizzard or Witch or WTF (stands for 'wonderful terriffic fabulous', of course).
 
Saturday, October 27 View Page
We may call this lantern „infinity” or “3 and 8”. Eyes: a horizontal “8”, the sign of infinity. Nose: a combination of “8-and-3”, an 8 with 3 loops. Both of them are chiral (and show the same chirality), as a sign of life or chemistry, or maybe both. In the mouth the motif of the nose appears as 8 of those “8-and-3”-combinations knitted into one another (all of them showing the same chirality). This mouth also reflects infinity (it´s like a belt around the whole lantern face), with 3 x 3 x 8 (= 72) shining lights (in addition to the other 3 lights of eyes and nose). Furthermore, each “8-and-3”-motif of the mouth resembles a double ouroboros (two snakes biting into each other´s tails), once again a sign of infinity (in addition to various other things an ouroboros reflects). …that said, it took about 3 hours to carve this pumpkin.
 
Saturday, November 10 View Page
Winter coming soon? Oh well, Helene´s Bunny still needed a suitable bobcap, and here you can see how I fixed the problem ;). (Just looking at the first two pics one could easily think I´ve had other things in mind, LOL)
 
Thursday, November 29 View Page
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