An agenda of snobbery

Earlier this month we attended a boating get-together of (mostly) Norwegians who are interested in wooden boats. It’s always an interesting and enjoyable time when I’m together with them. The majority are men in their late 50s, 60s and early 70s. Some attend these get-togethers with their wives and kids/grand-kids, whereas others are there without their families. All of them are very wealthy and fairly conservative. When they first meet me, I’m the one who stands out from the crowd, because they hear that I'm an American the minute I open my mouth. I speak Norwegian fluently, but with a decidedly New York accent. Most of them are nice people and friendly to me, if a bit skeptical because of what they’ve heard or know about America. Most of what they know about the USA is based on what they read in Norwegian newspapers or what they hear on TV. I for my part am open and willing to talk to them; I don’t shy away or retreat from the social doings. My conversations with them are usually about how long I have lived in Norway, what I do for a living, and where I work. I end up talking to some of the wives; this year, one of them, a 73-year old woman who had traveled quite a bit around the world, told me about her very enjoyable cross-country tour of the USA some years ago. She loved it and mentioned that her husband did as well (which was not exactly true as I later discovered—she was speaking for him). It was quite interesting to talk with her, and we ended up having a very nice conversation. Eventually her husband joined us, and she told him how nice it was to have met me and conversed with me. It didn’t take long for me to discover that he had an agenda that he wanted to share with me. He had traveled in the USA by himself, he told me, and he had never met so many stupid people in his life (dumme amerikanere). By stupid, he meant untraveled and uninterested in the rest of the world. Since he was easily 73 or 74 years old, his traveling (for business) had been done when he was in his 40s, which meant back in the 1980s. He seemed quite keen on imparting that information to me--that many Americans were stupid. It always strikes me as quite odd that some few Europeans have that particular agenda that they wish to share with me, as though they think that I will immediately agree with them or try to do something about their complaint. Or perhaps he was hoping that I would get my hackles up (I didn't, I kept my cool). What struck me most was the dissimilarity between him and his wife—he was a snob and his wife was not. He clearly did not like that his wife had enjoyed talking to me (a commoner) and was in a hurry to end the conversation. Whenever I meet Europeans like that, it always reminds me of why I am glad to be an American. I am so used to meeting different people from different countries and cultures, and it would never cross my mind to tell a Norwegian whom I had just met that in my opinion, many of his or her countrymen were stupid. I was raised to be a respectful person, and if there is one thing I am not, it’s a snob. In any case, he behaved rudely because he wanted to end the conversation, and not surprisingly, it ended. When I saw them the next day, they both ignored me. I gathered that he had probably put his wife in her place. 

I no longer take these snubs personally as I did when I first moved here. It is no longer a surprise to me that some Europeans really do not like the USA. When I look at how the media present the USA to them, it is no surprise at all. In the Norwegian tabloid media at least, the USA is a gun-loving, gun-toting, aggressive, imperialistic, capitalistic country, bent on world domination. It sounds almost silly, but that is the picture painted of the USA. The serious media present specific issues (e.g. gun control, health insurance) in an in-depth manner, so at least the nuances are discussed. It is surprising to me how preoccupied Norwegian media are with what goes on in the USA. Our politicians, political situations, debates and conventions are big news here. Sometimes I think Europeans are more concerned about the problems in the USA than they are about the problems in their own countries. Or perhaps they think that their countries are problem-free. Rest-assured that the latter is not the case; Europe has real problems with terrorism/extremist activities that are only going to get worse before they get better, unfortunately. 

I have given up trying to explain to skeptical Europeans that most of the Americans I know are no different than they are—educated, married, raising or have raised families, healthy and unhealthy, hard-working, thinking about retirement, wanting to travel, and so on. It surprises me that well-educated Europeans have not figured this out yet. Apparently they believe everything they read or hear in the media, and their protests notwithstanding, many of them get most of their news from the tabloid media. Or maybe they just don't want to broaden their minds, because if they did, they would no longer be able to see the world in black and white. Perhaps it scares them to think about broadening their perspectives. That surprises me most of all, since it is exactly what they criticize Americans for. 

My pumpkin patch and other updates on garden life

My last post about our garden was on July 10th. In the interim, we did some vacation traveling, first a three-day boat trip to Fredrikstad, and then a week-long visit to Caen, France. I'll write a bit more about our travels in another post. Just in the short time we were away, the garden changed considerably--it exploded in growth as you'll see from the photos here. The pumpkin patch especially took off; the vines have spread out and fastened themselves to grass stalks and whatever else they can use to stabilize themselves. There are going to be a lot of pumpkins to harvest if growth conditions continue to be favorable. I cannot help but think of Linus in Peanuts, and his heartfelt wish to sit in the pumpkin patch on Halloween and wait for the Great Pumpkin to arrive. When the pumpkins reach maturity, you bet that I'm going to be sitting in my pumpkin patch and I'll post a photo when that time comes.

It has been very warm in Oslo during the month of July, and that's always good for plant growth. My corn plants are also doing well; ears of corn have formed on at least half of the plants, with pink tassels sprouting out from the top of the cobs. I've noted that the ears of corn do not form on the top part of the corn plant, but rather on the lower part of the plant. It should be an interesting harvest come September/October. The string bean plants have produced many string beans per plant and they taste very good--extra good knowing that they come from the garden. Ditto for the snap pea plants--there are many of them and they taste good.

I've also planted many different kinds of flowers, with the idea of 'filling in the gaps' (not having too many bare patches although there will always be some) in the flower garden. I like the result so far, as do the bumblebees, honeybees and butterflies. I've wandered around the rest of the community garden gathering ideas from other gardeners. Some of the other gardens are just so wild and beautiful--flowers in all colors, sizes and shapes. I'm picking up tips, talking to the other gardeners, watching how things get done, and storing it all away for next year's plantings.

And last but not least, we have a badger in the garden. Where he comes from nobody knows, but he likes to visit the garden at night. I haven't seen him yet, but several other gardeners have. Badgers eat mostly earthworms, but also other insects (just not the brown snails unfortunately--most animals and birds seem to avoid them, understandably in my opinion), roots and some fruits. He won't lack for sustenance in the garden as a whole, that's for sure.

Awesome song and video by Rihanna--Sledgehammer

Saw this video for the first time tonight--awesome song and video--so creative and other-worldly. It's from the new film "Star Trek Beyond", which I haven't seen yet, but plan on doing very soon. The song is a collaborative effort by Rihanna, Sia Furler and Jesse Shatkin.

Mid-July garden update

What I've harvested to date: string beans and beets. I didn't plant many of each, so the yields were limited, but now I know that I can plant quite a lot more of each next year. I discovered the string beans by coincidence. I thought it would take the plants much longer to produce string beans, so it was a pleasant surprise to see them hanging from each plant when removing dead leaves. My pumpkin patch, my little cornfield, and the snap peas are doing very well. I dare to hope that there will be pumpkins and corn to harvest come September/October, whereas it won't be long before the snap peas are ready to harvest. It's a fantastic feeling to watch the pumpkin plant vines grow horizontally and spread out; they are quite long already. Most of the corn plants have flowered, so it will be fun to follow their progress as well. The largest ones are already about three feet high, with fairly thick stalks.

What I will plant next year: string beans, beets, snap peas, pumpkin, and corn--a lot more of each. I will not plant vegetables that the Iberia snails like--spinach, cauliflower and broccoli. Many of the other gardeners have planted potatoes, so that's also an option. As I said in my first posts, I was ambitious when it came to testing a number of different vegetables, and it has paid off, even if the snails took three of the vegetable plants I planted.

Here are some photos of the pumpkin patch and the little cornfield, as well as some others:

pumpkin patch

baby pumpkin forming

another baby pumpkin

flowering corn plants

string beans 

Slugs 3 – Garden 3

It’s a tie so far; the Iberia snails (also called Spanish slugs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_slug) in our garden have decimated three of the six different vegetable plants that were planted in mid-May. I prefer to call them slugs. I planted corn, pumpkin, sugar peas, broccoli, spinach and cauliflower; the slugs have eaten the last three. The first three remain untouched, at least for now, but you never know. The weather situation here in Oslo during the past two weeks has not helped the situation any. It has rained steadily for a few hours each day; the humidity, cooler temperatures and moisture bring out the slugs in droves. I never thought I’d say this, but—the slugs have to go. Otherwise it will be slugs 6 and the garden 0, at least where the vegetables are concerned. Now I understand why farmers despair when it comes to weather and insects; they invest so much time and hard work in getting their farms to grow, and rain or drought or grasshoppers or other insects can destroy them in no time. As I said, I can understand it without really having to worry about it, because we are not farmers and our livelihood does not depend on the success or failure of what we grow. 

But I’ve learned a lot already about what to plant, and that was the point of my being overly-ambitious in terms of what I planted this year. I wanted to see what would do well and what would not. Next year, I will NOT be planting broccoli, spinach and cauliflower. I will plant more corn and more pumpkin if they end up doing well and are not disturbed by the snails. I’ve bought a slug-fighting chemical substance called Ferramol that consists of iron phosphate crystals; you spread it around the garden and the slugs eat it and over the next few days, lose their appetite for food and die. The entire community garden has recommended its use in each allotment, so it’s just to try it and see what happens. I’ve also learned that the slugs like the compost bins and heaps, so it’s best not to have too much compost. We have enough at present. I had tossed the dead spinach plants on the top of the compost heap; wouldn’t you know that the next day, the slugs were there on top of them, happy to be eating the dead spinach leaves. I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. So I did what I needed to do, and removed all the dead vegetable plants and the slugs simultaneously. The slugs do not seem to want to be bothered with the strawberry patch (not overly-so at least), nor do they like raspberries or red currants, apparently. And they leave all of the different types of flowers alone (lavender, petunias, pansies, etc.).

The Turkish ladies who have the allotment garden above us have planted a lot of different kinds of salad plants and beans. The slugs love the former, so their salad gardens always seem to be frequented by them. It makes it easier to remove them physically, but it must be frustrating for them as well to watch their patches be decimated by these little creatures.

I’m including a photo of an Iberia slug (photo taken by CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=258591), so that you get an idea of what they look like. Keep in mind these creatures can lay up to 400 eggs a year. That gives you an idea of the immensity of the problem. They are considered an invasive pest and a major agricultural threat in many European countries at present. If you want an organic vegetable garden, you must be willing to invest time each day to pick up slugs from your garden. Otherwise, you can just plant flowers and berry bushes, and trim the grass every so often. It’s easier and who knows, perhaps more rewarding. Because it’s sad to watch these beautiful vegetable plants die due to slugs and to the stresses caused by their presence. The plants are stationary and cannot move away from them, whereas the slugs are mobile and can travel the length of a garden in no time. If it's possible to get rid of them using Ferramol, which does not affect earthworms or birds, I'm all for it. 

The garden is blooming

cauliflower

spinach plants (basil and rosemary in the pots)

pumpkin plants

pansies, lavender plants, and petunias

rosebush in bloom

some perennials 

What Tennessee Williams said

• Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person.
• Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going. 
• There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go. 
• Luck is believing you're lucky. 
• Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it... Success is shy - it won't come out while you're watching. 
• Time is the longest distance between two places. 
• The strongest influences in my life and my work are always whomever I love. Whomever I love and am with most of the time, or whomever I remember most vividly. I think that's true of everyone, don't you? 
• Once you fully apprehend the vacuity of a life without struggle, you are equipped with the basic means of salvation. 
• All of us are guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress. 
• Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory. 
• To be free is to have achieved your life. 
• You can be young without money but you can't be old without it. 
• All cruel people describe themselves as paragons of frankness. 
• Enthusiasm is the most important thing in life. 
• Don't look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you'll know you're dead. 
• When I stop working the rest of the day is posthumous. I'm only really alive when I'm writing. 
• I have always been pushed by the negative. The apparent failure of a play sends me back to my typewriter that very night, before the reviews are out. I am more compelled to get back to work than if I had a success. 

"The world is violent and mercurial....."

I don't think it can be said better than this. Tennessee Williams, the great playwright, wrote these words. This is our reality.

Why can't we live together in peace?

I remembered this song from my youth, and think it's appropriate considering what happened in Orlando, and what is happening around the world at regular intervals. Why does it matter what color or gender we are? Why can't we live and let live?





Why Can't We Live Together?

by Timmy Thomas


Tell me why? Tell me why? Tell me why?
Umm, why can't we live together?
Tell me why? Tell me why?
Umm, why can't we live together?
Everybody wants to live together
Why can't we live together?

No more wars, no more wars, no more war
Umm, just a little peace in this world
No more wars, no more war
All we want is some peace in this world

Everybody wants to live together
Why can't we live together?

Can't live, can't live
Can't live together
Can't live together

No matter, no matter what color
Umm, you are still my brother
I said, "No matter, no matter what color
Umm, you are still my brother"

Everybody wants to live together
Why can't we live together?

What's wrong with the world?

Credit: Photo posted by Lin-Manuel Miranda ‏@Lin_Manuel on Twitter

Rest in peace, all the victims of the Orlando shooting. I really don't understand the hatred. I don't understand why we cannot 'live and let live'. I don't understand why there exist people who hate peace and will destroy it and love no matter the cost.

The freedom of garden life

I've been working in the garden nearly every day this week after work. It's been very warm here, unusual for Oslo at this time of year, over 80 degrees Fahrenheit each day. Sunny and warm, perfect conditions for plant growth, but a bit exhausting to work in such weather. Our rescued rhododendron is now blooming (I cannot believe that our co-op complex had just tossed it onto the garbage heap--their loss), and last night I found a tiny bud in one cauliflower plant, but not in any of the others. My spinach plants have also taken off, and the corn plants and pumpkin plants are also doing well. I have learned something for next year already; I can plant a lot more vegetable plants than I did this year. I was afraid of crowding them, but that doesn't seem to be a problem. I've harvested a lot of rhubarb stalks already; my husband uses them in the smoothies we make each morning, and I will make pies and muffins with the remainder. The red currant bush is loaded with developing berries, and that will be an interesting harvest when that time comes. I've sown grass seed in some of the barren areas, but it seems that grass takes a while to grow, even though the package I bought said that I could see growth within four days. Highly doubtful.

The bird bath seems to be well-used by the birds, for bathing and pooping. I clean it out each evening when I am there and refill it with water. I rescued a honeybee from drowning in it the other day. I've made friends with the local cat who likes to frequent our garden (because of the bird bath, I'm guessing). He sneaks silently into the garden and makes his way toward the bird bath. I caught him the other night and he reacted the way cats react when you catch them doing something they know they shouldn't be doing--a bit startled and embarrassed.

There is a harmony in the garden that I like--between me and nature, first of all, but among the various insects, birds, and plant life. It's interesting to see the worms, ants, beetles, snails and slugs all move about at their own pace and in their 'habitats'. The natural order of things, without interference from man--that is a blessing and a lesson in how to leave the natural world alone. It carries on quite well without us. I am blessed to have this garden, but I want to coexist peacefully with all of the other creatures that live there, even the slugs, but we have been informed by the garden board that we must clear the garden of them, as they will destroy most vegetables they come across. I do it, but I must say that I don't enjoy doing it.

Being in the garden gives me a sense of peace and connection with nature that I haven't had in years, at least not in this way. I love being outdoors and always have, but I've been active in other ways--walking and biking. Gardening has given me a sense of freedom that I have longed for, for so many years--freedom from worrying and freedom from my computer. The hard work, the sweating, the dirt on my hands and knees and face, the tired back and stiff muscles are all worth it for the feeling I get when I enter the garden and when I leave it. I think about it during my workday and I want to be there. It's given me a purpose and a focus that I need now.

Here are some new photos:

red poppies

rhododendron in bloom

baby cauliflower?!

If this song doesn't make you want to dance, I don't know what song will

Our garden in late May

After a few days of humidity and rain, the sun reappeared today, which meant that we walked down to the garden tonight to see how the vegetables and fruit bushes are doing. Everything looked fine, and there were not a lot of slugs in the garden as we had been led to expect. We've been informed by the garden board that slugs are a real pest. They eat a lot of the vegetables, and since the garden does not permit the use of pesticides, the only way to deal with them is to drop them into a salt solution or to cut them in half. Our garden plot gets a lot of sun, which slugs do not like. If you want to find them at all, they tend to congregate in damper and darker areas, preferably under stones, at least during the daytime.

This past Saturday my husband planted ten more raspberry bushes, and I assembled and installed a garden arch that will serve as the formal entrance to the garden. I had to dig deep into the earth to insert the arch so that it would sit firmly and not blow over during the first major storm. I was pleased with the result. I planted two climbing rose bushes (white), one on either side of the arch. Hopefully they'll take off and start climbing. I've noticed that plants do not like to be uprooted from their original planting pots and replanted; they tend to sag when replanted and it takes a few days for them to recover. But luckily they do.

green garden arch

strawberry plants blooming

strawberry plants flowering

rhubarb plant seed pod

red poppy flower

Another good song

Another song that's getting some airplay here on MTV.....love the song, and it's a sweet video........

Celebrating the 17th of May

Today is a national holiday here in Norway. As we do each year, we'll go out to eat at Morten's Kro in Gjelleråsen, about a twenty minute drive from the city of Oslo. And then we'll come home. If the weather is still nice (blue skies and sun right now), we'll go down to the garden for a while. Nice to just relax today........