Notes from the Kitchen Counter

1. A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
2. Floor Sample: A Memoir by Julia Cameron
3. Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen
4. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
5. The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden
6. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
7. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
8. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
9. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
10. A Dog in a Hat by Joe Parkin
11. Holes by Louis Sachar
12. Farewell, My Subaru by Doug Fine
13. Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
14. Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip - Confessions of a Cynical Waiter by The Waiter
15. The BFG by Roald Dahl
16. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
17. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows
18. The Trolls by Polly Horvath
19. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
20. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
21. These Granite Islands by Sarah Stonich
22. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewsk
23. The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
24. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
25. The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll
26. The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch
27. Bone by Bone by Carol O’Connell
28. The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
29. Fudge-a-mania by Judy Blume
30. Villa Incognito by Tom Robbins
31. Bookworms Anonymous by Jan Stafford Kellis
32. Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss
33. It Sucked and Then I Cried by Heather Armstrong
34. When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
35. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
36. The Misunderstood World of a Bike Racer by Jamie Smith
37. Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott
38. Truth and Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
39. City of Thieves by David Benioff
40: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
41. Power vs. Force by David Hawkins
42. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
43. Messages from Water by Masaru Emoto
44. Foreskin’s Lament by Shalom Auslander
45. Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman
46. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
47. The Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault

I could hardly believe my eyes when I read that Madsen is giving away more bikes - one a week! Click on the link below so I will have another chance to win one. Please? My backpack is already full. Where will I put my shoes when I have to cycle to work in my rainboots?

Here’s a recent picture of The Garden, also known as What Were You Thinking Putting So Many Plants in There? When I read the cantaloupe seed package it said to space them five feet apart. But that seemed silly, because I only had twelve feet of raised garden bed, and we really love cantaloupe. So I planted 4 seedlings right next to each other. Now I have cantaloupe vines snaking in and out of the fence, up and around its neighbor, two corn stalks, and all the way down the length of the whole bed. Tomorrow I will wake up to find that it has climbed up the back of the house, and is reaching toward the window to choke us while we sleep.

And that’s just the cantaloupe. I also jammed in cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, yellow squash, basil, peppers and zucchini. Now that everything is full-grown, we have to dig through the canopy to the jungle floor to pick whatever’s ripe. It’s like a treasure hunt.

But what amazes me is how much food you can grow in such a small space, even if you do follow the directions on the packet. Imagine how much food an entire neighborhood could generate if each house had a small garden. I don’t want to get into a big lecture about local food and saving the planet because you’ve already heard that whole story. I just think it’s fun to grow something other than grass and weeds and perennials for a change. Something that looks nice on a dinner plate.