Italian Tomato Garden

My sister sent me this, and it cracked me up:

The Italian Tomato Garden.

An old Italian man lived alone in the country. He wanted to dig his tomato garden, but it was very hard work as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.

Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty badly because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me.
Love, Dad

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Dad,
Don't dig up that garden. That's where I buried the bodies.
Love, Vinnie


At 4 a.m. The next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up
the entire area with out finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man
and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Dad,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the
circumstances.
Love you,
Vinnie

Rhododendron Pictures

Rhododendrons, soon

It's been raining pretty steadily the past 3 days. It's unusual for our area to get so much rain, which may sound funny, since this is the Pacific Northwest, but we usually get small amounts of rain at a time, not a steady downfall all day.

However, yesterday afternoon there was enough of a break in the rain to go out for a walk with the girls. They both enjoyed themselves mightily, even though it was only a shortish walk in our neighborhood. Hannah pointed out different trees -- birch, maple, cherry -- and Naomi found us an upset ant colony to watch for a while.

Our enormous rhododendron out front is in full bloom and looks spectacular, especially when it's not weighed down with rain water. The bees love it (I didn't remember them loving rhodes so much, but there you go!) and are fascinating to watch. We were watching some a couple of days ago and actually saw one little worker brushing the pollen from her back to her pollen pouches. We also observed (well, at least I did) that she had so much already that most of the stuff she brushed ended up falling off. So there's pollination in action, right before our very eyes.

I haven't taken a picture of this remarkable rhododendron, but I will soon (when I won't get the camera wet!) and post it here.