the seed, the curse, the jazz of life

[freckles_and_doubt]

Many and varied are the side-effects of a social circle suddenly burgeoning forth into the production of sproglets, with the concomitant invasion of the house every now and then by a small herd of girl-children at about knee height. (Well, by now closer to hip height). One of these young damsels appears to have salted the garden, in the sense that I've just pulled up the fifth example of a pecan nut tree in the last month, sprouting merrily in a pot somewhere, cheek by jowl with chrysanthemum or pelargonium. She must have wandered around the garden with a handful of whole pecan nuts and, with the enchantedly self-contained logic of the very young, planted them lovingly all over the show. They're beautiful little trees, sturdy and straight, hand-height by the time I find them and growing out of the end of the nut at an angle repeated precisely in every instance. I've potted a couple of them, although where the hell I'll put a pecan tree when they get to be any size is anyone's guess, and they're clearly wriggling their toes in the extra space and reaching for the skies. Who am I to reject the happy-making benison of fortuitous spring-time growth?

In further continuation of this theme, this morning I went out to the Tokai whole-earth market with jo&stv, for vague random shopping during which I scored eggs benedict, a breakfast crêpe, chorizo, wild boar sausage with dark chocolate¹, rye bread and about a pound of ripe cherries, ridiculously cheap. We proceeded to eat cherries all the way back home, which involved Stv, who was driving, being fed by Jo, interspersed with spitting the pips into a paper bag. (I threw mine out of the window, timing them carefully to miss cars and pedestrians, so that in thirty years you could probably track me home by the line of cherry trees). I have to say that the many and creative variants on pip-spitting of which Stv is capable, while driving, more or less astound me. I particularly liked the baby bird noises and the rock-star spit. I have to say, it was a highly concentrated reward of enjoyment for twenty-five rand, and not just because I love cherries.

---

¹
The nice sausage-making man informs us that some unbelievable twit imported a bunch of European wild boar to South Africa, for who knows what stupid and mysterious purpose, and they escaped and went feral. There's now an entire river valley somewhere infested with the things, which have to be culled as they're an enormous pest and make hay with the local ecology. This is all sadly inevitable, but it's a lovely meat.

Comments

[dancing-crow.livejournal.com]

Something similar happened in the States, and we have western wild pigs taking over California, and southern wild pigs taking over Texas. And some completely lovely meat, fed on grapes in Calif. and (I think) other wild things in Texas.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I'm always a bit floored at how little we (as in humanity at large) learn from past mistakes. Wild boar are bloody evil things, you'd think people would be a bit careful about releasing them wantonly into the ecosystem. In France they're hunted by the entire village, with shotguns and dogs. Mean sods. But, as you say, lovely meat :>.

[stringgeek.livejournal.com]

I'm really quite delighted by the image of your sproglet gardener(s). :-)

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I find it a bit odd, given my own actual lack of desire to produce children off my own bat, how much I enjoy other people's. In small doses. Now and then :>.

Boaring

[first-fallen.livejournal.com]

1 - Wild boars are a menace in Germany. They're like black hairy tanks with tusks. Cause accidents at night on roads (they total you and your car and seem unharmed) and injuries to people in rutting season (spring, I guess).

2 - Apparently wild pigs (not sure if they're boars) are causing havoc on Zim airfields. I can see them facing down an airplane :P.

Re: Boaring

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

The African wild pig is a different genus to the Eurasian wild boar. Pigs of most descriptions cause havoc. They're intelligent, and bloody-minded, and can be incredibly savage when they're feral. I rather like them :>.