This thing called ...what?

A neighbor came to me this morning. He is a farmer. He farms rice. Not really a friend, nor enemy but I knew him for he was once my hired hand years ago. I was wondering what he wanted from me but anyway, he finally came to it after some weather talks. He needed to buy 4 bags of fertilizer for his rice farm and was asking if I could supply the fertilizer for him. In return, he said, he'll pay me with 3.5 sacks of rice per bag of fertilizer. Hhhmmm..tempting..that means 14 sacks of rice in 2.5 months! But of course I can't say yes for 2 reasons. Mainly because I can't afford it and also because I can't allow myself to take advantage of the poor farmer in this situation.

The Stray Cat

I wasn't born a green thumb but I could be if I had half or even a quarter of Anya Peters' perseverance. As a gardener though, I have had heartaches. Plenty. Take this for example: I had a tray of vigorous Green Envy seedlings (zinnia). Just when it was ready to transplant them- you know, the soil was dark damp, a hired hand available (finally!) and the temperature starting to drop that afternoon-only to discover a stray cat scavenging leftover food which I put on a shelf above the table where the zinnias were. Of course, the cat jumped out from the shelf and yes, you guessed it right. It landed on my zinnias...and not just the cat.