Oho, you clever Brits! (& garden adventures)

(Pre-P.S. - Did you see my big news?)

Intrigued by the title of this article ("Why Dying Is Forbidden in the Arctic") by Duncan Bartlett, I went ahead and read it. It's a cute little profile of a small town in Norway--discussing everything from the answer to the titular question to the ever-present threat of polar bears.

And even though it's a spoiler, I have to quote it, because it cracked me up:

If you are unarmed when you encounter a bear, toss your mittens on the snow in the hope of distracting it.

But if you see it snap its teeth with a smacking sound, it is readying for a kill.

At which point, I suppose, you could try reminding the bear that it is forbidden to die in Longyearbyen and hope it shows respect for local law.

Well, it is Day 4 in the Owl Bag Suspense Vigil, and still no sign of the search for the digital camera. The problem is, I think I remember where I left it, but it isn't there, and now I'm too lazy to keep looking. Am I being too honest? The owl bag isn't getting any dirtier or anything, so it should be all good.

The husb and I are trying to eat healthier, and as such, today I'm going to harvest some of my speckled butter lettuce and make little tuna wraps for lunch. This is assuming many things: (1) that the squirrels haven't eaten it, (2) that it tastes reasonably good, (3) that it hasn't withered and died in a heat wave. However, if all of those assumptions are true, it will be a true moment of triumph, since I grew the butter lettuce from seed and it actually seemed to be thriving, last time I checked.

I can be so lax because we ingeniously moved all the potted plants to the stairs, so the sprayover from the automatic sprinklers waters them, and I kind of stay out of it. The plants really do much better without me. It's kind of pitiful. For instance, the first thing I tried to grow was bell peppers, from seed. None of them really took. But my mint seemed to be thriving, which was nice. Until I noticed that the mint wasn't mint--it was a bell pepper seed that sprouted brilliantly behind my back and grew enormous. (Still no peppers, but I have hope.)

See, some of these things really demand photos. Guess I'd better look for the camera. Shoot. (No pun intended!)

Happy Monday!

[Edited update: the squirrels did get to the lettuce. But they didn't destroy it. They just nibbled a corner of every piece, to make sure none of it was poisoned. Which was very kind of them. So I'm going to eat it anyway, and just cut off the nibbled bits.]