Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts

Sunday, November 9, 2025

Harvesting a GourZuchumpkin! What's next?

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Well, I haven't bragged about our crazy overgrown, not-producing-much garden this year.

How about a cross pollinated Gourzucumpkin! Yep....trust me it was real.

This is the last submarine Zucchini I picked from the garden in early October. It was very large and heavy and dark green with a bit of dusky orange mottling. I thought it might be turning rotten, but I brought it in and put it on my island  in a basket.

Under the pile of golden pumpkins, Delicata Squash, Butternut Squash I realized this week it had turned completely orange and wasn't squishy anywhere it was actually HARD? 

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 I had pumpkins planted in our first big raised bed, five feet away I had 2 Zucchini plants planted in the next raised bed. To the west 8-10 feet I had two gourd plants by the corn. We did get one small lumpy green/orange gourd. 

Now, you tell me, does this looks like a Zucchini when it was dark green and now does it look like a Pumpkin?

That's my longest knife, so it's pretty good size. The skin was so hard I called Hubby to help as my poor wrists couldn't even dent it.

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Here's three of my pie pumpkins to compare. I like the small ones because they have nice thick meat and keep well.


Well after almost breaking our wrists hubby came up with this way to cut the (Creature)  Zucchumpkin, see the quick video above! 

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We really had to whack it. I was beginning to wonder if I should waste gas baking this thing? 

Here you can see the hard outer shell----on the edge...no wonder we could hardly get through it. 
Curious, and since I was baking some other pumpkins, we cut it up for baking.

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The seeds looked like pumpkin seeds only very 
thick...nice thick meat on the sides, not watery like Zucchini at all, and very firm.

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Well, I baked it and it was sweet and delicious, the seeds were baked also as they were easier to pull out that way. If I had saved some they probably wouldn't produce as they would be a hybrid.

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Can't wait to make a Gouzuchumpkin PIE...LOL.

What else is going on...we killed ourselves this week cleaning up the yard with the last of the nice weather and snow forecasted for today and tomorrow. Yep, finally our gorgeous golden Autumn is dying. Today the yard is filled with snow covered leaves. 

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This was taken Thursday...the last of the red colors in the Forest Preserve.

We finished clearing all the outdoor Halloween in time and it is successfully stored. 

Hubby is having two eye surgeries starting this week, 
so I will be the driver as he is blind as a bat without his glasses. His prescription will likely change, so we figure a minimum of three weeks or more 
of not much going on.
Unfortunately that may curtail our Christmas lights and decorations outside, sigh...I won't be able to handle it all myself. Aging just means everything takes longer.
Harvesting...
Inside is a small disaster dragging all the plants in,...

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We brought in one raised planter with all the Herbs...I have room for a new Basil, as ours were just DONE!  Here are Chives (2), Parsley, Oregano, Thyme, some Rosemary and I'll add a Basil. We should be good for cooking all winter I hope. I have a HUGE Rosemary plant also, I brought in.

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Right now the Rosemary is on the table along with everything else. I had 5 huge sunflower heads that had seeds, so I sorted and bagged, labeled and dated them. Also bagged the seeds from the Sunflower small heads (not that many seeds) since the Gold Finches demolished. I still have my Zinnias and other flower seeds to harvest, but they are in a huge bouquet drying on the island. We had loads of flowers still blooming when we had to clean up the yard.  

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'Tis the Harvest Season

Fall, Leaves, Fall

Emily Brontë


Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.

But, I'm collecting seeds and planning for new crops. 
A gardener can't help but believe in the future, 
or why would we plant a seed? 

Happy Harvest from our Home 
~~~~~~~To YOURS!~~~~~~~

Thanks as always for stopping by, 

I'm loving your comments, 

questions, and suggestions.

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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own or I am in possesion of the originals, 
I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or products used. 
Please do not use my photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. 
Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle


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Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Thoughtful Moments #6 Hallelujah and Leonard Cohen

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Today....for my own peace and for a deep cleansing breath... here's something different.

Leonard Cohen has always been one of my favorite writers and musicians... his words are spun with truth, and vivid word images,  and always some sort of meaning for all. 

Hallelujah was written during a very low point in his career for the album, Various Positions for Columbia Records. It was given the first spot on side 2, and pretty much ignored. The album eventually made it to America in 1984. Bob Dylan picked up the song and recorded it in 1988 and slowly it has morphed into the American psyche as a perfect song for many occasions. 


Hallelujah by the Pentatonix...2016

This all brings to mind another favorite quote of mine of being accepted for who we are:

“Oh, the comfort — the inexpressible comfort of 

feeling safe with a person — 


having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, 


but pouring them all right out, 

just as they are, chaff and grain together; 


certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them,


keep what is worth keeping, and then


 with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.”



Diana Maria Mulock Craik 1826-1887 English poet and novelist.

So take what you can from this music choice for this day...or "with a breath of kindness blow the rest away."



Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Black History Month: Phillis Wheatley


Do you know who was the first African American to be published? You would be surprised to know it was a 20 year-old slave named Phillis Wheatley in 1773.
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Phillis Wheatley born in 1753 in Gambia/Senegal, Africa. A young girl was captured by slave traders and arrived the colonies  in 1761 on the ship, “the Phillis.” Bought by the prominent  Wheatley family in Boston to serve as a personal maid. The young slave was named Phillis and took the last name of Wheatley. Phillis was precocious and quickly learned English, Latin and Greek along with the Wheatley children. She held a favored position in the Wheatley family and yet was still a slave.

Courtesy of American Antiquarian Society



Phillis wrote poetry through her youth influenced by Neoclassical poets. Conventional for the times she wrote poems on morality, piety, and freedom. 

Wheatleys first book, “ Poems on Various things. Religious, and Moral,” was published in 1773 in London, Eventually she was published in America, and is considered the first African American to be published.


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Phillis Wheatley represented an Abolitionists' dream, an example of an educated black woman from Africa, a testimony that blacks could be both artistic and intellectual. 
 In 1776 she wrote to George Washington including a poem for him.

Thee, first in peace and honors—we demand
The grace and glory of thy martial band.
Fam’d for the valour, for the virtues more, 
Hear every tongue the guardian aid implore!

Upon his invitation, Phillis later met Washington in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

She carried on correspondence with various notables of the day, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John-Paul Jones and many religious leaders and members of the abolition movement, here and abroad. 

Freed prior to the death of the Wheatleys, the children also died in young adulthood, leaving Phillis to fend for herself after a life of comfort and privilege. She died in poverty at the age of thirty-one.

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She is immortalized on a Boston commons in bronze.

Boston Woman’s Memorial byArtist Meredith Bergmann

The memorial of three women who made significant contributions for Boston.
Abigal Adams:Phyllis Wheatley:Lucy Stone

More can be found here: 
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Phillis-Wheatley/media/641615/216609 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/phillis-wheatley

and on numerous poetry sites.

 I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless noted. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown or anywhere I shop.


 Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. 

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Thank you for your cooperation, 

Sandi Magle