Life Style & Travel

UNITED STATES—A phone call came at the least appropriate moment from Rhett Thornton. “Rats,” she gasped. She knew better than to take that call. Rhett would go off on some tangent or tirade. She would be stuck on the island of traffic, frantic over horn honks, being gifted the finger and besieged by mean sneers. There could be no more...

UNITED STATES—None of the most problematic rodents here hibernate completely. Only ground squirrels hibernate, but they are rare, and tend to avoid home gardens and refined landscapes. Some other rodents are less active through the cooler parts of winter, but never completely stop eating, chewing and digging up what they want from our gardens. Many will become more active...

UNITED STATES—Doing a good deed in poor conscience really sucks. Eliza knew. She was crossing the city on a Friday night, after being held hostage by a motor mouth on a phone, either too drugged or oblivious to get the drift. Eliza was squirming, she detested procrastination, even to use the term implied a kind of compromise. And that...

UNITED STATES─I have wanted to have this conversation for quite some time now America. We live in a world where you have two types of people: spenders and savers. Being one or the other is not a bad thing, but it raises an important question for me: does having materialistic things bring more vibrancy to your life or does...

UNITED STATES—Vegetable gardening is not permanent landscaping. With few exceptions, vegetable plants are annuals, like bedding plants. They do their respective jobs within only a few months. When finished, they relinquish their space to different vegetable plants of a different season. More of the same will be in season again in a few months. Crop rotation is something to...

UNITED STATES—Now the object of Jeremy’s final gran-slam charity, blubbered. “You must think I’m scum, hovering here all day scamming tourists. I don’t wish this. Believe me. I’m trying to go clean. You know my addiction got me into this dark rocky place. You’re too kind sir, you’re too kind. Giving me 50 dollars to buy all the java...

UNITED STATES─Well week 1 of Lent has been a success for me America. As I’ve already discussed, I have given up soda for the next 40 days. It is not a difficult thing for me to do as I’ve done it countless times before in the past. However, that first week is always the toughest and I don’t know...

UNITED STATES—The weather agrees with the calendar this year. It is time to start replacing remaining cool season vegetable plants with fresh warm season vegetable plants. In fact, according to how the weather has been through February, the process could have begun quite some time ago. Frost, which is the limiting factor for warm season vegetables, is very unlikely...

UNITED STATES—Jeremy was content to watch the passing parade. He eyed a crow that lighted on a fence and stared at the crow. He watched its golden eyes dart around. Now an attractive middle-aged woman and an older man got out of their seat. She had pale yellow hair that gave her an aura of youth, and he was...

UNITED STATES—Foliage needs sunlight for photosynthesis. Foliage needs air for respiration. Roots need moisture to sustain foliage. Houseplants can technically get all of what they need from the confinement of their pots within the interiors of homes and other buildings. They only require sufficient moisture to be delivered to them, and sufficient sunlight from windows. The air is the...