Beth Carpenter Books

We haven't yet had a frost, which means we still have some vegetables growing in our garden, including a dense zucchini plant. Believe it or not, that plant managed to hide one of the squash under its leaves until it was almost the size of a baseball bat. By the time we picked it, it was far too woody to eat. But before I consigned it to the compost pile, I had a thought. It's almost Halloween. I've read that the original jack-o-lanterns were carved from turnips. So why not a zucchini? What do you think? Scary enough for the trick-or-treaters?  Maybe we should hand out zucchini on Halloween  instead of candy. Nah, that would be too scary. Zucchin-o-lantern

When it comes to food, I'm fond of classics. Don't get me wrong; I love to try new things, but sometimes I get annoyed when a restaurant or recipe messes up a perfect food just to be different. It's not as though I eat so many deviled eggs, for example, that I need blue cheese and jalepenos added for variety.  That may be why I'm always a little skeptical of oddly colored vegetables. While Indian corn makes a beautiful decoration, blue corn chips just don't seem right. I'm only a recent convert to white sweet corn. It tastes delicious, but it's not yellow. And now I've discovered black cherry tomatoes. I planted them more or less by accident. I wanted another cherry tomato plant, but the only ones available where I was shopping were black cherries. Well, it turns out a black cherry tomato is the sweetest tomato I've ever tasted. Much sweeter than regular cherry tomatoes. In fact, they're almost too sweet, but very good. They're also p...

Anticipation    -   Why don’t we celebrate Christmas all year long? One of my kids asked me that once in January when the bloom was off the new toys. I told him it wouldn’t be special if we did it every day. Anticipation is part of the reason Christmas is so much fun. I think the same is true of gardening. In early February, I found this cranesbill in full bloom in London. In Alaska, mine won’t be blooming until June. The picture below was taken in July. The cranesbill are in the lower left. I planted tulips under a deep mulch on the north side of the house once, and they actually bloomed on the Fourth of July.                                                   I don’t know if I appreciate flowers more than a Londoner, but I suspect I get more excited about them. If I hadn’t waited all winter...

You may remember my experiment in early March with setting out lettuce and Brussels sprout seedlings early to see what happened. It failed. As often happens, the hazard was unforeseen. I planted them in a fenced garden lined with welded wire to keep the deer and rabbits out. I mulched to give some protection from frost and weed competition.  But I forgot to look up. After spending the winter foraging on dried seeds and plants, the birds were hungry for fresh salad. Those tender green shoots lasted no time at all. The good news is that as soon as I set out the seedlings, I started another set indoors and they’re ready to be set out, this time under netting. The bad news is my broken leg isn’t going anywhere near that garden, but judging by the tomato plants he brought home yesterday, my hubby is catching spring fever, so he’ll be doing all the planting this time. And my leg should be better by time for harvest. Hope everything is greening up and growing for you this s...

Okay, I know I’m rushing the season. But the seed racks in the stores were calling me, and once I got them home, I couldn’t resist starting a few cool-weather vegetables. I’ll plant them outside in a few days and if they don’t grow, I’ve only lost a dozen seeds. If they do, I’ll have early lettuce and Brussels sprouts. Historically, the last frost date isn’t until early May, and yes, it’s been dipping into freezing temperatures at night. I'm more than a month early according to sound gardening advice.  But the lizards are coming out to bask in the sun and drive the dog crazy.  The  peach tree is blooming.  It feels like spring.  So I’ll risk it.   You’d think a farmer’s daughter would know better than to be suckered by an early warm spell, but truth be known, I’m an optimist. And sometimes, optimism pays off .

According to Christopher Booker,  there are only  Seven Basic Plots  in existence.  And romance writers, with the required ending of HEA (happily ever after) have even fewer to chose from. Most, if not all, romance stories are Plot 7, Rebirth . Sometimes Rags to Riches , a Quest , or a Comedy might get thrown in as well, but romance is really about change and growth. Two people are meant to be together, but some force within one or both of the protagonists keeps them apart. When they grow enough to overcome that force, they have earned their HEA. Successful romance writers are prolific, often writing several stories a year. So how do they manage to come up with so many different stories using one basic plot? I think it’s a little like zucchini. We have two healthy zucchini plants in our garden. If you’ve ever grown zucchini, you know a modest plant can produce an astounding number of squash. I’ve heard a rumor that people in the Midwest lock their doors...

It's lilac time here in Anchorage. In yards all over the city, the bushes we ordinarily never notice are covered in floral plumes, diffusing their distinctive sweet scent that even smells purple. Lilacs spend fifty weeks a year as an ugly duckling, tall, scraggly, and awkward. It's a little like those old movies where the girl wears ugly glasses, baggy clothes, and pulls her hair back into a tight bun. But then one day Carey Grant removes her glasses, and says she has beautiful eyes. That's the budding phase of the lilac.  Then in the next scene, dressed for the ball, she's breathtakingly beautiful, sweeping the hero off his feet. And somewhere along the way, she gains confidence and grace and you know she'll never again be that ugly duckling. Now she's a graceful swan. And that's were the similarity ends. Lilacs live a long, long time, but they don't live happily ever after. Once they finish out their blooming cycle, they revert to the backgroun...