Gardening

If your flowers don't smell as sweet anymore, there's a good reason for it: air pollution.

Apparently the scent molecules in flowers bond with ozone pollutants, which destroy the aromatic effects.

As a result, the bee population is dropping, according to Live Science.

Hmmm, maybe that Jerry Seinfeld "Bee Movie" was on to something, after all. Could be time to watch it again on DVD.

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PLANT HUMOR

"The best way to garden is to put on a wide-brimmed straw hat and some old clothes. And with a hoe in one hand and a cold drink in the other, tell somebody else where to dig." (Texas Bix Bender)

"My wife's a water sign. I'm an earth sign. We make mud." (Rodney Dangerfield)

Could you call a stolen yam a hot potato?

"A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for how to grow in rows." (Doug Larson)

God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done.

"Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration." (Lou Erickson)

THE REAL MEANING OF GARDEN CATALOG TERMS:

"A favorite of birds" - don't plant it anywhere near your car or clothesline.

"Grows more beautiful each year" - will look like road kill for the foreseeable future.

"Zone 5 with protection" - a variation on the phrase, "Russian Roulette".

"May require support" - your daughter's engineering degree will finally pay off.

"Moisture-loving" - plant only if you own a bog or a swamp.

"Carefree" - the plant's attitude, not your workload.

"Vigorous" - code for "the plant has a Napoleonic compulsion to take over your yard."

[selected from garden digest.com]

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First of all, let me take this brief opportunity to apologize to all of Canada for my post on Wednesday. You're all wonderful people and even the restaurant manager at Nathaniel's was only doing his job, I suppose, despite its churlish appearance. (Look it up.) So, for the record, please forgive me.

Secondly, this weekend holds Father's Day among its pleasures, and normally today's post would have featured holiday-appropriate material. However, that didn't happen for Mother's Day so in the interest of fair play, I'm not letting it happen today, either. As there was in May, there will be a special quotations tribute to fathers on my blog this Sunday.

Finally, Graduation Open House Season is upon us and begins in earnest this weekend. So I'll see you later, I've got to go buy some cards and pull some crisp 20's out of the bank.

I'll see you on Monday.

Mark

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WEB SITE of the WEEK: We recently - well, okay, it was about five months ago - rearranged our living room and went through our media library, finding many videos, DVDs, CDs, video games, and books we no longer wanted. The first thought that came to our mind was eBay, but now - five months later and still nothing put up on eBay - it may be time to look at http://www.swaptree.com. There you list the media you no longer want, and make a list of the books/music/movies/games you *do* want. Then the site goes and finds you trading partners. If the two of you agree to a swap, the site will even allow you to print shipping labels and tell you how much postage you'll have to pay. The postage, by the way, is the only thing that isn't free.

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Mark's Musings is a Habeas-certified spam free mailer. Subscribe, view past issues in the Archives, or help defray publishing costs at Mark's web site. To contact Mark, click here. To keep your winsome good looks, get plenty of sleep. Hey, maybe that's what happened to me.... You can forward or reprint "Mark's Musings" freely but please keep the credits attached. As always, credit detachment should only be done by a trained professional. Original material and commentary © 2008 by Mark Raymond. This paragraph right here falls under the "commentary" part of that sentence. My personal mission statement is John 3:30. Please do not leave your seat until the captain has finished docking the post.

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WORDS for YOUR WEEKEND: "Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots." (Frank A. Clark)