NO RELISHING THE TOMATOES

which are coming out begrudgingly this season. Something to do with the nature of dirt, or so I've been advised. "Nature of dirt"? What the *()(*&)(#!!! Still, I have been blessed to finally "get" the immense satisfaction of eating something that one plants and grows. I can share that crooning over plants is a better strategy than yelling at them.

Shouldn't have yelled at the tomatoes -- but, gads, they look so pallid. "How can one screw up a tomato plant?" let alone "tomato plants?!"I can hear some of you thinking, even as I thank you for not actually asking.

All this a tedious preamble to my latest RELISHED LIST, the third being the list of my woeful harvest -- I mean, if you can actually list and count how many you eke out of a garden, then youse know you are eking:

BOOKS:
RETRIEVED POEMS by Frank O'Hara

BALANCING ACTS, poems by Rochelle Ratner

BREAKING THE FEVER, poems by Mary Mackey

MY LIGHTWEIGHT INTENTIONS, poems by Pam Brown

PEEL ME A ZIBIBBO, poems by Pam Brown

WARRIOR FOR PEACE, poems by Steve Mason

THE MUSE OF DISTANCE, poems by Alan Williamson

GARNET LANTERNS, poems by Sally Rosen Kindred

ON THE FLY, poems by Amy King

THE MOUNTAIN IN THE SEA, poems by Victor Hernandez Cruz

METEORIC FLOWERS, poems by Elizabeth Willis

CANARBOREALKNOTWORKHELPBLACKBURNOUTOFFFREGE'S ABYSS, poems by Boyd Spahr

GATHER TOGETHER IN MY NAME, autobiography by Maya Angelou

A TUSCAN CHILDHOOD, memoir by Kinta Beevor

QUEER CULTURE: OUR HISTORY AND OUR LEGACY, essay by Julie R. Enszer

NOT ALL OF US ARE SAINTS: A DOCTOR'S JOURNEY WITH THE POOR, memoir by David Hilfiker, M.D.

ON THE ICE: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF LIFE AT MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA, memoir by Gretchen Legler

A WIDOW, A CHIHUAHUA AND HARRY TRUMAN, memoir by Mary Beth Crain


WINES:
1992 Ravenswood Pickberry
2000 Ch. Martet Sainte-Foy-Bordeaux
2002 Etienne Sauzet Puligny Montrachet
1998 Araujo Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvigno
2000 Pride Cabernet Franc Mountain Vineyards Sonoma
2003 Turley zinfandel Rancho Burro
2004 La Carraia Sangiovese Umbria


THE CITY SLICKER'S HARVEST TALLY, to date
45 sprigs of parsley
15 yellow squashes
1 cherry
47 sprigs of basil
2 Santa Rosa plums
22 lemon cucumbers
31 sprigs of mint
10 Japanese eggplants
2 honeydew
2 cantaloupe
10 stalks of scallions
2 squashes (white, but otherwise an unknown variety)
5 green peppers
3 jalapeno peppers
26 tomatoes