GO CUCUMBER THIS!

Yesterday as I was turning off into moi country road, a neighbor stopped me to ask if I liked cucumbers. When I said Yes, she gave me a bag of lemon cucumbers because, she said, "I have too much in the garden."

I thanked her even as I mentally heaved and sighed. Here Moi am, a self-proclaimed (thus self-aggrandizing) "Keeper of Keys", living in one of the world's most fertile areas and I have difficulty eking out a harvest that would not bring shame to my name. I mean, even when I think I've achieved something creditable in the vegetable category -- to wit, two zucchinis the size of human infants because of course I'm also crappy at knowing when to harvest (isn't it pathetic how I call it "harvest" when I pinch a basil plant for four leaves), it's only to come up with "unacceptable vegetables" because who knew that zucchinis shouldn't grow that big because I never judged whether big is better.... It's just fortunate I'm not ashamed of being ashamed.

The New Poetry may have been counting tomatoes, but I tell ya: the New Pathetic is being able to count strawberries...

Anyway, here's my latest Relished W(h)ine List:

CITY SLICKER'S SPRING/SUMMER GARDEN HARVEST (to date)
23 red cherry tomatoes
144 golden cherry tomatoes
14 red heirloom tomatoes
3 yellow heirloom tomatoes
4 peaches
5 artichokes
120 green onion stalks
14 onions/scallions
81 strawberries
31 yellow squash
19 zucchini (of which two have been the size of a human baby)
145 basil leaves
33 lemon cucumbers
23 cucumbers
25 pepper leaves
10 green bell peppers
4 green chili peppers
30 mint leaves
60 basil leaves
30 yellow squash leaves


PUBLICATIONS
POSTCARDS TO BOX 464, poems by Amanda Laughtland (in manuscript). Here's Moi unedited blurb:

Created from postcards sent to long-time family friends over a span of 50 years, Amanda Laughtland's Postcards to Box 464 offers manifestations of affection which so enchant that we are pulled into their intimate space. We feel as if we were "the Coopers", recipients of the original postcards -- reading these poems makes one feel liked as much as obviously loved! Distilled into a chap with fittingly spare but evocative drawings by Jen May, the poems read like a travel diary as well, and as such a journal is a page-turner. The "found text" even transcend their original context through inadvertent humor: "Through some / misunderstanding, the hotel / didn't hold my room. At present // calling around for a bed tonight. / Way it looks, I'll end up in Berkeley." Laughtland's craftsmanship and emotional commitment makes this project luminous -- in her "labor of love," her generous love achieves what poetry can: a seemingly effortless making of attraction.

INCLINED TO SPEAK: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY ARAB AMERICAN POETRY, Ed. Hayan Charam

SING, MONGREL, poems by Claire Hero

ROCK CANDY, poems by Jenifer Rae Vernon

NOTES ON A LIFE, memoir by Eleanor Coppola

CABIN FEVER: SHACKS AND SHELTERS, HUTS AND HIDEAWAYS, photographic study by Marie-France Boyer

BUTTERFLIES IN THE WIND: THE TRUTH ABOUT LATIN AMERICAN ADOPTIONS, memoir by Jean Nelson-Erichsen and Heino R. Erichsen

THE PUMPKIN PATCH: A SINGLE WOMAN'S INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION JOURNEY, memoir by Margaret L. Schwartz

ADOPTING ALESIA: MY CRUSADE FOR MY RUSSIAN DAUGHTER, memoir by Dee Thompson

A BABY FROM BOGOTA, memoir by Lois A. Herman

THE LIMITS OF HOPE: AN ADOPTIVE MOTHER'S STORY by Ann Kimble Loux

CONTAGIOUS, novel by Scott Sigler

TURBULENCE, novel by John. J. Nance

FINAL APPROACH, novel by John J. Nance

LEFT TO DIE, novel by Lisa Jackson


WINES
1985 Clerico Ciabot Mentin Ginestra
2006 Dutch Henry chardonnay
2004 Dutch Henry "Argos"
1994 Tinto Pesquera Ribera Del Duero
2006 Termed "Toro" Tempranillo
2007 Dashe zinfandel
1990 Frederic Esmonin Gevrey-Chambertin Estournelles Saint-Jacques
1996 Jones Family Cabernet
2003 Muller Catoir Riesling Spatlese
2004 Saxum Bone Rock syrah
1995 Pesquera Alenza Ribera Del Duero
1985 Clerico Ginestra
1991 Laurel Glen Cabernet Sonoma Mountain
1975 Ch. Leoville Las Cases
2001 Blankiet cabernet Paradise Hills Vineyard
2006 Mondavi cabernet NV
2006 Mondavi merlot NV
2006 Mondavi chardonnay
2007 Pride Viognier Sonoma Valley
2005 JJ Prum Graacher Himmelreich Auslese