Cuke Envy

It's not a pretty sight.

I am a grown woman, little though I generally act it, and I should not feel that the achievements of others reflect on me in the slightest. If someone else can do something better than I can, I should accept that, try to learn from it, and move on.

There are things I do well, but I can't be the best at everything. Challenging myself by trying new things is good for me, and I can't expect to be the best or even good at everything right away.

Riiiight. The thing is, if I was growing cucumbers, and someone else was growing cucumbers, and theirs were bigger, better, healthier, ready sooner, or what have you, I think I could be mature about it, at least in public. But when we're growing them in the same garden, and my plants are being eaten down to stumps by the mystery critter, while the plants of other people are blithely thriving away, apparently un-nibbled, I must say that bitter is the word for my feelings. Why, I ask you, why?

Because I'm not trying to say that without the interference of the critter, any of my cuke plants would look like this one, which you will notice if you look closely is filling out a tomato trellis nicely:


Nor that I would have a cuke this size yet:


since the largest one I have is about the size of a paper clip:


See it, to the left of the open flower? I know, it doesn't exactly leap to the eye, does it? I may not have the greenest thumb, it's true. In my defense, I would like to mention that my plot is on the shady side of the garden, and this other, happy plant is on the sunny side.

Still, were it not for the critter I would only be saying "wow, look at that plant" in mild wonder, instead of "hey, how come their plant didn't get eaten at all?" in moderate bitterness. I was on the shady side last year, too, and I had some success. I ate lots of cucumbers, and what's more successful than that? This year, I only have a couple of plants left; most of the original dozen are like this:


I have green pepper envy, too. You may recall that the half dozen pepper plants were mowed down before they even produced a pea-sized pepper bud. (Oh, ouch, I used the word "pea", let's not go there...) Well, the gardeners above are doing well with those, too. The plant looks healthy:


And then there are these:


So I'm depressing myself again! Shall we take the talk outside the garden? There are other growing things! For example, does anyone else get sick of those watered-down-pale-orange lilies? Why do so many people who plant them, plant so many of them? I really like the red ones:


Why don't more people plant these? I also like this little one, which is probably technically a weed but that doesn't bother me:


I like the hint of color around the edges. Now, if you were naming this next one, what would you call it? I'm leaning toward golden buttons, but I'm feeling literal. You can do better than that, can't you?


What about blue flowers with bumblebees? Does that tickle anyone's fancy?


Or this red sucker-sword?


Finally, what about this tree? It's the only one like it we see on our walks at work, and the scalloped-edged leaves and fuzzy ... what would you call them? fronds? ... are really unusual, at least compared to its neighbors. Anyone seen anything like it?




Thus endeth the photo tour for the day. Go forth, and enjoy!