Mom and I took off early from school to go see what kinds of plants a nearby nursery had. It turns out this place was my kind of heaven. You drive down this steep driveway, over a bridge straddling two ponds full of ducks, past a large chicken coop full of about 50 ducks and chickens, past a shed full of meat rabbits, past a goat pen with five goats and finally stopping in front of a tiny greenhouse. Everything looked cobbled together in a charming, ex-hippy sort of fashion and the poultry were some of the fattest, happiest birds I’ve ever seen. And yes, the did have a little radio tinkling out classical music for the chickens. We picked out an Oregon early and a red cherry tomato plant, spearmint, four lavender plants, a Himalayan rhubarb, an officiannale rhubarb and a chocolate mint plants. Now I’ve got some teeny tiny baby rhubarb to keep my ceramic pig company for a few weeks while they get big enough to plant outside in the big, bad world.

Baby Rhubarbs, growing away…Tomato plants hanging out on the back deck.