Quite interesting to bring this back up--another interesting fact is that my chickens are now over 4 years old!! My, how time flies when you arent paying attention to it! I still think the original statement is fascinating, to think that a goose can live to be 100, and I also understand that geese mate for life. I did have one that was only 2 when his mate died, he grieved himself to death shortly.

We're sleep deprived. Thursday and Friday nights our Westie was up and down ten times from his bed at the foot of our bed (and ON our bed). He was trying to escape *some* kind of pain. He refused to eat Wednesday night. He's often gone without eating for three days, then is right as rain, but we planned to take him to the vet this morning -- he's never seemed in pain before! The vet opens at 8:30. About 4 a.m. Eliot stopped pacing and shaking and went quietly to sleep -- us too. I got up quietly this morning and made rice and chicken. Sure enough, Eliot came out and went right to his dish. I gave him a half cup of rice/chicken, then another half cup 30 minutes later. DH walked him and brought home the small stool he passed. We took Eliot and the stool to the vet. He'd passed a twist-tie! WHERE did he pick THAT up? We'll watch carefully for blood. The vet said we would have just watched and waited regardless -- no surgery. She said veterinary magazines run contests to show what dogs have swallowed, and that this is minor. I'm sure it didn't feel minor to Eliot! Early to bed for all of us tonight.

I don't have any pictures, but when we were up to our community garden yesterday I noticed ours were beautiful like yours. I always thought they were white.

Nice article! I have lots of different butterfly gingers (hedychium), globbas, and a shampoo ginger. I didn't know they were edible. I also have a lot of Turmeric (curcuma longa) growing in my garden now. I planted the whole front border of one side with Turmeric a few yrs ago. It has returned reliably so far after winter dormancy. I also grow grocery store ginger (Zingiber officinale) which does pretty well here and is hardy.