The Life Cycle of Basil

It's been quite awhile since I've posted but I thought I'd get back into the swing of blogging by featuring some pictures I took while making a huge batch of pesto a few days ago. I filled two plastic grocery bags with basil and the plants hardly look like I touched them. It's been quite a good month for basil and the tomatos are doing well too. I'll post some pictures of them later. The only drawback to the good plant weather is that the mosquitos are the size of small aircraft. Weeding and even watering often involves a lot of arm and leg slapping. Ah well.

1937

I just finished rading two books: The Shanghai Girls by Lisa See and The Samuri's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama. One was for bookclub, the other recommended by a friend.

And, completely by coincedence, they both revolve around the Second Sino-Japanese War, which began with an invasion of China in 1937.

While I had heard of this, I certainly didn't know anything about it. Not that I do now, but I do know a bit more and have gone looking for information.

I just find it strange that I'd read two books back -to-back that center around the same historical period (unintentionally -- of course I've done on purpose....)

And, it once again, reinforces the thesis of my Historical Methods class I took senior year (whatever it was called) that teaching history through fiction (well-researched fiction) is a valid, valuable method. The professor did NOT agree with me (or maybe it was my orange crew cut he didn't like....)