২৫ ফেব্রুয়ারী, ২০২১

"What's the avocado tree's name? (I have forgotten). It's looking pretty large."

Said MadisonMan, in the comments to the post with video of Meade grinding hard red winter wheat. Meade answered "Arthur" with a link to "Recurring features in Mad (magazine)" (Wikipedia), and then, later, took this picture of the tree and me. 

IMG_5364 

I'm there, I suppose, for scale. 

The hat is not an affectation, but a needed shield for my eyes as I work in front of the big window, but it's funny to see it in the picture, because I just finished writing a post on the NYT obituary for the artist Barry Le Va, and the obit has the line, "Mr. Le Va became known for his ever-present Borsalino hat," and that's what my hat is, a man's Borsalino hat. 

Here's how Arthur looked in May 2019, after we drove home from Utah in one day to save him from a mid-Spring freeze. And here he is in October 2015, when he was 2.

৪০টি মন্তব্য:

Joe Smith বলেছেন...

Great taste in hats...if you're going to wear one, wear a Borsalino...

tim maguire বলেছেন...

My first avocado tree, Mel, was a great success, but we had to leave him/her (we never confirmed) behind when we moved from Brooklyn to Toronto. I am currently on Mel VI, having never recaptured that early glory. They keep dying within a few months after sprouting.

tcrosse বলেছেন...

If you want to get ahead, get a hat.

Birches বলেছেন...

Arthur will soon be too large to bring inside... what will you do then?

bleh বলেছেন...

You cut short your trip and drove home from Utah just to save the tree from cold weather? Don't you have any friends or neighbors in Madison who could've saved you the trouble?

Wince বলেছেন...

bleh said...
You cut short your trip and drove home from Utah just to save the tree from cold weather?

You can't take a vacation when your avocation is an avocado.

Original Mike বলেছেন...

"I'm there, I suppose, for scale."

I know the feeling.

Ryan বলেছেন...

If we are on that topic, everyone must watch Tommy Emmanuel play "Borsalino."

Joe Smith বলেছেন...

"You can't take a vacation when your avocation is an avocado."

If you live in Spain and your abogado is an avocado, you won't win your case : )

Joe Smith বলেছেন...

"I'm there, I suppose, for scale."

So not just a potted plant beside the potted plant?

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves বলেছেন...

I have a kentia palm that was re-potted a few years ago. very happy in the corner growing and sprouting many new fronds. I've named it "Palm-zilla". don't get too close it's little shop of horrors over there.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves বলেছেন...

I wonder if the in-door plants are happier that we are home more due to covid?
I think so.

Temujin বলেছেন...

Looks like a StandDesk.

BarrySanders20 বলেছেন...

Put some shades on the back and . . . Tag! you're Itt.

Althouse is Itt

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves বলেছেন...

be cool if it actually produced fruit. you could enjoy avocado sandwiches on Meade's home made wheat bread.

loudogblog বলেছেন...

I planted an avocado in the back yard a few years ago. It's a Fuerte avocado and, instead of growing up, it grew very wide and is still mostly at ground level. It's like a giant avocado bush. It actually bore about 20 fruit in 2019, but not in 2020. (So I figure that it only bears fruit every other year.)

mikee বলেছেন...

Here outside Austin, the big question after the unusual cold spell has been which of our plants will live, and which are gone? Cactus plants melt into gooey globs upon thawing after long term freezing, and so do agaves. But cactus and agaves have a good chance to remain alive, losing only the above-ground leaves while the bases and roots remain viable.

Live Oaks drop their leaves in spring, anyway, so this cold spell has merely accelerated their browning. Live Oaks are expected to live through these days of subfreezing.

Indian Hawthorne and other shrubs are anyone's guess. The leaves are all killed, so we will wait and see. I intend to wait until the HOA demands I remove the dead remains of my plantings upon threat of fines. Not to give the plants a chance to come back, I just hate my HOA.

MadisonMan বলেছেন...

@mikee, I had a conversation on that with my sibling who lives in the mid-south. He figures he'll lose a lot of things to ground level (crepe myrtle, nandina), but they'll come back.
Yesterday he killed a mosquito. Last week's snow/sub-zero didn't kill everything!

Ann Althouse বলেছেন...

"Arthur will soon be too large to bring inside... what will you do then?"

Meade should answer this, but I believe he's already solved this problem through expert pruning. Notice how much horizontality is going on with that thing.

Yancey Ward বলেছেন...

"Here's how Arthur looked in May 2019, after we drove home from Utah in one day to save him from a mid-Spring freeze. And here he is in October 2015, when he was 2."

So, are you homeschooling him?

tim maguire বলেছেন...

Joe Smith said...
"You can't take a vacation when your avocation is an avocado."

If you live in Spain and your abogado is an avocado, you won't win your case : )


Your abogado would be an aguacate. But, yes, you would not be in good shape.

RMc বলেছেন...

Avocado
What makes you think you're so holy?
You're gonna be guacamole
Before too long
Avocado

Churchy LaFemme: বলেছেন...

beep-boop-beep 602-214-1527

Hello, is Arthur there?

Shane বলেছেন...

It's George Harrison's birthday, so I'll ask? During "AHDN" when he is asked "What do you call that hairstyle?" He answered: "Arthur." I've read too much on The Beatles so I always assumed this was an in-joke to his best friend growing up, named Arthur, but there is another scene in the film where one of them is reading MAD magazine, and after fifty years of my obsession ~ this makes a lot more sense as the in-joke.

Terry di Tufo বলেছেন...

That is a beautiful room.

Indigo Red বলেছেন...

Time to buy another roll of paper towels. Between 2015 and now, you've used most of the roll on the countertop. That one lasted a long time.

Quaestor বলেছেন...

"Arthur" should be renamed "Arthur/Guinevere" in deference to its dioecious biology,
"Artwen" for short.

The tree's gentler, nurturing side will appreciate the recognition. Meadehouse might even get some homegrown guacamole in return. Avocados (or is that avocadoes?) rarely self-pollinate, but "Artwen" might just make the effort.

Currently, "Arthur" is doing the male thing. He's growing and spreading, shading out the competition. Eventually, the tree will compete with the human denizens of Meadehouse, and then it will be war -- cellulose versus steel! The Day of the Avocado!

It would be wiser to avert avogeddon; change the name.

Rick.T. বলেছেন...

Getting a Randy Newman "You Can Leave Your Hat On" vibe with that topper.

Rick.T. বলেছেন...

I'm so old now I missed by two years the Arthur AndersEn CPA firm hat mandate. Unfortunately the wearing the suit jacket when outside the office was still in full effect. It was years before I ever thought of buying a non-button down dress shirt and having pleats in my pants. It is still cuffs on suits for me, though.

Rick.T. বলেছেন...

I am currently on Mel VI...
-----------------
Avocado's number, then.

DocTeach বলেছেন...

The love story is one of my fav things about this blog.

Rick.T. বলেছেন...

...in deference to its dioecious biology
----------------
or Hermie

Lars Porsena বলেছেন...

Mat Drudge is missing his topper.

Ryan বলেছেন...
এই মন্তব্যটি লেখক দ্বারা সরানো হয়েছে।
Quaestor বলেছেন...

or Hermie

Clever, clever...

MadisonMan বলেছেন...

When does Arthur get its own tag?

Nancy বলেছেন...

I made the mistake of looking up the derivation of "avocado". Sadly it is not related to any words for lawyer ... It's from an Aztec word for a part of the male anatomy which the avocado supposedly resembles, and it grows in pairs.

Francisco D বলেছেন...

I really need to get a computer screen like Althouse has in that photo.

I still work on an Apple McBook Pro.

ColoradoDude বলেছেন...

I like the slippers. WARM

Skippy Tisdale বলেছেন...

My mother died in the 1980's, and one of the things I remember her telling me back then was that women who came of age in the 1960's, who still wear their hair long and straight are desperately clinging to their youth and it makes them look stupid. Imagine what she'd say over three decades later.