Baby cucumbers, future pickles. Just noticed them in the garden today.

Pickle history, from How To Make Pickles

The English word ‘pickle’ derives from the Middle English pikel, first recorded around 1400 and meaning ‘a spicy sauce or gravy served with meat or fowl’. This is different to, but obviously related to the Middle Dutch source, pekel, meaning a solution, such as spiced brine, for preserving and flavouring food.

The earliest known examples of pickling are cucumbers, that are known to have been pickled some time around 2030 BC in Mesopotami, when inhabitants from northern India brought cucumber seeds to the Tigris valley. In Europe in the 16th century, there was a large increase in food preservation stemming from the arrival of new foods in Europe. Today, pickling is still performed by millions of people, and enjoyed by nearly everyone in the world.

Notable pickle-lovers from history include: Emperors Julius Caesar and Tiberius, King John and Queen Elizabeth I of England, Samuel Pepys, Amerigo Vespucci, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Wikipedia lists nine different types of pickled cucumbers.

Speaking of getting rid of “tax breaks for corporate jet owners,” it costs taxpayers $181,757 per hour to operate the mother of all corporate jets.

Fisherman off North Hampton Beach, yesterday morning.

Spent some time getting a local issue into the news…

Patch: Bacteria Advisory Closes N. Hampton Beach  for Swimming, plus VIDEO: Residents Surprised at Beach Threat, Want Better Notices

WMUR: Beachgoers Upset About Bacteria Warnings
Visitors Say Not Enough Warnings Posted

Portsmouth Herald: High bacteria count closes North Hampton beach

At 4:30 p.m. yesterday, the four-day advisory was lifted.

Info on the NH DES beach inspection program. Facebook: Friends of North Hampton Beach.

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

(Quotes from Genesis 2, KJV.)

Hampton Beach Sand Sculpture Event 2011. Photos taken yesterday afternoon.

A chicken on a sunny day.

My poor little fowls have been cooped up for days, and the rain just took itself to the next level this morning in stormy torrents. Low pressure is stalled south of Cape Cod, continuing the onshore flow. Meh.

Yesterday there was a break in the misty rain and I went around tying up (at first I wrote ‘typing up’) the drooping tomato plants. I tried weeding a patch of cucumbers but my hands became covered in slimy mud. It’s a greeny jungle out there.

Walking in Boston.

On a Monday morning.

Wikipedia: Beacon Hill, Boston

Massachusetts State House.