Diana Hansen-Young - an artist we knew in Hawaii

Diana Hansen-Young

 I was browsing the net and bumped into dianahansenyoung.com.  We knew this rather intriguing lady, Diana Hansen-Young, and her two young children, when we lived in Hawaii.  They lived in our neighborhood and attended our church.  She was a fairly well known artist and had her own distinctive style of Hawaiian art that had a lot of local appeal.  Click on "Paintings" at her website to see a sampling of her style of painting, as illustrated by the painting below.  She is of Swedish stock and definitely doesn't look Hawaiian.  I don't know how she came to live in Hawaii, or the circumstances behind her marrying a fellow of Chinese descent (Mr. Young).  Her two children by her Chinese husband are named Heidi and Thekla.  She divorced Mr. Young. Discovering her website, and filling in some of the blanks up to the present time was fascinating for me, because she was such a compelling lady.  It doesn't surprise me that she is now living in Paris, and has continued to pursue the arts, both art and music.  She appears to have recently married another rather interesting fellow.  Her children, now grown, are obviously gifted.  I note that Thekla has become an attorney...even spending a brief time in New Orleans.  Apparently, Thekla moved down here two days before Katrina happened.  What a bummer.  It's too bad we weren't aware that she briefly moved down here.  I'm sure she would have remembered us, and our children who would have been about the same age range as herself.

First day of school for Allison

Our oldest granddaughter started school today, first day in first grade.  We're excited for her!  We got a kick out of the Bertasso blog report of her struggle to get her teacher's name right. 

Roundup Ready sugarbeets in the news again

Sugarbeets are grown on more than 1 million acres in the United States and account for over half of the sugar produced here, the remainder almost entirely coming from sugarcane.  Sugarbeet farmers very quickly adopted Roundup Ready sugarbeets when they became available.  This year, 95% of all sugarbeets planted and soon to be harvested are Roundup Ready, which means that about half the total U.S. sugar supply will be from genetically modified plants.  As of August 13, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White revoked USDA's approval of Monsanto's genetically modified sugarbeets.  His ruling will not affect this year's crop, but may have huge consequences for next year's crop, in that there is a general consensus within the sugarbeet industry that non-modified seed is in very short supply.  Even if non-GMO sugarbeet seed were available, many farmers will likely switch to growing other genetically modified crops, not wanting to or no longer having the equipment to contend with weeds the old fashioned way.

I suspect that the judge's decision has far more to do with concerns about large corporate seed companies having a monopoly on seed than it has to do with dangers associated with genetically modified plants, per se.  After all, much of the food and drugs we consume are from genetically modified organisms, and have been for some time.  Granulated sugar, once fully processed, is nothing more than chemically pure sucrose, devoid of protein, so to make this an issue about consuming a tainted product, really doesn't make any sense.  To be concerned about sugarbeet pollen is just as big of a stretch, considering that the sugarbeet is a biennial crop and does not flower when grown for its sugar.  Good luck to those in the USDA who will be called on to complete a voluminous environmental impact statement for Roundup Ready sugarbeets that couldn't possibly be completed before 2012.

Sugarcane growers have to be happy they aren't in the middle of this controversy.  Besides, this decision stands to further bolster the price of sugar.

Sweet potato variety 'Evangeline'

This is the second year that we have let 'Evangeline,' a sweet potato variety developed at Louisiana State University, essentially take over our garden during the hot summer months.  Actually, I don't mind having a garden crop that essentially does its own thing with very little effort on my part.  It literally filled up the garden from two little plants that survived through the extra cold winter we had.  Evangeline is quite attractive, with its unusual purple pigmented leaves, and colorful flowers.  It is also sweeter than earlier bred sweet potato varieties.  Sweet potato is related to the infamous morning glory weed, so it is not surprising that it has the ability to cover such a large ground area in a short time.  In late September, we expect to dig out another bumper crop of sweet potatoes.  This is about as good a garden crop as there is from the perspective of minimum input and maximum output.  The variety name, Evangeline, hearkens back to the poem by the same name, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and has a special connection to Louisiana, as explained in the Wikipedia article about the poem.

In the upper picture, you might have noticed that I have a row of beans, actually edible soybeans on the right side of the garden which the sweet potato vines are beginning to take over.  I will probably get my cane knife out, sharpen it, and do a quick slash cut down the row between the sweet potatoes and the soybeans.  I may have to do this a couple more times until the soybeans are mature enough to eat.  I wish I had planted a few more soybeans, now that I know they can be productive in Louisiana's intense summer heat.

Update on Bonnie

Welcome news!  Bonnie looks to be far less of a threat to Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes than it was only 24 hours ago.  It is presently only a tropical depression after having passed across Florida.  Because of how fast it is traveling, and given its present trajectory, it will likely just barely return to tropical storm status before making landfall again.  It is now projected to make landfall at the Louisiana/Mississippi border.  We may get a little extra rain out of this storm system, and that's about it.  It remains to be seen how the oil remaining in the Gulf is affected by this storm.  Even though the storm is now projected to go north of the original source of the spill site, it really depends on where most of the oil is located as to whether the storm will help or hurt the situation. 

The big local story is that there will be a benefit concert on the Grand Isle tomorrow (Saturday, July 24), rain or sunshine, in lieu of the Annual Tarpon Rodeo (fishing event).  This alternate event will be huge for the beleaguered Grand Isle residents.  Too bad Lori and James couldn't be here for that.  They would have loved it.

My Bonnie lies over the ocean

My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea

I can tell by the path she's a takin'
She wants to come visit me

The good news...Tropical Storm Bonnie will not likely reach hurricane status.

The bad news...Bonnie will disrupt oil cleanup operations, and may inflict further ecological damage beyond that which has already occurred as a result of the Oil Spill, if it continues to follow its projected path.

Gov. Bobby Jindal has already declared a state of emergency in Louisiana in preparation for the storm.  He is urging everyone in Louisiana to visit www.GetAGamePlan.org ASAP to make a game plan for their family.

Kitty sprouted wings, another kitty in the wings

Less than a month after I posted an upbeat blog about Kitty (4/19), I let him outdoors one early morning...and that was the last time we ever saw Kitty.  We have no idea what his fate was, but assume that he has gone on to kitty heaven, given his advanced age.  Judy even suggested that maybe he was translated. 

Fast forward to about two weeks ago, when we had a sad looking bob-tailed kitty approach our house.  Judy took mercy on the poor animal and gave her some of Kitty's cat food.  As Judy puts it, this kitty quickly adopted us, rather than the other way around, and at this point, appears to be a permanent fixture at our home.  There are two things this kitty needs.  One is a name (Lori suggested Bobby Sue, considering where we are moving to).  The other is for this kitty to get spayed before we become the owners of not just one, but a whole litter.

On another topic, I took the time to consolidate the labels used in all previous blogs, replacing all single-entry labels with more comprehensive labels that are displayed in their entirety on the home page of my blog.  It took most of the afternoon to do boil the number down to about 50 labels.  I've been wanting to do it for some time, and finally got around to it