Nothing is just a hop, skip or a jump away if you are a springtail.

These gentlemen like the ladies.

Male winterberry holly plants can handle lots of female attention — gardeners concur, recommending at least one male for every five female plants. These shrubs can and should surround themselves with those of the opposite sex.

Sometimes life is perfect.

As I write, there is a bucket of Island oysters in my sink, a quart of heavy cream in the fridge, and a handsome French chef to put it all together. I guess that I am lucky in love and in shellfish.

The oysters were collected from Tisbury Great Pond, and the French chef, well, that’s another story.  

They say that one a day keeps the doctor away.

This snazzy marketing message was meant to urge the public to eat apples for health, though the real message behind it was to promote an effort to eat apples, rather than drink them. This adage was coined during Prohibition in order to convert apples from a drink to a food. The typical method of consuming apples back then was in the form of alcoholic cider, apple jack, or apple brandy.

Mum’s the word.

If you must speak, then sing out to the queen of autumn, the chrysanthemum. This quintessential fall flower is ubiquitous during this season and offers blooms of many colors.

Chrysanthemums are a very large group of plants with over 150 diverse species in the genus. Ox-eye daisy, feverfew, pyrethrum and Shasta daisies, along with many other plants, are chrysanthemums.

Who knew? 

Bamboo shoots, those Asian culinary delicacies, are really the beginnings of the bamboo plants, the culms (new growth) that culminate in a full-grown bamboo plant. Though it may seem obvious, I had thought that bamboo shoots were in the same company as oyster mushrooms, buffalowings, cherry tomatoes, horseradish, bread an d butterpickles, and other misnamedfoods. I guess that you learn something new every day.