Are you here for the content or for me?

I noticed, the other day, that in August my blog began to see a dramatic spike in traffic (hi, China). Google analytics allows you see the origin of that traffic (hi, China). Many thousands of views of each post, after a previous average of several hundreds of views (hi, China). 

I don't think that my blog suddenly speaks to more than a handful of Chinese residents and citizens (and you are always welcome, here), yet suddenly that country is this blog's main source of views.

This is a screenshot of a right-now scenario.

The best conclusion I can draw is that AI bot farms in China are training themselves to...what? Write about gardens? Write about food? Foraging? Cats? Canadians? Be me? 

It's an interesting age we live in. For content creators - not to be pedantic, but that would be people who create content as opposed to those who use it (writers vs readers, photographers vs viewers, recipe developers vs cooks, etc.) - AI is to original research or creativity, to reporting and to documenting, what digital media was to most print publications, which went out of business.

If you google "what killed newspapers and print media" the first result you will find at the top of your screen is the AI summary. And many, many people will not go further than that summary, not even to the first cursory, algorithm-prompted search result. Nor will they visit the linked citations in the AI summary. 

Jeff Bezos was right: We humans are inherently lazy. That is why he is a gazillionaire. (Want something? Click.)

All of which is to say, the balloon plant, the hairy balls, the southern African milkweed, the Gomphocarpus physocarpus, are glorious in the last days autumn of this tiny terrace.

And it means that if you are looking for the answer to something, anything, that someone once took a great deal of time to write, based on a great deal of real life experience or real research (how to move citrus trees indoors, for example), the chances are increasingly good that you will never reach their work, because AI found it first, summarized it, and spat it out at the top of the page for you. It also found some inaccurate work, and smooshed that in there, too, because AI doesn't really know how to move citrus trees indoors, or what a chanterelle really looks like; rather, it relies on everything that has ever been written on the subject, and cherry picks. 

I don't really know what that huge spike in traffic means. I don't like it, and I have been in some existential despair about the fate of the truth for some time. In general, I mean. It is very hard to tell what is real. And obviously my concern isn't about citrus trees overwintering indoors.

For me, the only thing between us and the abyss is true journalism, which is increasingly marginalized, because it takes time, training, and money. To me, journalism is simple. Real people reporting real things, without bias. That's it. 

So go give it some money. Now.

It's been ten years...

Early evening. One of my favorite times of day.

Two anniversaries: I started writing this blog in 2007. It is ten years old. In Internet terms that is about 1,000! It grew from my first not very good photos, taken with a series of small, much loved Canon point and shoots. Hi tech, in those days. But these pocket sized creatures led to an almost obsessive interest in digital documentation and to a level of confidence I had never felt until then. The cameras were somehow a screen and filter, letting me move through the world without worrying as much about what it thought of me. I created the blog in a year that had begun very badly for me, where I was so despondent that I was prescribed anti depressants by a shrink who should have known better (he said he would not treat me if I was not on them. I never went back and ditched the pills after four weeks - I'm not saying they are not important for some people, but they were not what I needed, then. I needed someone to listen). A few weeks later I began to write.

My interest in photography led, a couple of months after I began blogging, to the Frenchman, who was waiting and waving at me from the west coast of this huge continent, in Vancouver, BC. Our July emails set off an electrical storm that culminated in his touchdown at Newark Liberty International that September. Four months later we were married.

I know. It's an old story. But I like telling it.

This blog, and its offshoots, on Facebook and now evolving on Instagram, led to new friendships, locally and across the globe, and these have enriched my life in innumerable ways, personally and professionally. My work changed, my skills improved, I was and remain challenged and inspired by what comes to me via 66 Square Feet.

Happy birthday, blog. You saved me.

Diane, From Rabbit Town, come in, over?

This is an anomaly but here goes: if you are Diane and author of the blog From Rabbit Town - please get in touch? I have no other contact for you and your blog is now for invited readers only (I clicked the link today), so I have had to remove it from my blogroll, which is a pity - I love your writing, and will miss it.

The gratuitous rabbit picture above is of Tika the Rex bunny, exercising in Central Park, with his owner a few feet away.

Nameless bunny and his  owner being carried after his March 2009 spring stroll.

_____________________

Book a Fall Forage Walk

Modernica Winner

Janet Brown, come on down! The Modernica Ceramic Wok is yours.

The winner of the giveaway was chosen by random number generator, from all eligible entries received.

Thank you, everyone, and I wish I could have this planter sent to each of you.

Janet, please use the Find, Follow link for my email address, and send me your shipping address?

(Send a picture when it's filled!)

Winter White Giveaway by Modernica

Here's something to shake off the winter blues: a winter white giveaway, offered by Modernica - the Modernica ceramic wok.

Not to stir fry your plants, but to contain them. The dimensions of the bowl are 8" H x 22" Diameter. On the stand the height is 10". Holes will be drilled for you upon request if you, the ecstatic winner, plan on using it for planting (in which case they are essential, though if you are super-vigilant you could coax a tropical indoor plant not to need them). The planter should not stay outdoors in freezing winters.

The value is $345.

What would be best planted in the sleek ceramic? Something with fairly shallow roots. Small spring bulbs, herbs (elfin thyme, a perfect, grey mat), hens and chicks, sedums, peace-in-the-home (baby's tears), African violets - plants with interesting texture, so you can enjoy them from above.

Or you can just use it as a washstand. Or to hold a clutch of lemons.

To enter:
-  the contiguous 48 states are eligible. I'm afraid we can't ship further.
-  leave a comment telling me how you would use your Modernica ceramic wok.
-  make sure to include your name (you can make one up, but if you win you will be contacted for your shipping address)
-  add your location, by state.

The deadline for entries is Thursday, February 26th, 11pm EST. The winner will be chosen at random and announced on Saturday 28th. I will ask the winner to email me shipping details.

Good luck!

IQ Elite is phishing

Quick public service message.

If you receive an email saying that your friend (a name you recognize) has left a message for you on IQ Elite, DO NOT click any link in the email. Do not click Read Your Message.

Report it as phishing or as spam, and delete.

Your friend sent you nothing, but has had his or her address book compromised. The scam asks you to do a personality test and then to confirm your username and password. If you're not thinking you'll give them access to your account and our address book.

Very similar to the Infoaxe phishing emails.

We are not alone

Gallant soldiers (Galinsoga parviflora) and pigweed (Amaranthus hybridus) on the roof farm, last night

So we're going through a rather bumpy time, right now. We do not know yet whether we will move or stay - and apartments typically only appear on the market a month in advance (our lease ends after October). So a lot is up in the air - and then yesterday this letter arrived in my Facebook Inbox. It helped me put some things into perspective. It is reprinted with kind permission of its author, Melissa Estrella Ivey. Thank you, Melissa.

Dear Marie

My name is Melissa, and I would like to tell you how beautiful and inspiring your blog is. I’m sure you heard this before. But, your blog actually helped me when I was going through a somewhat rough time.

Back in May, my husband and I had finally found what we thought was our dream home. After months of searching, I could finally dream of having a garden with fruit trees, flowers, herbs…a place for our puppy to run, for us to have romantic meals under the stars. We live in a townhouse, and I love gardening. It always felt that I was very limited with the amount of plants I could have, especially because it was hard to bring them all inside during winter time. Our small deck is ok for the 2 of us. There is a stone wall right there, obstructing any view we could ever wished for. And the noisy air conditioner, right next to the deck, always in the middle of our conversations. So, yeah, we were as excited as we could be with the idea of having a view of a beautiful nature reserve.

I was browsing garden ideas on Pinterest, when a picture led me to your blog. I could not believe how beautiful your terrace was. And I wished I had those ideas before, so my deck could look as lovely as your terrace. A few days later, we got the news that we had not been approved for the loan. Our hearts stopped beating for a second, and it felt like we could cry, right there. We had had 30 days of complete madness, trying to get all paperwork done, and faxing, and re-faxing, and writing letters to the bank, and visiting our soon-to-be-home, to find out, on day 31, that we could not finance it. I know it sounds dramatic, but it took us a couple of days to recover.

Then, I went back to your blog. I started reading it, the older posts, the ones about plants, about picnics, cocktails, I could not get enough of it. On my way to work one morning, I stopped at a nursery, and walked amongst the plants, looking for trees, herbs, vegetables, that would survive living in pots, and some that would live through the winter. I did that every day for days.

Reading your blog gave me such strength that I didn’t know I had. I planted herbs, flowers, a fig tree, lots of rosemary and basil. My deck is still very noisy, but looking gorgeous with my plants in it! We have these stairs in the front of the house that I made sure to fill with plants as well. You even inspired me to cook (I cannot wait to put my hands in your book- already pre-ordered!).

Thank you for being this incredible person through a beautiful blog. Your words and pictures were an emotional support when I most needed. And today, they are part of my daily routine; it’s like visiting a good friend!

Melissa

The Drunken Botanist Giveaway

If you really like: Flowers, herbs, and plants in general; surprising and entertaining facts about fruit and bark and roots; mixing drinks and knowing what goes into them, and why; old-school bar-tending manuals revved up with wonderful, freshly-researched botanical esoterica; or just settling down to a good, well written and very informed read...

...then you will like The Drunken Botanist, by Amy Stewart. A lot. From jasmine to yuzu by way of opium poppies, sundews and birch - the plants that create the world's great drinks are described and eulogized, with plenty of cocktail recipes thrown in.

I asked Algonquin Books for a copy I could give away, here. It's a keeper. At 381 pages it is a significant little book, but snug in the hand and easy to slip into a bag for a furtive dip.

I have not met Amy, but I know her through our respective Internet adventures, am rather awed by her Social Media savviness, writing prowess (The Drunken Botanist is already very high on the New York Times best seller list and is an Amazon best book of the month) and her ability to hone in on and deliver fascinating subject matter.

Happily, she will be staying in our apartment for a few weeks while we are away in South Africa... I hope the terrace behaves itself. Yes, she knows all about our high maintenance cat. Yes, the liquor tray will be well stocked.

So - to be in the running to win a copy of this lovely book, please submit a brief liquid recipe: a botanically-inspired drink, naming the plant or plants involved. It can be straightforward (wine? beer?), or a mixed drink  using or based on herbs, fruit, flowers, seeds, bark or leaves.  It does not have to be alcoholic (syrups? lemonade?). It may be home made or store-bought, obscure or classic, invented or as old as the hills, and mixed with either great cunning or winning simplicity.

All nations free to play.

Drunken Botanist giveaway deadline: Tuesday, 2 April, 12pm EST. Winner announced Wednesday!

Cosmo's Moon

Cosmo's moon rose over Brooklyn last night. No doubt you saw it, too.

Do you know we live on the same street as the bakery in Moonstruck? 

Sometimes I wonder if Nick Cage is down there, baking bread! bread! bread!

Seed Giveaway from Botanical Interests

My cool weather greens from the roof farm

They're here!

Two beautiful boxes of seeds arrived today from Botanical Interests, and they are waiting to be claimed by you in a pre-spring giveaway for edible gardens. (My own fava beans are soaking, prior to planting, as we speak. My seed order happened to arrive today, too. See last year's fava leaves in the basket above, right in front.)

I have grown all these seeds myself with the exception of the intriguing Rat Tails and the sunflower microgreens, which will be new for me this year. I chose these thinking of container gardens, but there is no reason they will not work well in-ground, too, as long as they have good drainage and enough sun.

"Speckles" butterhead lettuce

Two readers will receive the following collection of seeds (a total of 10 packets, each):

Bordeaux spinach - with a pretty red mid rib and veins
Cherry Bell radishes
Chervil - a feathery, cool-weather herb with delicate anise flavour: think omelettes
Fava beans - for their tender tips, and also for the later beans, of course
Lettuce -  Red Sails, a red-frilled leaf lettuce, and Speckles, a butterhead (Boston lettuce) with red spots
Rat Tail Radishes - planted for the harvest of their peppery seed pods
Shelling peas (for their sweet shoots, but you may want the peas, too...)
Spicy Microgreens - my favourite mix of mustard, peppergrass cress, cabbage and radish
Sunflower microgreens - very juicy young seedlings

If you would like to enter to win the seeds, please leave a comment with:

- your name
- a one sentence description of a delicious thing you would make with one or more of your crops. It does not have to be complicated.

Cut off time will be noon ET, March 13th.

After Estorbo and I have drawn the two winners (in our most scientific and objective manner), I'll ask for mailing details so I can send them on as fast as possible.

And thanks very much to Ryan Schmitt and Botanical Interests for providing these seeds. Clearly, I am a fan.

Home Made Winter

Home Made and Home Made Winter, by Yvette van Boven (Abrams)

Last year I was given the gorgeous Home Made, Yvette van Boven's first book (thank you, Lisa!), filled with good, real food and wonderful photos (taken by her husband, Oof Verschuren). And just last Sunday I bumped into the friendly couple at that farmers table feast put on by Terrain. It was rather nice going up and shaking their hands and saying, by way of introduction, We share the same publisher! (suppressed squeal).

They are in the country from their native Holland to promote Yvette's latest book, Home Made Winter. It's hard not to be a bit jealous. Yvette is not only the creator and tester of the recipes but also a food stylist and artist - whose design sense is felt throughout the books. She did the graphics herself.

Tonight Vince and I catch the East River Ferry to take us to this autumn dinner, where Yvette will cook recipes from Winter in the very beautiful space made famous in local food circles by Sunday Suppers. We have not visited before, and arriving by water on a chilly fall night is about as good as it gets. I think.

I'll report back, later. Now I must pull on some long socks, boots, and fluffy layers for the ride up the East River. Even as a rolled lamb breast and pig cheeks are sizzling gently in a low oven for tomorrow's cassoulet.

Problems of privilege.

Giveaway Winner

Jack, step forward!

A Phalanx of Fruits, indeed.

Your winning collective noun has scored you the pair of tickets to the NYBG's Edible Garden Festival and Mario Batali's cooking demonstration this Sunday.

I must give the winner's details to the NYBG tomorrow so please get in touch with me today. You can email me by clicking on the profile picture with lilies, top left of the blog. If you cannot attend please let me know as soon as possible. JJ Murphy, the runner up with her wonderful Network of Nightshades and a Slew of Solanaceae is next in line for the tickets...***

Thank you to everyone for playing!

Update: Tickets went to JJ Murphy as Jack confessed that he lives out of state.

Infoaxe.net is a Phishing Site

Beware Flip, Flipora or Infoaxe. They are all the same thing.

I received the mail above (I blacked out the prominent email address details). Everything about it looked as though my mother had sent it to me. It looked like her email address. My husband received one at the same time. But look very carefully at the sending address: very different.

It's possible that someone my mother knows received an email like this, apparently from a friend, and "signed up" for this "social network" by clicking innocently on that big red Yes!, up there.

Do not click Yes. Do not click No.

When you click Yes! Infoaxe is immediately given access to your entire email address book. It then sends this phishing email to every person in your address book, without your consent. People who mistakenly click Yes are then counted as bona fide members of their social network. They do not have members, in my opinion - they simply have stolen email addresses.

The company responsible is Flip, Flipora or Infoaxe.

Google's spam filter did not catch it for me.

If this is not phishing I don't know what is. If you receive the same email, click nothing. And forward the email to spam@uce.gov.

If you use Gmail, click on the tab to the right of Reply and in the dropdown menu click Report Phishing.

Here's more good info about the spam/virus mails from Gotham Geeks.

And here is a remarkably uncritical view of the company responsible for this phishing, by Tech Crunch.

Wilder Quarterly giveaway winner

As you can see, the arrangement of names with treats on top of each was very scientific. I placed Estorbo in the circle, closed my eyes, and spun him three times. Yes, really. When I opened my eyes he was already hard at work.

Estorbo loved this giveaway. In fact it was very hard to get him to stop eatingchoosing. He wanted everyone to be a winner.

But rules is rules. The third pellet eaten, and the winner of the, er, draw, to receive a year's subscription to Wilder Quarterly is...

pulverschwein! ...Come on down!

(Sorry about the saliva...and could you please explain your name?)

Congratulations! Please send me your full name and address so that we can sign you up (click on my profile- picture-with-lilies on the blog's home page and then on the email button).

There was a tiny handful of disqualifications - either because no location was included in the comment or because the deadline was missed. But everyone's sightings were included in the Butterfly Affidavits and were very much enjoyed. I love them. Thank you.

And Estorbo thanks you. He managed to eat 11 pellets before I could stop him and remove the leftovers.

More?

To read all the submission, which  I gathered with very little editorial interference,  head on over to The Butterfly Affidavit. And thank you!

Flowers in the house

Supper was late.

The kitchen was full of today's brick cake and the empty mason jars which I had strained and decanted - the black and red currant gins, the sumac-infused vodka, the wild black cherries. Everything was a little sticky. The jelly from the leftover alcoholic fruit was roiling on the stove beside the bolognese sauce for our spaghetti, and we still needed salad.

So I shot up to the roof farm while the pasta water was heating. Up there, after the storm, the rose was in bloom. Trying to pick it with my bare hands I was pricked, hard.  I shot back down again and reappeared with the sharp Felcos. Ha! In the napkin I carry with me on these sorties I heaped tomatoes and groundcheries and some basil and brought the bundle down, held cautiously around the soft flowers.

Made salad, cooked pasta, tested jelly, called the Frenchman, who uncorked the wine, fetched the cat...

I have not been true to my spring resolution. I had promised myself flowers in the house every week this year, but have either forgotten or been uninspired by local blooms. Until the terrace or roof help out.

So now that I have flowers I may play with Jane and her cohorts. A little late to that party, but, as we say at Africa's southern tip:

Agteros kom ook in die kraal.

That's a bit difficult to translate. Even the last ox finds shelter.

Hm. Not quite right. I am the ox, I am late, but I still make it to the flower party.

...hm.

What I am reading

In the middle of warm, flower-filled June I am writing about November. Looking at old posts on this blog about previous Novembers helps plunge me into the chill, and is making me surprisingly nostalgic for the food and smells and sights of early winter.

Potatoes and cauliflower 
Snow and picnics on the Adirondack
Fried chicken
Cold weather food and where to find it
George W. Bush Tried for Treason (!)

I am reading real books, too: Sam Thayer's The Forager's Harvest (he also thinks boiling milkweed so many times is silly - yay), and Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing for the...fourth time? Maybe third. Not sure. Very sad parts last night - spoiler alert...he shot his wolf. Perhaps not good bedtime reading.

Back to November...

Gardenista

Photo: Ben Pentreath for Gardenista

If you don't know about Gardenista, already (it's the recently launched garden arm of Remodelista), pop in for a visit. I have been checking in for a couple of weeks now: 66 Square Feet is one of the blogs featured on Gardenista's Design Newsstand...So is Margaret Roach's A Way to Garden, Dominique Browning's Slow Life Love, and James Alexander-Sinclair's Blogging from Blackpitts Garden. There are many more. Former New York Times columnist Michelle Slatalla is Gardenista's editor.

On the site there are gardens to see, plants to consider, tools to buy, good looking picnics and deck chairs to peruse. While the content can be described as classy gardening lite, the range of coverage is refreshing and impressive. From a Dorset garden (above), to Babylonstoren (one of the most impressive gardens I've seen, and yes!, an hour out of Cape Town; one quibble, the images are not hi res enough for the size at which they are published), to a Chelsea Garden Show gold medal winner, to how to make rose petal honey, to a Berlin community garden that moves down the block, every year - you are kept moving on a garden-fueled global tour.

Let me know what you think...

Eggs?

No doubt Poor Man's Feast is known to many who love food on the Web, but it is about 30 minutes new to me.

Yesterday, Amy Eddings asked me, in a snap 60 second video quizz for Last Chance Foods, What is your favourite food blog? I froze, about to become venison in the headlights. I may have stammered. My mind was food blog empty. I am ashamed.

Anyway, read this post. It is a virtuostic performance. And you'll never think about eggs the same way again.

I love eggs. They are sensitive creatures. I bought the pan above just for them.

Blog Round Up

There are several blogs in this Brooklyn family, as some of you may know (if you don't blog, you're not allowed into the borough. Or you have to keep chickens). Here's a round up of ultra-local blogs:

The French photographer stalks the cat on his native rooftops.
Don Estorbo de la Bodega Dominicana attacks my ornamental wheatgrass (he has his own).
The Prospect Park Litter Mob raises a fence and rides a scooter (PS next mob is this coming Tuesday, ahem).
66 Square Feet (The Food) bakes a fruit crumble.

This afternoon's much anticipated activity? Pulling parsnips from the roof farm.

Tune in later for root vegetable news. It could get ugly.

How to turn off word verification from Blogger

This is a public service announcement for all Blogger posters and their readers who hate the new word captchas or word verifications. They are impossible.

Here's how to turn them off. I am going to see if Google catches my spam in the meantime.

You cannot turn them off from the new interface.
Go to your old dashboard. 
Find your old dashboard by clicking on the settings icon (little grey wheel) top right of your new interface.
It will give you a dropdown menu.
Click on Old Blogger interface
From there proceed to Settings, then Comments.
Uncheck Word Verification.

All gone.

Blog on.