Sunday, March 2, 2008

Have you called your grandmother today?

Thanks to the website Joyeuse Fêtes I realized that today is "La Fête des Grand-mères" in France. This is primarily a commercial holiday created in the late 80's and celebrated on the first Sunday in March. Apparently in 1987 there was a shortage of the Grand'Mère brand of coffee and voila! A fète was created. Hey it sure beats a strike!
We still have six months to go to National Grandparents' Day in September. Here in the US the holiday got its start in West Virginia thanks to Marian Lucille Herndon McQuade. It took most of the 70s but finally in '78 Congress passed legislation and President Jimmy Carter signed the proclamation. The first Sunday after Labor Day was chosen to signify the "autumn years" of life. Today we'll be thinking of our grandmothers--Adela, Hortensia, Sarita, Granny (Mary L) and Nana (Mary M).

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know what those flowers in your photograph are, but they are some of the most beautiful I've seen today. And your blog is at the very end of my Favs list due to it's alphabetical W! (for Weed Whackin' Wenches). So I've seen aplenty!
Brenda

Curmudgeon said...

Hi Brenda. The flowers are reticulated irises--"Katherine Hodgkin". I wasn't too sure about them at first, but I absolutely love them now.

Celia Hart said...

Thank you for your comment on my blog - so I thought I'd drop in and see what going on in your garden.

Love the purple spuds! I can't resist odd coloured veg! You asked me about purple carrots - yes I've tried and they failed (but I'll probably try again).

Celia

Curmudgeon said...

Hello Celia! Thanks for dropping by. We've tried growing purple carrots--they were rather on the small side, but we loved them. They were so sweet, and our dog just loved them too! We'll be trying them again this year. And we're also planning on trying some purple bush beans and a type of radish, "watermelon", which is white on the outside and deep pink on the inside. They say you should get lots of color variety in your veggies!

Shady Gardener said...

Thanks for visiting me. It's been visiting you in Washington state. I'm going to add you to my favorites on my blog, okay? ;-)

Curmudgeon said...

Thanks Shady Gardener!