Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Sacred bamboo - hah!

You'd think that something named sacred bamboo would be a bit more restrained and even difficult to grow. Nope, it grows like a weed, and it once filled almost the whole courtyard which you see in the previous post. We now have that area under control, but on the weekend I removed much of it from around the Japanese maple (so we could see the beautiful trunk) and near the footpath (so the water meter can be read, and even found). As a consequence of pulling out shoots and clipping very thick woody stems, I am feeling a bit weary. But getting that done, plus my zen weeding in the mornings is giving me a great sense of satisfaction.

After looking on the internet for suitable images of sacred bamboo, it would seem that we don't have sacred bamboo at all, but some other type. I should have read this article first!

2 comments:

Val said...

oooooh nandina domestica? I would love to be able to grow that easily. One man's weed is another man's..errr.. something! http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1366347.htm

I nearly erred in the punctuation there, it's called "greengrocer's apostrophe" over here, because potato's for sale is soooo common!

Val said...

Hi, Val,
heh heh, hadn't heard that it's called the "greengrocer's apostrophe". But what I'd like to know is why oh why are some nouns given the apostrophe and not others, in the same sentence?? To take your greengrocer model, you'll see "pumpkins, cucumbers (so far, so good), potato's"...aaargh!

I can understand how even people who know their punctuation could sometimes slip up - we are seeing so many errant apostrophes in everyday life that we are being brainwashed.