Christmas Dinner...

Not mine, theirs. Broccoli, scarlet runner beans, peas, pea vines, cabbage leaves and beet top remnants, left out in the garden.

I got ski clothes from this century, which was all I wanted. I got Judy a few books, including Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire.

Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma is one of the best books on what happens to our food I've ever read. Some friends who've read ...Dilemma told me that ...Botany is even better. I glanced at it in the bookstore, thinking Judy will like this even more than me.

We both garden a lot in the summer. I do the vegetables, and Judy has an incredible rock garden with perennials from all over the alpine world. She thinks about her plants a lot more than I do, so I hope she enjoys Pollan's book.

In another two weeks, we'll start making lists of seeds we want to order, new things we want to experiment with growing in 2008. I save seeds too - arugula, spinach, cilantro and garlic. As I collect, dry and take care of them I am very grateful that nobody is growing GM seed crops upwind from our modest gardens.

The kids are out ptarmigan hunting with the dog, while Freddie, Judy and I work away on a traditional turkey dinner.