Fee Fi Fo Fum! And how his garden grows!

Nyel’s Magic Beans

The stalks on Nyel’s magic beans from Timberland Library look stronger every day.  Soon they will be ready to move outside, so Farmer Nyel spent a few hours yesterday ‘mid pots and tubs in the Kitchen Garden getting their bed ready.  He also transplanted chives and parsley that had run amok and tidied up the tubs of bay and mint while making room for onion sets and lettuces.

My brown thumb and I looked on in amazed appreciation.  Mostly, I’m stuck at the Fee Fi Fo Fum stage.  I really do believe in the giant at the top of the magic bean stalk and I was just a tad disappointed to learn that these give-away beans from the library are going to produce bush beans, not pole beans.  I just can’t imagine a giant (or anyone else) living at the top of a bush bean plant.  Not any more than I can imagine that one of our chickens might lay a golden egg.  Just not possible.

Farmer Nyel Among His Garden Pots

And, do I want to take my chances on a goose?  That would be a resounding “No!”  My goose experiences are a lot like my rooster experiences.  The first geese I ever encountered in the flesh were a small flock being marched along the Neckar River on the outskirts of Heidleberg, Germany.  We were staying at a little inn there for a few weeks and I had taken two-year-old Charlie down to the waterside behind the inn’s garden.

We heard the geese before we saw them and, as they emerged from around the bend, it was like looking at a fairy-story-come-to-life!  The goose-girl drove them from behind with a very long stick — which was all very good and well until the gander spied little Charlie and perceived him as a threat!  Out stretched his wings and out stretched his neck and he rain honking like a New York taxi right at us!   I scooped up my son and ran back to the garden while the goose girl yelled at her misbehaving fowl.

“To Pastures New” by James Guthrie

So… maybe it’s just as well these are bush beans.  Wasn’t it up at the top of the beanstalk that Jack encountered both the Giant and the Goose That Laid the Golden Egg??  Or do I have my fairy tales scrambled?  It wouldn’t be the first time.

One Response to “Fee Fi Fo Fum! And how his garden grows!”

  1. William Grennan says:

    I love the goose story. Ask me about mine Friday next

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