Cornelia stands alone

Well, not quite. At least, not right away.

This morning when I dismantled Cornelia the scarecrow's three sisters' raised bed (of "corn, beans, and squash the patriarchy," as my friend Quinn's hoodie says), I discovered the rest of the produce that was growing at her feet. I was also amused to see that one of the bean plants grew right around her compact disc left hand!

Cornelia's collection:
One large field pumpkin, three pie pumpkins,
three spaghetti squash, three kabocha squash, 
the last pail of scarlet runner beans 
and a few little leeks that lost sight of the sun!

We enjoyed several feeds of peaches and cream corn and lots of yummy scarlet runner beans thanks to Cornelia's vigilance, and will also have some good pumpkin soup and baked squash over the next while. Maybe I'll make a pie.

Now that her "charges" have moved indoors, Cornelia deserves a rest from her labours. She's moved into our sunny greenhouse space, where she can keep an eye on the birds' comings and goings through the winter.

Good work, Cornelia. Just so you know, the sparrows are already missing your garden domain's many hiding places.

The fourth sister...

Yesterday when I went out to water our tomato plants, I realized that the sparrows were eating the tops of the corn plants. Until I figured out what was happening last year, the tops were mostly gone, and I wasn't very happy with the birds. The cobs of corn ended up pretty stunted, too, though they tasted delicious!

So I got creative with some old clothes, a paper bag, and a too small hat and made a fourth sister to stand among the other three sisters that brilliant Indigenous peoples knew all about planting together: corn, beans, and squash. (If you've followed these moodlings you might recall that I've moodled about them before.) I'm curious to see how long it will take for a bird to sit on top of the lady's hat.

Hopefully madame scarecrow will keep this year's planting as the nicest one yet. I did things right this year -- the corn sister got enough of a head start over the squash and bean sisters for all of them to grow well together. Last night we had cheese stuffed fried squash blossoms for supper, yum. And we're looking forward to some good feeds provided by all three sisters, God and weather willing.

One minor problem: I'm not sure what name to give the extra sister in the three sisters' patch. My cousin made me laugh with her scarecrow's name, which echoes a line from Copa Cabana, a Barry Manilow dance tune we liked when we were kids -- "Her name is Lola, she is a scarecrow" ("was a showgirl" is the actual lyric...). 

I'm not that clever... so let's have a Name the Scarecrow Contest. Send me your suggestions, I'll pull one out of a hat, and the winner will receive... I dunno -- a dinner invitation to a harvest supper? A shipment of fresh garden produce in the fall? Some sort of small surprise. Anyway, I'd love to hear from any of my readers who have ideas. You can leave a comment below, or send a quick email to simplemoodler@ gmail.com.