Life and Sacrifice

It's a veritable field of onions!

It doesn't matter that they're only 3 inches tall, it's a field of them!

(You know, if fields grew in vertical toilet paper rolls, corralled in an aluminum roasting pan.)

Do you know what newborn cauliflower looks like?  THIS!

 

And here's the seedling sweet bell pepper reaching victoriously from the dirt to the sky, heathen sun-worshippers that they are.

There was one broccoli seedling today as well, but it looks identical to the cauliflower.  Which reminds me, we grew up pronouncing it COLLIE-flower, and I'm uncomfortably aware that most pronounce it COLLA-flower, which sounds somewhat more refined, but I prefer COLLIE-flower due to my love of animals.

Here's another potential problem: Sky.

That's one smug, plant-loving kitty.  Don't let her sweetness fool you.

She's already tried to get under the plastic covering of the greenhouse and gave up before she broke through the plastic.  She's petrified of the outdoors, doesn't even like to sit in the window, but the greenhouse draws her, beckons to her.  I come home from work and find her sleeping on the floor up against the side of it.  I'm a little frightened about what she's going to do if she figures out how to get in.  The very idea that the life I created could be killed in its infancy by my Godzilla-like cat keeps me awake at night, listening to what she's doing, trying to determine if the noises I'm hearing are paws and fangs on the greenhouse or something else.  If she eats my nasturtiums, I'm going to move her to the attic.  On the one hand, I'm aware of the irony that I'm just letting the babies grow up so I can eat them later, protective that she not eat them too soon.  On the other hand, I'm slightly proud of her prowess, watching her try to figure out how to get in there, almost daring her to keep trying.  Ahh, to chose allegiance to feline or plantae, so difficult!  Maybe I'll give her one or two when they're older, more mature, able to entertain her a bit more than tiny little nubbins of leaves.  Is that wrong?  Sacrifice some of my children to entertain the cat?  Am I taking all of this too seriously?  Yeah, okay, I'll go do some laundry and stop contemplating cat vs. vegetables.