Here's another salvia, S. guaranitica, blue anise sage or Brazilian sage. It's not a Texas native, but this one has more or less adapted, I'm happy to say. Neither of these species is the same as the Salvia that has gotten all the attention lately: S. divinorum, a psychoactive herb--as you might guess from the name, which can be translated to "sage of the seers." I've had my share of adventures in the past, but these days, I'm not inclined to smoke my garden salvias to see if any of them might share that characteristic.
And then there's plain old garden sage, S. officinalis, which of course is never plain or old. It's the first herb I remember, because it's one of the few my mother grew in her 1950s garden (parsley and dill are the others). She grew it specifically for poultry stuffing and pork sausage. Mine did well in the drought. In fact, most of the salvias prefer dry soil and resent it when their feet get wet. During the drought, they just curled up and waited patiently. I love plants like that.
Lots going on in the garden: melons, zukes, spaghetti squash blooming, English peas and snow peas, too. A few eggplants ripening, Irish potatoes looking good, tomatoes coming along. Remember those tomato seeds I sowed in the ground? The Early Girls are about six inches high and looking fine, but I think I got them in too late. Don't think they'll have time to set fruit. (Hope I'm wrong!)
A good writing week past, another coming up--except that I have to take a break on Tuesday and go to Austin for a photo session. Time for another author photo for book jackets. I always have to tell the photographer to put away her airbrush on these photos: when I'm speaking to a group, I see people looking down at the photo on their book jackets (a year or two or more old, depending on the book), and comparing the image to the real person. Makes for some interesting questions, sometimes.
Speaking of speaking. I'll be in Boerne TX on 9/29, at the library. I'll also be in Groesbeck, San Marcos, and Austin and a couple of places I need to add to the list: Wimberley (11/7) and Mason (11/15). Check out the page and mark your calendars. Used to be, authors wrote a book, the publisher distributed it, bookstores sold it, and that was that. No more. Like every other author in the country, I'm expected to get out there and talk about the books. It's a good thing I enjoy doing that. But if I didn't, I'd have to do it anyway.
Reading note. The shelf life of a modern hardback writer is somewhere between the milk and the yogurt.--Calvin Trillen