Strawberry

"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made." -Groucho Marx Now that the solstice is behind us and summer is officially here (for most of us), it's time to start enjoying the greatest fruits of the season. With the technical difficulties of the great scienceblogs migration (hopefully) behind us, I think I've discovered how to successfully bring a weekly song back to my weekend posts, too! Have a listen to Aimee Mann as she sings one of my favorites of hers, Little Bombs. Out where I live, in Oregon, now is the season that one of my favorite fruits…
This week, two press releases from the Institute: The first was on the sequencing of the woodland strawberry genome (unfortunately, in the same week the cacao genome was sequenced). The Institute scientists who participated in the project contributed in the computational analysis of genes encoding flavor- and aroma-related proteins. This wild cousin of the cultivated strawberry is a member of the rose family, along with fruit trees including apples, peaches, cherries and almonds. In other words, this small annual plant is sure to become a useful experimental model for plant and agricultural…
Strictly the title has precious little to do with this post; but it is one that I've always liked. Seen here is one of our pumpkins, carved according to D's design by your humble author. They are grown by Nicholas, whose allotment each year is a marvel of productivity, especially his pumpkin patch. But then, he grew up on a Canadian farm. After halloween they sit on our front step growing slowly more and more soggy until they finally collapse into a heap of yuk. Yesterday was a glorious day for an outing and also for a 5 km run. But happily today was also lovely, so after the important…