Monday, June 16, 2008

Summer gardening fun, Starbucks, and Caroll Spinney aka Big Bird



The kids were actually excited when I said they could each have their own garden plot, and they picked out their own seeds. So far we have 3 piles of compost(with coffee grounds from Star bucks),and the seeds are not planted yet.
Yes, I know it is the middle of June, but that is OK because this is Hawaii. We will be planting soon.

Can I just say that I am a little paranoid when I go to Starbucks and ask for coffee grounds for my garden? Every time I go, no matter which store I go into, I seem to get the same response to my request for grounds. "Oh, I am sorry, we just gave them all away." When I am feeling extra pushy, I ask them to just check the machines in case there is a little I may please have? Any that is hiding and they may have missed? Even if it is just a little, I would be happy to take it.*smile* Then behold,when they check for me, there are actually grounds! Can you believe it?

Wow, who would have thought there would be coffee grounds at the most famous coffee shop in the world where people are constantly purchasing coffee? So I am guessing the first day on the job at Starbucks, the barista inside scoop includes telling those pesky Grounds for Gardens people, "Oh, sorry, we just gave them all away." I came in one time around 1:30 and was actually told "Oh sorry, we gave them all away this morning." I did not have the energy to beg for scraps that time so I just ordered my tall skinny decaf vanilla latte and left it at that.
The good news is, I made a friend at Starbucks, and now if I come in when she is there, there always seems to be grounds at the cafe.Amazing.

On the front page of Yahoo news today was Big Bird, and the man who does his voice, Caroll Spinney.
When Mr. Spinney aka Big Bird came to Hawaii a number of years ago to buy property, my dad aka Bob Riley was his Realtor. So, BIG Bird owns property on the BIG Island.heh.

Mr. Spinney is also an artist, who draws and paints, and gave my dad a couple of signed prints he brought with him. One of them hangs in the kids bathroom today. He was an all around nice bird, I mean guy. Good to see he is still going strong at 74. Groovy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You certainly get an A for persistence. Next we want to see that garden all in bloom, thanks to coffee grounds and kids.