- Pyrethrum can either be called Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium or Tanacetum cinerariifolium. There is some argument about whether the plant belongs with Chrysanthemums or with Tansy and Feverfew. I am leaning toward the Tansy, which is to say that I am leaning toward Tanacetum.

Tanacetum seems like a promising Genus. Tansy (C. vulgare) and Feverfew (C. parthenium) are two of the major species, and I recently read about another, Costmary (C. balsamita). Costmary (also called Alecost) grows as a wasteground weed around here, I believe. Culpepper mentions its help in aiding the body to "digest the raw humors gathered therein."

I will hopefully start seedlings for a couple different species of Nicotiana.

-Yesterday at work: The clouds in the Northern sky over the Lake, a stone's throw from the warehouse, were piled together and dark purple with impending Lake Effect. The Southern sky was a vast saucer of skim milk with a pale Lemondrop floating around aimlessly.

I dispatched drivers to Syracuse with Xerox machine parts and contemplated the many varieties of Nicotiana. I have seeds for N. tobacum (Russian Red Tobacco) and N. rustica (Mohawk Tobacco), but I am looking into a few cultivars that have been grown successfully in the short growing seasons of Wisconsin. I imagine it will be an investment in the future to be able to produce my own tobacco. Someday, though, I may have to plant it in my basement, in between rows of corn, or in anonymous glens and ravines underneath a thick canopy of deciduous trees so as to avoid the Sheriff's attention.

-An Arctic vortex centered near Yellowknife has spread itself out over the region. You can hear the air tighten; any movement of air sounds like an invisible set of chimes.

In this chilly evening, the play of the driving and bitter snow in the dull glow of yardlights and houselights seems almost like countless Alka-Seltzer tablets dissolving in a vast aquarium.

Somewhere, in the cold distances beyond the Sun's termination shock, a lifeless Pioneer 10 floats on toward remote Aldeberan.