Via Deirdre’s Garden Diary and Homesteading, a Wills Cigarette Card from 1923. A little gardening advice with your cancer sticks.

Bike wheel trellis via Homesteading/Survivalism.

While it wouldn’t work with kids that like to climb, this is a nice use of bike rims. I could see it as a dome over another structure.

No idea where this picture came from–it’s gone viral in homesteading circles–if you know, leave a comment.

Photo ©President & Fellows Harvard College, photo of Blaschka Glass Model by Hillel Burger.

This cactus is made out of glass. Root Simple reader tworose tipped me off to the Harvard Museum of Natural History’s collection of glass flowers. According to the museum’s website:

This unique collection of over 3,000 models was created by glass artisans Leopold Blaschka and his son, Rudolph. The commission began in 1886, continued for five decades, and the collection represents more than 830 plant species.

Reminds me of the 3D flower x-rays on display at the Museum of Jurassic Technology. They have to be seen in person to really do them justice, but you can see a selection in 2D here.

It’s a huge non sequitur, but today’s impending Superbowl made me think of the gatefold for the ZZ Top album Tres Hombres. Perhaps it was the publicity person who wanted me to promote a birria meat stew concocted by a celebrity chef (and celebrity flag football participant–who knew there was such a thing?) in conjunction with the Superbowl. Or maybe I’m having a Proust moment, except with nachos instead of madeleines.

So what are Root Simple readers doing on Superbowl Sunday? Watching the game or starting a crock of sauerkraut? Or topping nachos with sauerkraut?

Kelly found a soggy flyer on a sidewalk near our house. The front showed a picture of a man with a mullet hairstyle holding a trophy below a headline “Best Handyman.” On the back said handyman promised the services you can see above. I laughed, then realized that it was my exact jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none set of skills. Well, except for “hydrophany” and gutters. And you’ll have to go to Kelly for both the fine art and the house painting.