Durga vs. Aoife: a battle for the ages

Monotheism is a bit of a shame. I must admit that I have trouble understanding why we were so keen to trade panoplies of badass gods/goddesses/demi-gods/heroes for just one guy (who doesn't have much of a sense of humor.)

Out of all polytheistic, mythological traditions, my two favorite are the Irish and the Indian mythologies. Why? Well, let me elaborate...

1) Tricksters - Both traditions have friendly tricksters. Krishna, for example, is always stealing milk maids' clothes while they're bathing.

2) Geis - In Irish mythology, if one has a 'geis' or taboo placed on them, they must obey it, no matter what. Breaking the geis could lead to grave misfortune. Cuchulainn, for example, wasn't allowed to eat the flesh of a hound...

3) Blue Skin - Hello? It's awesome. Though the blue skin of certain gods is thought to represent dark skin (ie. not aryan).

3) Gods who 'do it' - And Goddesses who enjoy themselves in the process.

4) Warrior Goddesses - Mary and Mary are nice, I guess, but they're both pretty powerless. In the Irish tradition we've got Aoife, warrior princess, and in Hindu tradition Kali, the human skull wearing, bloody mother Goddess. Irish has Morrigan, Goddess of War and Fertility and her aspects Macha and Babh who like to show up as hooded crows, and Hindu has Durga, who rides a tiger, drinks wine, and slays buffalo demons.

Zucchini a go-go

Sig and I have been completely obsessed with our community garden plot. We quite literally moved 6 tons of dirt to replace the clay with decent soil, built enormous sunk-in boxes, planted, tended, and now we're harvesting and processing. A photo record -

The garden a few months ago, all boxes in, not everything sprouted. Please note the tin-headed scarecrow.
Accidental zucchini the size of my thigh.
Fridge full of enormous zucchini.
Kitten with zucchini and pickles.

Zucchini bread. And, below, freezer with 12 quarts of frozen zucchini. As you can see, zucchini has been our main crop thus far, by volume at least.