Not cucumis but...

Watermelon is not a member of the Cucumis family?
Whaaat?
And why the image of our cucumis is a watermelon?

Ohhh... Now we have to change the layout! hehhehe... Today I'll use photoshop to make a image for a shirt to my papa... I'll make a melon lay out of the site.

Dear cucumber-friends,

this is Cucumis sativus

or Cucumber, Gurka, Gurke etc.

Pepino? PEPINO?
Comédia!

Now I have read thouroughly at several botanical sites...

"The family Citrullus is mainly find on poor soil with a lot of organic compost as one can find on scrapyards..."

Another "flashy" (fleshy???) photo of watermelon.

I invited all the cousins to join!


Cucumis is growing everyday, so it should be now called "Pumpkin" with its 50 000 members!

So, the birthday cake of Cucumis should look like this:

Francky is very excited with his new toy!!!

So cute guys! All the family came to cucumis late birthday!
oohoooo! Let's have a party today!!!

So am I... This is funny!!!

May a true cucumis join the party???

Sure he is the main guest!
I can imagine what JP will think of our conversation... hehe...

Let him know that the real cucumis ("PEPINO" is synonym of "problem" in Brazilian Portuguese...

Oh yes...
But not our Cucumis, he looks very friendly as you can see in Porfyhr's post above ↑... He seems to be ready to hug someone...

My cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is very nice (in Sweden that is no problem )

This is a family photo with some of the cucumis family members found on the internet. Please let me know if you are on the picture...

Well, so now we have a question, cucumis is cucumber, not watermelon... so:

No more mistakes now!

Hmm - we could be getting into some sticky areas - cucumbers are full of symbolism in some cultures ...

I'll never forget the time when I was teaching ESL in San Francisco, and one of our students, a young Iraqi man, gave a huge, overgrown zucchini to one of my colleagues, a very pretty young blond woman. She was furious, and went to the director, who had no idea what to do - it was a gift, after all!

I DID IT!!!

I’VE TRANSLATED THE PREVIOUOS CASPER’S POST ABOUT THE DIFFERENT REACTIONS OF BRAZILIAN PEOPLE TO THE WEATHER

For best understanding, some notes before the joke:

Pernambucanos: are the inhabitants of Northeastern State of Pernambuco in Brazil. Pernambuco is a very hot part of the country.
Cariocas: are the inhabitants of the Rio de Janeiro city. Rio is well-known as “Rio 40ºC”, but is not hotter than Pernambuco. The stereotypical Carioca is a sportsman, a bon-vivant, who is all-day long in the beach.
Mineiros: are the inhabitants of the Minas Gerais State in Brazil. The stereotypical Mineiro is bumpkin country, lives a simple life, speaks Portuguese with a hick accent and LOVES cheese (a recurrent joke says that a Mineiro man loves cheese more than his wife)
Curitibanos: are the inhabitants of Curitiba city, Capital of the Paraná State. It’s a pretty cold place for the Brazilian standards. The stereotypical Curitibano is caspertavernello

Now it goes:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

25°C (77ºF)
Pernambucanos turn the heating of their cars on
Cariocas go to the beach but don’t dare to step into the sea water
Mineiros eat a feijão tropeiro [beans with bacon and manioc flour] and drink garapa [sugarcane juice]
Curitibanos clean the garden

20°C (68°F)
Pernambucanos shiver uncontrollably from cold
Cariocas wear a sweater and go to the sidewalk before the beach
Mineiros drink pinga [sugarcane brandy] near a wood-burning stove
Curitibanos wearing shorts and t-shirts suntan in the park

15ºC (59ºF)
Pernambucanos’ cars don’t start up anymore from cold
Cariocas meet to eat fondue and drink gaúcho [from Rio Grande do Sul] wine
Mineiros keep drinking pinga nearer a wood-burning stove
Curitibanos drive with door glasses down enjoying the breeze

10°C (50ºF)
State of public calamity decreed in Pernambuco, tens die from cold
Cariocas wear overcoats, wool panties, gloves and bonnets
Mineiros keep drinking pinga and put more wood into the wood-burning stove
Curitibanos wear long sleeves shirts

5°C (41ºF)
Pernambuco is in an Armagedon state; Pernambucanos feel like frozen chickens
César Maia [mayor of Rio] launches the candidatury of Rio for the Winter Olympics and thinks of building a skiing track
Mineiros keep drinking pinga and quentão [ginger tea with sugarcane brandy] sat on a wood-burning stove
Curitibanos close the windows of their houses

0°C (32ºF)
A new Glacial Era is beginning in Pernambuco
In Rio, César Maia wears 7 coats and 2 million Cariocas meet in Copacabana beach to the “Rio on the Rocks” party
Mineiros fall in alcoholic coma and stink burnt beef on the wood-burning stove
Curitibanos do the last barbecue in the park woods, before the weather turns to cold

-10°C (14ºF)
Pernambucanos, Mineiros and Cariocas have become frozen food
Curitibanos say: “Guy, the weather turned unexpectedly rough... there’s so cold, I’m going to have a cup of hot milk...”

Oh, so there's another good meaning for us... It's a gift!
Some good things about cucumber:
- Low rate of calories
- Lots of fiber
- Vit. C

Although it isn't so much nutritive as all the other members of the family...

What a wiki Goncin!

...The stereotypical Curitibano is caspertavernello hehehe.

Instead of doing translations
And being studious and wise,
As soon as JP left for Denmark
We decided to do otherwise

We all got hold of some melons
Cucumbers, gherkins and all
We piled them up in on the website,
Decided to have us a ball.

Francky brought "a few" pumpkins
(I think 500kg at least)
Which together with Porfhyr's cucumbers
Represents quite a fine feast.

Goncin made us a gateau
With green icing and lots of pink cream
And seeds made of chocolate chippings
To top off his cake like a dream.

Thatha is so fond of melons
Thathat (lol) she brought half a dozen to share
With Francky, Porfhyr, Goncin
Kafetzou, Tantine et Casper.

We don't know what JP will imagine
When he gets back and finds all these seeds
All over the place on the website
In every message he reads.

I'm glad its a cucurbitacae
That he chose to share here with his chums
I'm not sure we'd have had such a party
If JP had called this site "plums"

It's an international fruit cocktail
He's invented so we can all have
A taste of what nature has created
Juicy, exotic and suave.

Bises
Tantine

Are we talking about cucumbers now or zucchinis, Thatha? I don't think cucumbers have any fiber at all - in fact, they're mostly water!

Hey thanks, goncin for that translation (and all of the valuable background information!). I'm going to guess it was written by a Carioca ...