Crunchy Soil Goodness
Jun. 1st, 2003 09:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormOkay. That worked reasonably well.
So yesterday The Other Woman and I hoofed it over to the Farmer's Market, resulting in four rose bushes: a Buttercup for me, since she doesn't like English roses (next up: Ambridge Rose and Tess); a ...not Blue Girl, but some other full-sized blue rose for her, a Warm Welcome, and a Crystal Showers (lavender mini with a great deal of scent).
Got home from that and headed out with the Juggler to pick up a station wagon-full of soil amendments which now rest in the back yard awaiting my tender mercies. Peat, mushroom manure, and steer manure -- why both of the latter? Because we couldn't decide which, spur of the moment. *grin*
I really miss being able to take the wheelbarrow down to the manure pile. This business of buying it by the bagful seems kind of silly. I wonder how much having a load delivered would be, and if they do that here in the city? I'll need to look into that for the front laws: there are these big raggedy old evergreen shrubs that need to come out, and the soil left behind may well need some magic.
Went out with the SO after that for dinner with his brother and mom. It was his brother's birthday, and we got a bunch of talk in (well, I talked less but that's not unusual) and it was pretty nice over all. I'm not sure exactly what happened when we got home because I didn't get to sleep 'till 2 or 2:30, but it was pleasantly low key. I'm going to see if I can't get eight hours total today.
The SO's mom has offered me her garden to use, so this means I get two. I'm immensely entertained.
I brought some mint over here when I came and I need to go out with The Other Woman and hunt down some pots to put it in. I think that may happen today -- we'll see if we can manage without bringing home more plants.
I've got an idea of how the garden's going to begin shaping up. There will be two major beds as it stands, one vagurly rectangular with a path down the middle and one kind of sculpty rectangle along the fence line. I won't begin converting lawn till I've finished those.
The colour scheme will be pretty much white/yellow/orange and purple -- The Other Woman really likes purple and keeps picking out purple things she wants. I want to look into some good silvery and dark highlight plants to set things off. Definitely a good time for a trip to Southlands nursery with a notebook. Hmmm.
Been trying to keep my mind out of the Icky Stuff until I can do something about it. I'm definitely feeling stronger for it. I think I'll be able to handle this when it does come.
I'm going to see about more sleep. Take care.
So yesterday The Other Woman and I hoofed it over to the Farmer's Market, resulting in four rose bushes: a Buttercup for me, since she doesn't like English roses (next up: Ambridge Rose and Tess); a ...not Blue Girl, but some other full-sized blue rose for her, a Warm Welcome, and a Crystal Showers (lavender mini with a great deal of scent).
Got home from that and headed out with the Juggler to pick up a station wagon-full of soil amendments which now rest in the back yard awaiting my tender mercies. Peat, mushroom manure, and steer manure -- why both of the latter? Because we couldn't decide which, spur of the moment. *grin*
I really miss being able to take the wheelbarrow down to the manure pile. This business of buying it by the bagful seems kind of silly. I wonder how much having a load delivered would be, and if they do that here in the city? I'll need to look into that for the front laws: there are these big raggedy old evergreen shrubs that need to come out, and the soil left behind may well need some magic.
Went out with the SO after that for dinner with his brother and mom. It was his brother's birthday, and we got a bunch of talk in (well, I talked less but that's not unusual) and it was pretty nice over all. I'm not sure exactly what happened when we got home because I didn't get to sleep 'till 2 or 2:30, but it was pleasantly low key. I'm going to see if I can't get eight hours total today.
The SO's mom has offered me her garden to use, so this means I get two. I'm immensely entertained.
I brought some mint over here when I came and I need to go out with The Other Woman and hunt down some pots to put it in. I think that may happen today -- we'll see if we can manage without bringing home more plants.
I've got an idea of how the garden's going to begin shaping up. There will be two major beds as it stands, one vagurly rectangular with a path down the middle and one kind of sculpty rectangle along the fence line. I won't begin converting lawn till I've finished those.
The colour scheme will be pretty much white/yellow/orange and purple -- The Other Woman really likes purple and keeps picking out purple things she wants. I want to look into some good silvery and dark highlight plants to set things off. Definitely a good time for a trip to Southlands nursery with a notebook. Hmmm.
Been trying to keep my mind out of the Icky Stuff until I can do something about it. I'm definitely feeling stronger for it. I think I'll be able to handle this when it does come.
I'm going to see about more sleep. Take care.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-06-01 07:51 pm (UTC)I suppose it's one of those things I'll eventually settle down to when I have my own place, but I've never felt stable enough in a place to feel attached to the garden enough to want to work on it.
Meanwhile...
I'm still going to see if I can entice you - and maybe The Other Woman, and anyone else we can bring out - to join the Changeling chronicle. I think it'll be fun :)
no subject
Date: 2003-06-01 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-02 08:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-02 01:49 pm (UTC)A house is only a home when you've lost one of a pair of socks in it.
A house is only a home when you've scrubbed the sink out clean.
A house is only a home when you've rummaged through the available materials in the cupboards and constructed a random unreciped meal with them.
A house is only a home when you've fallen asleep on the sofa or carpet without meaning to.
Conversely, a home is a place where you do all of the above and have internet access.
Now to work on the big and communal parts and ditch the commute...
;)
no subject
Date: 2003-06-02 10:33 pm (UTC)I have been seeking the big and communal ever since old Arkham fell apart... I don't know if I'll ever find it again. My social life is too diffuse, my interests too varied, my social subgroups not compatible... I don't know.
Maybe, though.
no subject
Date: 2003-06-03 06:08 pm (UTC)Are your social subgroups actually incompatible, or do they just not click especially well?
I think anything too big/organised/rigid-feeling would turn me right off. What if I had to share the garden?
no subject
Date: 2003-06-02 02:00 pm (UTC)Gardening doesn't actually take talent. Just practice and research. At home on my balcony, where everything's set up, I water, weed, and cut off dead flowers. That's about the sum total unless I need to spray some aphids with dish soap. :)
no subject
Date: 2003-06-02 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-03 06:13 pm (UTC)Or rather, what I meantersay is that I can't see how creating a beautiful thing like that could be a waste even if it doesn't remain a possession. The work has gone to good purpose even if the garden shifts to go with you, or even if it remains behind -- it exists, it has made you happy, it may go on to make other people happy. It doesn't vanish into the air with all your energy.
A garden's not really a possession anyhow when you come right down to it. A garden is a human being facilitating a number of ordinary, everyday miracles so that they can observe them close at hand. A garden's helping something bigger and more complex than you'll ever be able to understand to unfold in all its what-does-this-bug-do blueberries-like-acid-soil-plant-them-with-rhodos ecosystem web of glory.
*chuckle*
Not to pressure or anything. ;)
no subject
Date: 2003-06-03 07:32 pm (UTC)Okay. I see your point :)
You're a really remarkable person, you know that?
no subject
Date: 2003-06-03 10:49 pm (UTC)Realistically I'm not sure it isn't a case of Shakespeare's monkeys. I just talk more than most people so something interesting to you is likely to come out, just like something interesting to someone else is likely to come out.
More realistically I think everyone has their buried veins of remarkable stuff and tend to be very ashamed of them, so they hide them away and pose endlessly about doing the laundry but not what they thought while doing it.
Some people are more remarkable than others.
Do you have a purpose in life?
no subject
Date: 2003-06-04 07:06 am (UTC)And I don't think it's necessarily shame that buries some people's remarkability, but it might be shame that keeps them from developing it to a remarkable state.
It's a bit like a gentleman I used to work with, who like me was a large fellow but unlike me was perpetually single. He was really nice, friendly, intelligent, a good cook, funny, all kinds of things that are traditionally signs of a "good catch". He was also, like me, a hardcore geek (computer professional/gamer/historian). But in the presence of women - especially ones he liked - all the geek stuff went away in a little box and he was just Mr. Nice. So, every woman he met liked him, but he never found one who loved him.
I told him, "Dude, be a geek... be proud of your geekdom... and find yourself a nice geek girl!" But he kept insisting that no, that wasn't appropriate, that women didn't like that sort of thing (in blatant defiance of the fact that we were working at a videogame company where all the women were geeks of one sort or another.)
Like that, kinda.
As for my purpose... I don't have a Purpose, a higher calling... at least, not one shining star of Purpose. I have a lot of guiding principles, things I like to do and be and represent and promote... How about you?