Crunchy Soil Goodness

[greenstorm]

Okay. 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.

Comments

[greenstorm.livejournal.com]

I'd say that I'm attached to plants, and the garden is just the medium I use to work with them. So I don't need to feel attached to the garden, although it's sad to leave favourite plants behind when you move...

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. :)

[breklor.livejournal.com]

I see what you mean... tho' I can't bring myself to put a lot of work into something that I am going to have to abandon...

[greenstorm.livejournal.com]

...bring most of the plants with you when you move. Or bring cuttings and look on it as simply an exercise to increase the overall aesthetic value of the world when you leave it behind and maybe turn the next occupants on to the world's second best hobby?

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. ;)

[breklor.livejournal.com]

Wow, yeah...

Okay. I see your point :)

You're a really remarkable person, you know that?

[greenstorm.livejournal.com]

Semantically I must be, given that you have just now remarked.

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?

[breklor.livejournal.com]

I don't know about the monkey thing. I know a lot of people who talk and talk and talk and talk and nothing of interest ever really comes out.

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?