How Does Your Garden Grow?

August 11, 2013 / still a dreamer / 4 Comments

This year? Not all that well, I’m afraid. I don’t, in fact, actually have a garden … I have a variety of flowering plants in pots and containers that enliven my nice, deep, wrap-around porches . But this year, it hardly felt that it was worth the time potting them. Even the Impatiens – which rarely fail to shine – did poorly.

This is the one plant, above, that did the best. I bought this solid pink Impatiens plus a new variegated one, magenta and white with a darker leaf, that did even worse. Although this one looks pretty good, it was potted at least 3 months ago, and normally an Impatiens in this spot would have been covered with flowers. I did read an article that spoke to there being some kind of bug or blight or whatever with Impatiens this year. A small comfort. Those below, with both types in the container and in a favorite spot for Impatiens, also show a scarcity of blooms.

I believe it was our crazy weather. We had 9 or 10 days of scorching sunshine, temps in the mid to upper 90’s. Before or after that we had nearly 10 days straight of rain with not a drop of sun. I’m not posting photos of all the plants that barely survived. A Lobelia I got in May … I missed one day of watering and half of it died. I bought Lantana for the first time and had them in spots for sun-lovers, they were scorched before I even knew to move them. Violas, Alyssum and some others just barely grew at all. Quite disappointing.

And the Hydrangeas in the yard? This particular plant which last year had blossoms in a rich blue, (see photos here), this year saw flowers in pale to medium lavender with only half the amount of petals per flower. Weather sure can make a difference! (How do farmers sleep at night?)

Thankfully, the weather has stayed in the 80’s with nice cool evenings for awhile and seems to be continuing. Ever the optimist, I bought two small-ish mums at Home Depot and replaced the pair of sad Lantanas. It’s a new season coming soon, so perhaps it’s a good idea to slowly replace some of the plants in the sunny spots and see what happens.

I would not describe myself as a person with a green thumb, but even I couldn’t have managed such poor results on my own!

Here’s to Fall and some gardening success.

Look Who’s in My Neighborhood

August 2, 2013August 2, 2013 / still a dreamer / 6 Comments

Although I am surrounded by country, I do live “in-town,” as they say. But perhaps it is exactly because open space surrounds us that there is no shortage of wildlife so close to our homes.

Working at my computer just this past June, I looked out front and saw a doe nonchalantly strolling down the street. She did not observe the Stop sign, but continued walking, looking for the tastiest greens she could find. Unfortunately, this is at a particular neighbor’s home who happens to be the most ardent gardener for a few blocks around. Of course! She has the delicacies!

But Ms. Doe wasn’t stopping and no sooner was she out of sight, than she came through the hedges bordering my property and casually walked down my driveway at an angle. This made me believe this may be is who is responsible for the deer tracks I see in the snow in roughly the same places – she must have a route.

Today I looked up and saw … the same doe? a different doe? and her still-spotted fawn. Mama could easily scale that white picket fence for the best nibbles while baby clearly hasn’t yet mastered leaping hurdles. I was able to go outside and get a few shots before the more worried fawn walked further down the road.

While I enjoy watching animals of all kinds, having deer so at-home in our neighborhood isn’t good. They have become accustomed to our smells and sounds and are no longer frightened. The offspring they produce will become even more acclimated to being around people. It is certainly wreaking havoc on our properties as the deer now consume shrubbery and flowers year-round even though there is plenty of browse in the nearby woods and fields.

Sadly, it just creates more enmity towards these beautiful creatures, even referred to by some as “vermin.” It’s a problem for farmers as well as residents and a complex one, yet it is we who have taken more and more of their land through endless development. It’s not a problem with an easy solution.

Meanwhile, I truly do enjoy seeing them even though they have “deer-scaped” the plantings around my home as well.

The Walking Reward

July 29, 2013 / still a dreamer / 4 Comments

I am not ashamed to admit it. I do not like to exercise. (Although I do love to dance. That’s exercise, right?)

Over the course of my life I have at times been a jogger and a regular walker. Once I got out there, it was okay, but I could think of soooooo many things I’d rather be doing. The time has come that I need and want, (very abstractly), to get out there once again. My incentive? I’d bring my camera and hope that might help.

So I made use of it and took some shots of the beautiful garden flowers that so many of the folks in my town take the time to plant and tend.

Will it be enough inspiration for tomorrow? I guess we’ll see.

Fishing for Heartbreak

July 22, 2013July 22, 2013 / still a dreamer / 2 Comments

When I was a child of 10 or 11, my Dad suggested we all go fishing at Cooper’s Pond in the town nearby. He made it sound like fun, so off we went.

Cooper’s Pond was a lovely park, the same place our family went to enjoy picnics or walking. On these outings, I brought along my Brownie camera that I’d been given at 9 years old, and I loved taking photos of the ducks on the pond as well as feeding them. What wouldn’t be enjoyable about fishing?

We didn’t have real fishing poles, just long sticks to which my Dad had secured some kind of line, maybe string, with a hook on the end. On the hooks, we put a piece of bread, and then we cast our lines into the water. It didn’t take long before I got a nibble, and something tugged at my line. My father got all excited, and instructed me to pull it toward me and then lift it out of the water.

There on the end of my line was a carp, probably only about 7″ long, writhing and twisting to free itself of the hook I had managed to snag in its sensitive mouth. I was horrified that I was the cause of this poor creature to be flailing about so, and I immediately began to cry, screaming, “Daddy, take it off! Daddy, take it off!” Daddy removed the hook from the fish and gently let him go back in the water, but I was inconsolable.

Who was I to have caused this animal such pain and make him fight for his life? As a child, I had not been able to make the connection between “having fun fishing” and the reality of a fish writhing on the end of my hook until I saw the results firsthand. I was heartbroken, I who fed all the ducks in that exact same spot, I who loved all animals from the earliest age I can remember.

It wasn’t until many years later, even still, that I made the next major connection that the meat or fish I cooked and ate had once been a sentient being. This is not what we’re ever told as children. The meat or fish served at meals appeared as a finished dish, prepared in some usually delicious way. One had nothing to do with the other.

The constantly evolving realization over time that the food on my plate had indeed been a living creature … and one who most likely suffered enormously before getting to my plate … enabled me to gradually eliminate almost all meat and fish from my diet in recent years. This is a plus as I move along the path to becoming vegan, but the earliest seeds of this transformation were sown when a little girl went fishing and found a humble carp to be her teacher.

Here is a dilemma I ponder nowadays … how, in writing children’s books, can I impart to young readers, without scaring them to death, of course, that the animals they eat for dinner are no different in their capacity for contentment or pain than the animals they love as pets? That animals from chickens to elephants, honeybees to pigs, have complex lives of their own, social structures, families, attachments to their babies, and that maybe it’s not the right thing – the kind thing – to use them for our own ends, to cause them such suffering. Is it enough to simply engender a love and appreciation of animals?

Surprised by Roses

July 17, 2013 / still a dreamer / 6 Comments

I can’t even tell you the last time I can remember being sent flowers. So when these beauties arrived by delivery yesterday I was beyond surprised!

Take a look at them – the selection is called Sorbet Roses and the colors are just amazing. What was equally amazing is how they blossomed in water overnight. (I’m sure the heat doesn’t hurt.) The scent of roses permeates the room … ahhhhhhh! I thought to share a photo or two I took because, really, how often does one receive roses? (And if you’re someone who does, lucky you!)

As the roses opened, I noticed something interesting – one of the roses, the pink one below, has a double center – almost a tiny rose within the rose. I’m taking that as a good-luck sign. (Why? Because I can!) And my thanks to my very thoughtful friend for sending such a lovely surprise.

Of course, we are always worthy of treating ourselves and buying flowers just for us. We deserve it! And indeed, I had taken to occasionally treating myself to a small bouquet of fresh blooms from the local market when I went shopping. That became short-lived due to one busybody feline named Gypsy Rose. Overnight, and never in front of me, to be sure, she made her way up to whatever counter, table, etc. I’d placed them on, and proceeded to dismantle them. I’d find petals all over the table, sometimes complete flowers broken off. I even tried putting them on top of the fridge at night, but she just jumped higher to wreak her kitty havoc. I tired of finding what was this small treat to myself in disarray each morning, so just gave up.