My Backyard
Posted: April 30, 2008 Filed under: Housekeeping | Tags: garden Leave a comment »Since I’ve been writing gardening analogies, I decided to show off my inspiration. Here are current photographs of my backyard garden.
Early Girl Tomatoes
I planted tomatoes the first week of March. I have six plants, and each plant has fruit.
Grapevine On My Red Tree Branch Trellis
I built this trellis last year out of a tree branch and red spray paint. Everyone who sees it asks, “What’s that red tree?”
Grapes On the Vine
The vine is fifteen years old. This is the first year I’ve had grapes. Hope springs eternal.
My Zinnia Patch
Our next door neighbor asked, “Did you feed these plants something to make them so big?” Nope. It’s the one thing I’m sure I can grow.
Blue Salvia and Eutin Roses
Coco grew the salvia from seeds several years ago. It’s a perennial that keeps on giving. The Eutin rose in the background is an antique. It smells fabulous.
Window Box with Moonflowers
This box holds begonias, stonecrop, and you guessed it, moonflowers. The line above is jute attached to the eave. Hopefully, the vine will reach for the moon.
Sedum In the Rock Garden
Bacon built a rock garden that looks like a creek bed flowing from my patio. Here are a few container plants from Holy Ghost Creek Too. The grass is called Fiber Optic Grass ’cause that’s what it looks like. The watering can holds Cyclamen, past its prime, but still green. The large terra cotta is home to assorted sedum.
Hope you enjoyed the tour.
Taking Root
Posted: April 27, 2008 Filed under: Writers Write | Tags: artists, creativity, writers Leave a comment »It started with pansies. Cherry couldn’t part with the pansies and ornamental kale we planted in the window boxes in March. Leggy and wilting, it was time to make way for summer flowers. Plants are disposable, but tell that to an eight year old. We moved the pansies to the vegetable garden. They’re still blooming. A few days later, I moved the Gerbera daisies from their container to a spot next to the parsley. Short on sun in a pot that didn’t drain, they looked like goners. So, I performed the second rescue mission. This morning, I moved the butterfly plant to the sunny perennial bed. Squeezed by the sweet potato vine, it was starting to look more like a stick than a flower.
Nothing stays the same in my backyard. It’s a proving ground, a safe place to experiment where the smallest adjustment makes the biggest impact. Working forces me to make decisions. Move it or lose it. Do I rescue the pansies or throw them away? Unless I’m pretending to be Moses, nothing is written in stone.
The very act of creation involves choice. Will I paint the sky cerulean or smoky green? Will I write this character living at home or will she move to her own place? When I act, will I scream in anger or will I be cold and calculating? Artists learn to make decisions.
It’s hard to throw away an idea once it takes root.
News You Can Wear?
Posted: April 24, 2008 Filed under: A Zany Life Leave a comment »CNN.com is experimenting with an alternate format, the news shirt. You’ll find them by clicking on the little t-shirt icons next to the news headlines on the CNN website. I wondered who would wear these headlines:
Russian Missile Obliterates Spy Plane
Citizen Tickets Cop for $540 Violation
Blind man grabs, pummels intruder
Synchronized swimmers faint in unison
Maybe it’s me, but this feels like this a marketing strategy gone berserk. According to the CNN FAQ ”With CNN Shirts you can wear the news.” The question is. . . why would I want to?
