My Garden

I wanted to show you my garden in the spring. It’s pretty beautiful (and very fleeting). Once summer arrives, most of my plants and flowers will cease to bloom and return to their comfortable shades of green. It’s like they’re slippin’ into their cozy pants at the end of a short but exhausting season.

They’re working hard to look beautiful for me. I really appreciate that and want to flaunt them. Unfortunately, I can’t invite all of my readers over (all 2 of you) to admire bloom-time, so I’ve decided to share some pictures with you right here. That’s right. Right here on Sweet Strain. Enjoy.

PS: That’s a spider tucked inside the petals of the rose below, the bird is a hummingbird, the small pink buds are geranium and the lanky stalk of small blue buds is a delphinium … in case you were wondering. And don’t be afraid of the stone face coming out of the ground in the last picture.  That’s worth another post and a lot more pictures.  

Okay, Mini gets a mention too.  Mini is my neighbor’s dog.  He used to bark viciously every time I stepped into my backyard.  Today he let me pet him.  This picture was taken right before we made peace.  His tail wagging was my cue to approach.  I tried scratching him under his chin, his eyes closed and now we’re best friends.  How many dogs do YOU know with the name “Mini?”  I actually met a dog named “Tick” the other day. I digress …   

 

Nature & Animals Win

I’m torn between making this blog a blog about family, relationships, love and those sorts of ruminations and making it a blog about gardening, snails and other cute animals. I’m not interested in having this blog be my diary, but I’m interested in doing some carefully crafted writing. However, as I’ve started writing, I’ve been getting more and more interested in what has come to the surface.

The list of categories at the bottom of my blog show topics that are very important to me, give or take a few items. That’s neat to see, because I didn’t really choose them. My writing sort of chose them for me. I assumed I’d be talking about family, love & friends … in that order … but, so far, that hasn’t really been the case. I’m not saying that family, love and friendship won’t pop in every now and then or that those topics won’t ever dominate … they likely will. But, for now, other random stuff that I love is coming to the surface … and that’s been a nice surprise.

“You Feel Life More…”

I was out in the backyard gardening (something I’m doing a lot more of these days) and ran into my neighbor (not a rare occurrence).  She is an avid gardener with a particular affinity toward succulents.  She asked me if I was taking the day off.  I was surprised that I had not yet told her about my departure from my job and all the wackiness that surrounded it.  I brought her up to date and she asked me how I was feeling about my new lifestyle.  I told her that I loved it.  She was right there with me in understanding how much I loved it.  She immediately said, “Yeah, you feel life more.”  I speechlessly nodded.  There is no better way to explain it.  I imagine it’s how retirement feels…but I’m 30 years early.

This feeling has got to be different from retirement, though, because sometimes I don’t feel entitled to this break — and that makes it all the more enjoyable. It’s like I’ve been skipping school for 2 months.  My dad helps keep this feeling alive simply with the tone of his voice.  He knows I’ll be fine, but he’s my dad.  But many times I do feel entitled to this break, however, and know that this lifestyle could actually be my reality.  I’m not talking about never working again, but working for myself.  I’ve scratched the surface by getting a few new clients but I still feel “unemployed” since I work so little and “feel life“ so darn much!

For the Snails

What a lovely day for gardening.  Slightly cool and the air seemed clean.

My job today was to clear out the tall invasive weeds in our little front yard.  Every time I clear it (like twice a year) I’m surprised at all the life I find.  There are these whacky little slithery brown lizards with 4 stubby arms to help it along.*  There are many snails and a few slugs here and there.  There are all different shades of spiders and other nondescript pinpoint-sized bugs.  I get happy knowing they all live there because I am, in a way, providing that space for them.  It’s a chunk of our property that’s alive and I’m letting it stay that way…for most of the year…until I weed.

Today I did a preliminary pull that was nice and gentle. I’d pulled and then left the pile on the ground for a few minutes, hoping all the creatures would scamper away to a safe place.  I would then place the pile in the compost bin and feel bad for any trapped creatures.  I actually didn’t do an intense clean-up today just so the snails and brown lizards would have time to scurry. I haven’t yet raked and eradicated all greenery.  That will happen tomorrow. That means they only have tonight to relocate!

While weeding and encountering many-a-snail, I became very curious about them.  When they exit their shells do they stay out of them forever?  Do they hide their shell in a place that they can later remember by doing their little slime-trail thing?  Do they steal other snail’s shells?  Do they ever regret leaving their shell?  What makes them leave?  How do they feel about me?  Is the baby snail screwed if separated from mama snail?  How do snails benefit the environment?  Who is their biggest predator?  I’d like to get the answer to all of these questions.  I’ll make it my little project for the next few weeks:  Project Snail.

*i later found out the stubby lizard was a salamander.  

Unemployment

I have been unemployed for about a month and a half now. I have to say it’s a mixed experience. I have so much space and time. So much quiet. I like that soooooo much. But then sometimes, I find myself becoming peculiar. An anonymous poster on a blog about unemployment insurance said the following that resonated with me:

“When someone leaves the work force for years they tend to become ‘peculiar’ and in some cases unemployable…”

http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2008/02/huge-hole-in-unemployment-insurance.html

Scratch “years” and add “weeks” and he’s explained my inner workings. I guess what I mean is that I don’t get out of my pajamas. I create peculiar meals in my sparse kitchen so that I don’t have to leave the house. I’ve never put such daring ingredients on a frozen veggie burger!

I’ve had more time to improve my garden than ever. It’s not like those weekend days that used to go by so fast. I’d be gazing longingly at the garden as I was running out the door to cram in some socializing before Monday came.  I’d get one or two hours of weed picking in at best.  But then, it never felt like there was enough time to tackle that overgrown garden of mine.  And now I have the time.  A lot of it. Do I garden? Haven’t touched it. Well, I’ve touched it once when I was talking on the phone with a long distance friend. I picked one weed and it’s funny because when I did that I couldn’t help but think, “This doesn’t mean anything, garden. This doesn’t mean I’m going to come out here and spend quality time with you. I’m very busy. I’m unemployed. I have important things to do.”

What’s that feeling about? The feeling that you should be doing something important? Or that you are so important? Maybe that’s called self-esteem and I’ve stepped outside of myself to assess the functionality of it. What’s its use? Is it an illusion that I’m “important?” What are these “jobs” that we run to every day? What are our titles worth? See? Peculiar.