It's easy to get anthropomorphic (or rather anthropopathic) about
plants, projecting our own thoughts and feelings onto them!

For example: I had to take out my Santa Rosa plum last year,
and "threatened" the apricot with a similar fate if it didn't get its
act together (bore very little last few years). Whaddyaknow,
the "intimidated" apricot is loaded! Now, if I can only cut a deal
with the squirrels...g

I've felt this way before. I once bought a beautiful japanese maple and
lovingly planted it on my patio in a half barrell container. I loved that
tree like nothing else - it was so lovely. I had searched high and low to
find it.

Unfortunately, it did not come back the following season. Apparently,
its only marginally hardy in my zone, and the container just did it in.

When I took it down, and chopped it up, and disposed of it.....it kinda
felt like murder....like hacking up a dead body after the deed. I got a
creepy feeling about it anyway.

Weird, eh?

Sally

On Wed, 9 Apr 2003 21:16:25 -0400, "Queen"
wrote:

It's easy to get anthropomorphic (or rather anthropopathic) about
plants, projecting our own thoughts and feelings onto them!

For example: I had to take out my Santa Rosa plum last year,
and "threatened" the apricot with a similar fate if it didn't get its
act together (bore very little last few years). Whaddyaknow,
the "intimidated" apricot is loaded! Now, if I can only cut a deal
with the squirrels...g

I've felt this way before. I once bought a beautiful japanese maple and
lovingly planted it on my patio in a half barrell container. I loved that
tree like nothing else - it was so lovely. I had searched high and low to
find it.

Unfortunately, it did not come back the following season. Apparently,
its only marginally hardy in my zone, and the container just did it in.

When I took it down, and chopped it up, and disposed of it.....it kinda
felt like murder....like hacking up a dead body after the deed. I got a
creepy feeling about it anyway.

Weird, eh?

Oh, how I understand!

I've had to take out several trees over [censored] years, and each
time there was a kind of grieving. I had become close to each one.

The avocado, which I never actually planned to grow; I just did that
thing with 3 toothpicks in the pit, suspended in a glass of water.
It looked so nice, I planted it, and a few years later, whoa! there's
a big tree. It lifted up the concrete edging with its powerful roots!
The squirrels used to score the avocados with their **&&%)() teeth,
but sometimes they left me a few. Eventually, it had to go.

The peach tree bore so lavishly that we got exhausted climbing up &
down the ladder to pick those gorgeous fruits at the peak of
perfection. I canned, I baked, I gave them away left and right.
Eventually it, too, had to go, afte a long and productive life.

The plum never was a real world-beater, but the fruit it did bear was
delicious. One year, toward the end of its life, only one bough was
still bearing. I tied paper bags around the few fruits on there to
keep them from the squirrels, and did manage to harvest a few.

Keeps you in touch with the cycle of life.


--
Polar

Yet you don't feel its murder whenever you eat a salad. Go figure.

You should be more concerned about throwing away good money whenever you
kill an expensive plant.

Its easy to work out a deal with the squirrels. They will work for
peanuts!!! Just be sure the peanuts are in the shells and unsalted.


Queen wrote in message
news:RD3la.5510$qn.510963@localhost...
It's easy to get anthropomorphic (or rather anthropopathic) about
plants, projecting our own thoughts and feelings onto them!

For example: I had to take out my Santa Rosa plum last year,
and "threatened" the apricot with a similar fate if it didn't get its
act together (bore very little last few years). Whaddyaknow,
the "intimidated" apricot is loaded! Now, if I can only cut a deal
with the squirrels...g

I've felt this way before. I once bought a beautiful japanese maple
and
lovingly planted it on my patio in a half barrell container. I loved that
tree like nothing else - it was so lovely. I had searched high and low to
find it.

Unfortunately, it did not come back the following season. Apparently,
its only marginally hardy in my zone, and the container just did it in.

When I took it down, and chopped it up, and disposed of it.....it
kinda
felt like murder....like hacking up a dead body after the deed. I got a
creepy feeling about it anyway.

Weird, eh?

Sally

In article RD3la.5510$qn.510963@localhost, "Queen"
wrote:

It's easy to get anthropomorphic (or rather anthropopathic) about
plants, projecting our own thoughts and feelings onto them!

For example: I had to take out my Santa Rosa plum last year,
and "threatened" the apricot with a similar fate if it didn't get its
act together (bore very little last few years). Whaddyaknow,
the "intimidated" apricot is loaded! Now, if I can only cut a deal
with the squirrels...g

I've felt this way before. I once bought a beautiful japanese maple and
lovingly planted it on my patio in a half barrell container. I loved that
tree like nothing else - it was so lovely. I had searched high and low to
find it.

Unfortunately, it did not come back the following season. Apparently,
its only marginally hardy in my zone, and the container just did it in.

When I took it down, and chopped it up, and disposed of it.....it kinda
felt like murder....like hacking up a dead body after the deed. I got a
creepy feeling about it anyway.

Weird, eh?

Sally


I'm surprised I don't anthropomorphize plants more than I do. I do at
least feel a connection to something BEYOND the garden which is the result
of having lived many years as a kid with a Thai buddhist step-mother. Not
that I'm seriously a believer in anything, but there's definitely
something zen-like & spriitual about gardening, & hard not to imagine
some Bodhi of Verdance, or an Earthmother, bestowing upon bewildered
gardeners surprising successes well beyond actual skill. And I've caught
myself thanking whatever Gaea-like Shekhinah or Tara or Durga must be
helping me out, then feeling a little silly for such thoughts, without
minding being silly.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

On Wed, 9 Apr 2003 21:16:25 -0400, "Queen"
wrote:

It's easy to get anthropomorphic (or rather anthropopathic) about
plants, projecting our own thoughts and feelings onto them!

For example: I had to take out my Santa Rosa plum last year,
and "threatened" the apricot with a similar fate if it didn't get its
act together (bore very little last few years). Whaddyaknow,
the "intimidated" apricot is loaded! Now, if I can only cut a deal
with the squirrels...g

I've felt this way before. I once bought a beautiful japanese maple and
lovingly planted it on my patio in a half barrell container. I loved that
tree like nothing else - it was so lovely. I had searched high and low to
find it.

Unfortunately, it did not come back the following season. Apparently,
its only marginally hardy in my zone, and the container just did it in.

When I took it down, and chopped it up, and disposed of it.....it kinda
felt like murder....like hacking up a dead body after the deed. I got a
creepy feeling about it anyway.

Weird, eh?

Sally

Yeah...but it is schizophrenia if they start talking back to you...
evil grin



Carla (...weekend opt. nurse in a mental health facility..)