Good afternoon friends,
Maddie just hanging over the fence and yacking for a few minutes
before leaving the library and heading back to the house. The rains
didn't come as I'd hoped the other day, and it's been sunny and dry
here in the green bowl. After a sweet friend came to visit with her
daughter this weekend, I came home to discover (the women went out for
a bit and gave James some time alone) James had planted his rhubarb,
fixed part of the fencing on the eastern side of the back yard and
gotten a few things done that we never seem to get to lately. when we
touched back base before she returned to Middle Tennessee, I was
aghast to find that I'd missed a visit with another gardening friend,
"Ethyl" I haven't managed to track down for several months. She'd
been by the house whilst Molly and her daughter and I were terrorizing
the local Wally Fart and had left my twisted filbert and several bags
of assorted accumulated garden goodies that I'd pack ratted and shared
with her when I was being displaced. A great short note to indicate
she'd been there, and that was about it.
Now that I see there is a Harry Lauder's Walking stick in a 5
gallon pot to plant at the rented house somewhere, it will give me
something to think about. I'm leaving it here for others to enjoy
when james and I find the land and home we want for ourselves in two
years. That seems like a long time, but to gardeners, it's just
planning to plant bulbs and trees and future enjoyment like we all
tend to do. I'm seriously enjoying the gift of the few containers I
have at the house right now, and trying not to grieve over the lack of
everyone else. the hardest part for me is not having my two wheel
garden cart and the containers to work with. the lack of
transportation is the hardest to deal with for me. James is off in
orientation and I'm hunkered down sorting through boxes and puttering
about.
Tomato plants now need consideration as to how I will support them
once they take off in growth. no sign of my veggie seeds yet, but
each box I open reveals something else and makes me plan as best I can
where to put things. I've resigned myself to the logical fact that
the assorted many boxes of gardening magazines will remain packed and
sealed and I will just store them out of the way until we relocate to
the final place. priorities though is getting some form of a "nook"
for myself, getting the gardening books set up somewhere, and
untangling the mobile's, wind chimes and assorted window things. I
"packed" a box of nook things that has quietly woven together and it
will take patience to sort them all out....
I've temporarily removed the bird feeder as all I seem to be
feeding is starlings, and can't afford to purchase black sunflower
seed. eventually once I get the perennials over here, what survives
will be planted around the whole yard and maybe the birds will visit
me more. I still miss the many assorted flying dragons that visited
every day, but I am patient.
I also miss just walking outside and seeing the stars without any
light pollution around, but there are close places where I can see a
few peeps of stars where we live and I'm not through with my initial
wandering about. There is a neat historical cemetary just behind us on
a huge hillside and I need to see if they lock it up at night so I can
walk about without street lights to hinder me. Two windchimes are
hanging up now, and there will be the others located to sing softly in
breezes.
Right now, though, I'm enjoying a gentle spring here in the greene
bowl, and finally am settling into a bit more of life. I have a great
bag of soil to start seeds with, that Helen sent me, and will update
things horticulturally for my friends along the way as they happen.
Sugar dawg has decided she is too smart for being left behind when I
visit the next door neighbor, and has devised a way to slip underneath
the fence to be with me. Poor Smeagol cries and howls until I can't
stand it and then they lay near me as I talk gardening. I apparently
am appreciated in the knowledge levels by the local neighbor ladies
who frequently pick my brain on problems and advice despite that I am
old enough to be one's daughter and the other's sister! they are
thrilled to have the "madgardener" in their midst! makes me humble,
to say the least. I can't wait to see their faces when I truly start
getting my perennials to the house, though. I can share with them
then and get back to more behavior than right now where I have only a
few to comfort me and they don't need dividing yet.
I couldn't stand not having a few pots of Mr. Savage's daylilies so
I will plant them in the back yard to settle them in and give them a
chance to take off proper. Please keep in touch and let me know how
things are with you all. I miss you horribly and enjoy reading about
YOUR gardens and pets and grand children and adventures. If
loonyhiker is out there lurking, I've hiked a bit up the roads and
such at Paint Creek near our house and it's wonderful. I've seen
wildflowers and things that now make me realize I've missed a huge
amount of things over the course of these last 16 years. but the time
is not lost, I am aware and will make more efforts to get more out of
things around me as well as I appreciate what I have at hand instead
of dwelling too much on what I haven't got. the blessings are large
enough that it's all the little things that make me feel more balanced
now and I'm seeing how I can lighten my load and still be happy.
translation? when I finally get another chance to get a few more
containers of my plants from karol's, there will be dead plants in the
pots and such, but it won't matter the loss, I will relish the use of
rich, black soil from the composted raised beds of the former faerie
holler to embellish what I am growing and nurturing in the Greene
bowl.

thanks for listening, and I will write better and more later, I
promise.

maddie in zone 6b sometimes 7a in the Greene bowl in northeastern
Tennessee