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