A week in the garden

It’s quieter here. Not as many fences to hold up my days. I get up early, yet still can’t seem to get it all done. My morning walks have been exchanged for “grading” and providing students with extensive feedback that they probably aren’t paying attention to. Still, I can’t help it. I want to use this precious time before they move on to high school to help them become better writers. Crazy, I know, but I still think I am in control.

Our Webex class has about 10 regulars. They’re the kids who are doing well, but just want to check-in. Last week, we gave each other tours of our respective environments. On my way to showing them my backyard garden, I think I accidentally filmed my wine collection which I have, up until that uncensored moment, been so careful to keep off-camera.

Cracks are beginning to show.

My gray hair’s been masked by box dye. I used kitchen scissors, snip, snip, to cut a pinking sheers bob. My daughter says I look like Willie Wonka. And she’s right. Ordering groceries online has become troublingly routine. Students virtually drop by my oasis, my refuge, the place that bolsters my spirit. My home is now an open movie set.

As I’ve been trying to re-establish my footing back home at Angel Cove Cottage By the Sea, I find myself nesting. Armed with $100 gift card and $25 in-store credit, I secure my mask and head out the door in time to take advantage of senior hours. Surrounded by a smattering of older gardening enthusiasts like myself, I feel exhilarated embraced by a kaleidoscope of colors and a bounty of vegetational goodies at my local Armstrong.https://www.armstronggarden.com It’s like an all-you-can eat, mimosa-flowing Easter brunch buffet: I just can’t can’t get enough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6FBfAQ-NDE and buy yellows and whites and pinks and purples and tomatoes and tomatoes and a whole mess of different kinds of tomatoes. And other vegetables like chili peppers and flat leaf parsley and dill and chocolate mint. I could have easily spent hundreds of dollars, that’s how lusty and greedy the greens made me feel. But that’s it about gardening: There’s always more designing and re-purposing and taking out and putting in. Every patch is a little story.

Gardening gives me time to contemplate and feel good about life. After a hour or two of weeding and re-planting, you know–you can literally see–that you have made a tiny patch of Planet Earth better. Neighbors feel good when they walk by…who knows what creative, inspired doors your gardening activity has unlocked for passersby? Maybe they have a sudden urge to be a better ukulele player or start composting kitchen scrapes!

If we all do something to make our world a little better–it could be as simple as saying “Hi” to the little kid who points at the swallowtail suckling on a patch of milkweed or doing something you’ve never done so before, like sharing e a glass of lovely wine my.boissetcollection.com/janet.barker over the backyard fence with a neighbor. In doing something, as opposed to complaining or worrying, you are bringing light to a person who may have been having a crappy day and now isn’t–because of your ACTION! See, I believe it doesn’t take much to proclaim to the world that we care about each other, that we can do better, that when it comes down to it, we all want the same thing: To be loved and valued for who we are irregardless of economic status, geography, race, religion, gender, age, weight, talents or political persuasion. We all feel stress; we’re all scared about the present and the future. But we also know that better days are ahead and each of us has something positive to contribute to the future.

I seem to always end my blogs in the same place: Hope and compassion. That’s how I was raised. By working class parents who survived World War II and came to America from England to give their children–my brother, sister and myself–a better life. They worked hard and shared what little they had with friends and extended family. They never asked for a lot. They were patient, frugal, and saved for a rainy day. And they never said, “No.” They knew their children would likewise pay it forward: It’s an expectation woven into our soul.

I know there are the greedy and the self-centered. But there are more of us: the generous and the kind. It may not always seem like it, especially if you watch “the news”, but if you get out into the garden or your balcony or houseplant terrarium zone, you will start to feel better and become a source of delight for others. Work the soil. Pinch off the dead leaves. Start over. In the garden, there’s no time for nonsense.