Monday, May 17, 2010

In full Swing

Things are happening! These things happened about a week ago, but its a very good feeling when you know the reason you haven't updated your blog is because you've been too busy doing the things that you blog about!
First off, Chris dug us a nice big hole (not an easy thing at our house, where the ledge rock starts about one foot beneath the top soil) for us to plant the Forsythia. Naturally, there were complications:


Eventually, we fished little Thomas out, and the final product looks wonderful.               
        
                                        

We've been given some lovely lilac trees from the family, and we hope soon to plant them a little to the left of this bush. Meanwhile, the raspberries are on the go, though they suffered a little from the weird frost (damage not visible in this picture). We've discovered the dogs are ripping our asparagus out by the roots, so Ruth and I are going to build a fence around them and the raspberries tomorrow.


Well that's all for now. Tomorrow promises to be a very big day! Here's what we have to work with:


We've got to take everything out except the Clematis, the Baptisia and the Rose. There's a lot in there, and NONE of it is labelled. Okay, so the Daffodils are obviously Daffodils, but other than that, it's up to our gardener's knowhow and intuition.  

Monday, May 10, 2010

A Goal is Set

Three of them, actually!

1) Weather providing, to do some work in the garden every day.

2) To have a new page typed every week.

3) To test a new recipe every week. Here are few that I'm very excited about:
http://greenjackfruit.blogspot.com/2006/11/small-batch-chocolate-chip-cookies.html
http://greenjackfruit.blogspot.com/2007/05/double-apple-bundt-cake.html
http://brandoesq.blogspot.com/2005/09/white-chocolate-creme-citron-tarts.html

Saturday, May 8, 2010

A Brilliant Idea!

That's what we need, a brilliant idea.
-A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

I've finally come up with some solid parameters for this blog. When this total redesigning of our garden is complete, we will have a place to write in the middle of the new layout. Also, I find that I come up with my best writing ideas whilst I am gardening. It's a two lane street. As I expand my view of the world through my writing, I create a stronger image of what I would like my physical space on the Earth to appeal to my senses; in other words, what I would like my garden to look, smell, feel, and yes, sound and taste like. Thus, I intend to center my future posts here around writing and gardening, and the concrete connections between these two elements in my life.

The Japanese bridge in Monet's garden that inspired so many of his paintings.
There will be posts that consist of writing I have done alongside those about the garden overhaul, as well as post regarding things that both the garden and the pen produce, and also about techniques in both fields. On that note, I leave you with a semi-sister poem to the one I last posted, though this one was first drafted several months before the other:

Sleepy Impressions at a Lecture on Polish History

To go, wet feathered, 
eating caterpillars and sprouting feet and toes—
through the mud and chomping 
at grasses, at birds that fly by— with knives, 
with corsets and rocks in slings— tipping over, 
down and down and down 
and eating nothing for forevers— 
smelling books on the wind and 
suspecting inroads on comfort— 
blasting away, kicking down doors, 
smashing flowers and making 
hats, bonnets, picnic dresses— 
to shipwrecks and rescues on churning 
Romantic waves, and sharks slashed to 
the gills— floating up into colonnades— 
disturbing slumbering armies— jumping 
from indoor clouds— eating cotton, sliding 
through shaving cream— 
melting into caramels, twisting down 
causeways, down garden steps, 
through flocks— with worms, with 
fingers and dimes— coughing up dimes, 
jumping down rainspouts, 
pulling knits, carding wool, flying kites— 
to rest in sponge cake licking peppermint lips— 
in swivel chairs, in declarations, in 
inkwells— on quiet violins, dusty chalk boards— 
to go on, ignoring bells, bounding fences, 
playing Jew-harps— riding grasshoppers through 
wheat fields to market— picking 
apples for bombardments yet to come— 
pickling in teacups, sifting 
through gold pans— in white linen, in 
taffeta and tulle, in leather bags 
with pony express buckles— on pointed heels 
downriver on a bar of soap— 
in curly wedding cake wigs, on tiny ankles— 
on sword belts, on piano keys with razors 
and monocles— with geese and herons going 
south to balmy seas by night—
to go, loudmouthed and kicking, to bed.