Gardening Day
This morning I ate a fig fresh from the branch. There were only two ripe so far. Gwinnie had the other one. They always remind me of Siddartha. They are always comparing women’s mouths to ripe figs in that book. It’s beautiful and quite true!
I have been generally disdainful of the leaf blower and until this morning would have sided with the good old fashioned broom any day! But I had the walkways and the patios cleared in no time, and was free to put my hands to other good uses. I also blew off the driveway, which at first seemed slightly ridiculous, but boy did it look nice when I was done!
I wrestled the errant arms of some of the garden’s climbing inhabitants into submission. The roses needed to be pulled back from where they pinched at you whenever you went to the potting shed and the wisteria was slowly but surely campaigning to bind shut the garden gate. That was fun!
Then I took over at the lawn mower and laid waste to a massive stretch of lawn. That felt great, although I was wobbly kneed and resembling a tomato in the face when I was done.
At lunch I had a fresh peach straight from the tree; the perfect frame to a morning in the garden.
Somebody recently asked me to fill in this blank: In five years I could see myself… I wrote, “Tying back my own wisteria instead of someone else’s”. I am classically viewed by my family as the impractical one. I’m afraid of power tools. I don’t like to get my hands dirty. But somehow here I am magically transformed. Diana appreciates having someone to work with and its nice to be appreciated. It does not cross her mind that I am incapable, and so I’m not (except that I couldn’t start the mower and had to call her for help). In my formative years, there was always somebody around who could do it better than me, so I didn’t try. I also felt pretty useless and unnecessary. It is nice to have people around who know you and who you don’t have to explain yourself to, but it is also nice to have a chance to step out from under the mask you’ve worn and try on anybody you’d like to be.
I have been generally disdainful of the leaf blower and until this morning would have sided with the good old fashioned broom any day! But I had the walkways and the patios cleared in no time, and was free to put my hands to other good uses. I also blew off the driveway, which at first seemed slightly ridiculous, but boy did it look nice when I was done!
I wrestled the errant arms of some of the garden’s climbing inhabitants into submission. The roses needed to be pulled back from where they pinched at you whenever you went to the potting shed and the wisteria was slowly but surely campaigning to bind shut the garden gate. That was fun!
Then I took over at the lawn mower and laid waste to a massive stretch of lawn. That felt great, although I was wobbly kneed and resembling a tomato in the face when I was done.
At lunch I had a fresh peach straight from the tree; the perfect frame to a morning in the garden.
Somebody recently asked me to fill in this blank: In five years I could see myself… I wrote, “Tying back my own wisteria instead of someone else’s”. I am classically viewed by my family as the impractical one. I’m afraid of power tools. I don’t like to get my hands dirty. But somehow here I am magically transformed. Diana appreciates having someone to work with and its nice to be appreciated. It does not cross her mind that I am incapable, and so I’m not (except that I couldn’t start the mower and had to call her for help). In my formative years, there was always somebody around who could do it better than me, so I didn’t try. I also felt pretty useless and unnecessary. It is nice to have people around who know you and who you don’t have to explain yourself to, but it is also nice to have a chance to step out from under the mask you’ve worn and try on anybody you’d like to be.
posted by Eiren at 4:38 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home