I believe that I am slowly but surely working my way towards understanding how to "do" this on line course. It has been a dreadful struggle as I am old and completely illiterate about computers, but nontheless, I am making progress.
The place that I am going to be concentrating on is my own yard. I moved from a "home" six years ago to this new place and attempting to make this place be home has been an uphill struggle. As is everything! Do I sound like I am whining?? Probably, sorry!
The "home" that I left was a log home on thirty-five acres. We had no neighbors, that we could see from our front door. It was bare-bones and rugged and quite beautiful in its own way but as I planted flowers, or bushes to decorate the home, everything seemed out of place. Not big enough, not strong enough, not anything enough to enhance the stark beauty of the place. How do you decorate the grand canyon? Answer: you don't.
So, when I sold the "homestead" and decided to move closer to civilization I had a much smaller palette in which to work. A neighborhood. I had not lived in a neighborhood for a long time. I missed the seclusion of the mountain on which I had lived and so I chose a homestead that was surrounded by trees on three sides. Privacy. Yes. And as I look at the damned daffodils that are now trying to peek through the dirt in the middle of January I feel some identification. What are you doing? Don't you know that is is January and you are going to freeze your stupid asses off before spring ever arrives? They answer back, "What are you doing? Don't you know it is November and you are spinning your wheels? You don't know the first thing about landscaping or gardening and yet you continually bang your head against a wall. "
So here we are, me and my garden. Butting heads. Trying to make something beautiful where it probably it should have been left alone. Me and the daffy-down -dillies, giving it our best shot.
I never considered daffodils to have such spunk! There's such a push against characterization of elements in nature (I have never really understood why), and your descriptions give such an engaging viewpoint of the elements of your place.
ReplyDelete"How do yo decorate the grand canyon? Answer: you don't" I love that; I feel like I could tack it up on my wall. It's a simple statement, yet so introspective. The question is more than what makes a place home, but how?
Thanks for sharing.
I'm intrigued by the conflict you feel between having to give up a place that you loved and having to make a home in a new place (I feel that tension daily, even after having lived in the same town for almost a decade...). I hope you will meditate more on those ideas. I also look forward to getting more concrete, sensory details from your garden as it changes with the seasons!
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