Rummaging and Ruminating

This warmer weather has my imagination on fire. I only own 6600 square feet of property, but I have envisioned all of it as garden. Last year the project was a pergola and trellis to enhance the little corner which is my token of Eden. Already I've moved some climbing roses, Clematis, a little Parthenocissus (which will look awesome this fall when it turns brilliant crimson against the wedgewood blue pergola) and planted a few Zinnia, Cypress vine and Morning Glory (little more than a glorified weed, but I love them.)

This year, my projects start with a Potting Bench (which I have desired for about 5 years) assembled from various and sundry scraps sitting around the garage. My container deckside gardening will be enhanced by the addition, not to mention the preservation of my aging back. This is largely an evening and weekend project accomplished in little pieces the way that a really good pilot builds an airplane . . . on the fly. I'm designing the thing as I go, drawing my ideas from 4 or 5 plans viewed on the internet; which will make for a fascinating finished product. All I know so far is that it will hold plant containers and potting soil, and be stained wedgewood blue to match the garden structures.

After this, I have in mind to build a couple Adirondack chairs for the deck. We had and enjoyed some for a few years, but they were made of pine and proved to be a banquet for some of the indigenous fungal and insect life. These newer versions will be made of Poplar, saturated in poison-laced primer of some kind, then finished in six layers of white lacquer enamel that will take the most determined pest a decade to drill through. Built to last? Yeah, its that important.

Today's Influences and Soundtrack:
Saul of Tarsus, Letters to the Corinthians
Westminster Divines, Confession of Faith
Norton Juster, Phantom Tollbooth
Conni Ellisor, Conversations in Silence
Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest
Gordon Lightfoot, Sundown

Trumpet, Cyclamineus, Triandrus, Split Corona

Visited the Botanical Gardens for while this afternoon, simply to spend time with my much better half and to get away from the house which contains more work than there are years remaining in my life. I frankly didn't expect to see much more than budding trees and greening grass since it's still so early in April. I was pleasantly surprised (and chagrined at my presumption) at finding color everywhere.

We were greeted by pink and white blossoms, as well as a heavily perfumed atmosphere in the Camellia House. This set the stage for the rest of our visit. As we left the Camellia House, we saw Tulip and Daffodil gardens with such variety and diversity to disabuse us of thinking in too small a way about the spring. Of particular interest were the small urban gardens with their creative use of space. I never cease to amaze over the ways which a small space can be crafted to be refreshing through the reminder of the First Garden.

Back to the Daffodils; such a simple flower, yet the variations speak of great diversity and, dare I say, Imagination. It got me to thinking how boring the world would be without the wide variations that are manifest in every kind of plant and person and thing. A million different flavors and smells and sights and textures and ideas should keep us from thinking the world a mundane place. I cannot help but agree with Samuel Johnson who declared that boredom is arrogance.

Today's Influences and Soundtrack:
Louise Cowan, Necessity of the Classics
Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
Goldmark, Concerti for Violin
Puccini, Turandot
Chip Davis, Sunday Morning Coffee