Fun with Saran Wrap

Yesterday I was looking at blue sky and sunshine, why I even had to wear my shades. I was basking in the warm sunshine while I sipped my morning latte by the pond. Sigh…

It was a good day to do little seed harvesting for next year's garden. I clipped some seed pods for the Cupids Dart. I just love this plant. It was the most wonderful royal blue flush of flowers and then the seed pods looked so cool afterward. I kind of hated clipping them. I also collected some Candy Tuft seeds. Those little babies have been blooming all summer long. As a matter of fact even though we had excessive heat and drought everything in the garden really bloomed like gangbusters all summer. I will never use anything other than manure and leaf mulch. Best stuff ever!

I also clipped the last of the lavender and swooned. Now don't laugh at me. O.K. you can laugh at me, just do it so I can't hear you. I have never understood the attraction people have to lavender. I didn’t like it in the least. Apparently I have never actually smelled lavender. Nor have I been anywhere near real live lavender. I had only smelled it in those chemical cream factories with the wispy feminine labels they call lotion; when in fact it is more like French fries calling themselves French cuisine because they're French fries. There is absolutely zero resemblance. The fact that I did not know this tells you just how new to the plant world I am. I’m a tad embarrassed. Say, did I mention that I grew these little scent angels from seed? No? Yes!

Then we decided that it was time to cruise up the road a bit to our favorite “tractor with a wagon full of corn for sale on the side of the road” market for some fresh and I mean fresh, corn. We have one more week of corn from these guys for the year. I plan to buy enough to fill up the trunk and the back seat. I love how diverse the regulars are that come to this place every year. I also get a big kick out of seeing the new people because I know that when they get their fresh off the farm corn back home and take their first bite they are not going to know what hit them. We all buy corn in the grocery. I buy corn in the grocery and usually it’s pretty good. This is different. This corn bursts in your mouth like sweet summer sunshine in a delicious candy coating. You can smell the earth in the kernels, taste the sun sugars in the juice and smell the summer heat coming off the husks. I know those new people will never look at grocery store corn the same way again.

Next we decided to visit one of our local wild apple trees. The apples on these trees are not the best. Well they really aren’t good at all. The GOOD ones are coming up here pretty soon and we'll make our trip out for those but, we these for the horses and they love them. Tucker, the brown one, he starts to drool and lick his lips when he sees me with the apples. He gets very exicted. I have learned to step back a bit when I feed him these so I don’t get horse slimed. It can be quite disgusting. Jack has a little more dignity but you gotta watch your fingers.

I then decided that the new side deck was finally ready to be scrubbed and stained. Of course it had only been build last summer but you know, you can ever be too quick to take care of your new and unprotected deck wood I always say. It had been a lovely day all in all. All except that little business with the scrub brush and bucket of course.

While we frolicked in the summer sun there was a dark and ominous cloud lurking nearby that would soon spoil our fun. No, really. There was a dark ominous cloud nearby. It was coming from Alaska and it was freaking cold and wet. We did a 30 degree spread from last week to this one. My last and final act of the day was one of defiance. Of course my husband laughed so hard he almost fell over when he saw me. Why you ask? Well, because I did this:

Yes, that is Saran Wrap. So what? Haven’t you ever seen roses in Saran Wrap before?

Ticket to Ride

Earlier today I was performing the heavenly task of harvesting lavender seeds. My hands were filled with the scent as I spilled the tiny gems out into a bowl. In delicate drafts off the pond the perfume of roses mingled with the lavender and I began to think of all the scented plants that I have in the garden. That is when I decided to take a little sniffing tour.

Now I could list all the scented plants I have out there but then this would just be a laundry list of otherwise rather common plants. I have varieties of mint, sage, curry, lilies, scented tulips, and so on. I have a passionate weak spot for scents because it is the swiftest route through the haze of rational thinking and I simply can not resist the E ticket ride.

For those of you who were born after the “when things were really cool” period: an E ticket ride refers to the old ticket books you used to get at Disneyland. The ticket books were letter/color coded and came with a certain number of each. The E tickets were used for the very best rides. Sometimes if a ride cost more than one E ticket you could use other tickets plus an E ticket to make up the difference. The Es were quickly used up and therefore coveted by all. Many sibling battles were fought and future first born children traded for an extra E ticket back in the day.

As a child I loved the experience “rides” that Disneyland put together. It was all about the ride of being transported to another time and place. When you are young you can let yourself buy those fantasies. All you have to do is hand them your cotton candy coated sticky ticket and you take the ride with wide eyed acceptance. There are no adult pretenses of jaded sobriety to hinder your fun or keep you in check.

As far as the brain is concerned scent is the E ticket for experience rides in the garden. Roses can smell wonderful but where do yours take you? Some of my roses remind me of my mother. I can’t quite remember her though I do remember her scent and it breaks my heart a little every time I smell those roses. Catmint to me smells like sunlight coming through lace curtains in a farmhouse window. It’s like an amber glow across sepia toned photographs atop a worn wooden dresser. And lavender feels like smooth wooden floors and glycerin soap on a hot summer day.

The chocolate mint I brush by in the mornings as I feed the birds always makes me smile because it smells happy and safe. Rosemary transports me to the majesty of pine forests and lemon balm is like sunlight dancing on my skin. There are so many beautifully scented plants and flowers to choose from but if a scent is the equivalent of and E ticket ride I want to make my choices wisely.

I figure that life takes you on a lot of rides that you’d rather not go on so if given half a chance why not design your own amusement park where the rides are the ones you want to take? What does happy smell like to you?

Do Ya Think I'm Sexy

Well it's late September and I really should be getting back to school... no, that's not right. That's Rod Stewart. Then again I am beginning to think that if a garden could be Rod Stewart this might be what it would look like. Kind of wild and out of control, doesn't know it's getting late in his career so he just keeps belting them out like he was in the spring of his youth.

I had been feeling pretty low because my recent computer meltdown vaporized some important files. I lost things I had been working on and photographs that I will never get back. It hasn't been the best of times, it hasn't been the worst of times and thankfully it hasn't been the winter of my discontent...yet. Winter will come soon enough but for now it's Rod Stewart time in the garden.

You might think that late September would see the summer flowers fading into that golden glow of lowering sunlight. You might think that. You would apparently be wrong as far as my garden is concerned. I certainly was. I had planned on building up the compost pile with worn out old stems and thin wrinkled leaves. Instead I find my garden decked out in tight spandex pants with gold chains hanging down a much too open silk shirt belting out "Hot Legs" and "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy."

Seriously guys, what are you doing putting out poppies in September? And the roses? Not just one or two easy listening ballads but a whole show of spirited full body rockers. The honeysuckle is putting on an entire encore that rivals the original. The nasturtium is refusing to leave the stage and the monarda is acting like Mick Jagger at a groupie convention. Believe it or not I actually have forget-me-nots with tiny flowers and there is even an oriental lily coming up!

Like I said, I have been pretty bummed about the losses on my computer. I was upset about the time and work that was forever lost and photo memories of a great summer that had vanished like real time. (cue the tiny violins) Then I heard the music coming from the garden.

It wasn't a somber dirge or a sad song of lost love and betrayal. No, it was "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" and "Forever Young" belted out in the bold vibrant colors of youth that knows no limit. A youth that only knows the moment of now and that forever is today. I don't know if I am actually learning anything about gardening but I am sure learning something about living and soaking up the sun while it's shining. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some spandex pants to slip into.