Ah spring…gardening is getting closer…don’t panic, it’s still early

“In the spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.” — Mark Twain

Oh so true. Here in the Pacific Northwest (PNW to my homies), February isn’t waiting for March to do some roaring. We just had an “atmospheric river” pass overhead. The Weather Channel, as always, was good for some entertainment. “They” said that this river passing by held the watery equivalent of 10 Mississippi Rivers, so I passed day after dark, dreary day of rain counting the rivers…10 Mississippi, 9 Mississippi, 8 Mississippi, then I lost count.

I was indeed a sissi (sic). Letting rain – at some times barely more than a mist, at other times a solid, steady rainfall – get me down.

“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” — Roger Hornsby

Spring training has started! I get to listen to announcers gloat over the cloudless skies and temperatures in the 80s at baseball camp in Arizona. Thanks for punctuating our gloom back here at home.

“I glanced out the window at the signs of spring. The sky was almost blue, the trees were almost budding, the sun was almost bright.” — Millard Kaufman

Yeah…thanks again for sharing, Arizonians.

“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.” ― Ernest Hemingway

Good ol’ Hemingway, you can always count on him to bring you down if you’re getting too happy. But wait! This reminds me of why spring is such a welcome relief from winter! After the assault of people over the holidays, once again we can find solitude in our gardens!

Happy spring, whenever it arrives! Happy gardening, garden planning, end of winter!

Narcissus, the conceited flower

Visiting another garden term from yesteryear…a conceit was a frivolous garden feature, design, or perhaps decoration that had little or no use. Are these fanciful posts of mine a conceit? I’ll let you be the judge.

Of course the word conceit drew me to the word conceited and ultimately to narcissism, that state of mind where you fall in love with yourself to the point of not being able to think of anyone else. The mythical figure Narcissus died of thirst and starvation because he couldn’t draw himself away from the pool he gazed into. Ah such a beauty am I, he thought…

Now back to gardening…there is a flower called Narcissus. I imagine it leaning over a pond, gazing at itself lovingly, no thought to sunlight or rain or growing upright…and I forget to help it, chaotic gardener that I am…until the narcissus dies.

My act of resistance is gardening

Be awake. Be aware. But don’t let the darkness overcome you. Despair, depression…don’t you want to be happy? Take a lesson from oppressed people around the world.

They don’t give up hope, they find joy, they remember to dance and laugh.

Many traditional African dances mimic planting seeds and harvesting. Dance is not separate from everyday life. It supports and describes life.

what’s a gardener to do when…

she doesn’t have any indoor space to start plants in February? Plus it’s so cold outside that she’s still not gonna rake it? She can talk about what she wishes she could do re: gardening but that requires copious amounts of alcoholic beverages to overcome the melancholy of endless cold gray days…

Or she could have fun with gardening words and phrases alongside AI images she generates. I came across a webpage of gardening terms from bygone days and decided to play around. Spank me but…AI image generation is fun.

So true to my Twisted roots, give me some slack and don’t be afraid to smile…

My first phrase is privy garden, and the phrase once meant a private garden, usually one reserved for kings and queens. But not being of noble blood, and having lived for decades without indoor plumbing…my Twisted brain took me here: