Seeding is Believing

According to author Angeles Arrien, June is the halfway month, the month of maximum light. It is the month we can see the flowering of seeds we've planted in the earth and in our souls. My earth seeds are fairly recognizable---deer tongue lettuce, Wild Fred tomatoes, Japanese eggplant. My soul seeds are more mysterious, less accessible to me anyway. Perhaps reading Arrien, Merton , Nataraja and David Reynolds will help me identify some of the psychic seedlings. Yesterday was an amazing bird day. Thanks to the happy invitation of some friends, I stood under one of my oak trees and looked up into the eyes of an owl family--four small owls, one big owl. Of course, the big owl was only the size of a Bud Light can. I stared up; they stared down. Then, I flew away. Back at HOCS, a snowy egret the size of a Great Dane posed for a photo op framed by the garden arch. I, of course, did not have my camera. Perhaps the seedling message was that I need to practice really seeing rather than recording for future viewing. Interesting thought!

Goodbye Beloved Bottini

The beautiful map of the St. Johns River was smashed to smithereens by Beryl the Beast. I have tried to reassemble it but parts are missing. All things change. I know that. I hate that. At least sometimes I do.

How to Create Balance in an Unbalanced Life

When the garden day is done,let’s strip off the gloves, put down the trowel, and go plop on the garden stones or the back steps.Let's sip a little cool water, crank up the Stones or Carlos Naikai, and let the afternoon's steam recede into the live oaks. When the pale moon peeks out, we can watch and feel the earth itself breathe in relief exhaling its perfume of rosemary,jasmine,and Cecile Bruner roses. Let's find ourselves lost in Rabbi Abraham Heschel's "radical amazement." For just a moment let's be deep in celebration of what actually is, not in anticipation of what might be if we just could work harder, longer or smarter. For just a moment let's banish those culturally approved adjectives of illusion. ( N.B.This idea is from Pastor T.Hershey. I changed some of the words to fit N.Florida)

Goodbye Prince Charles

Running a business in a 100+ year old house is like sailing the high seas in an ancient wooden sailboat. The boat leaks at times. The engines whine on occasion. One hopes that some crew member will have the expertise to stop leaks and fix engines, or the boat will take on water from the storms of life and sink. For the past two years, the person who has stopped the leaks and fixed the engines at the House on Cherry B&B was Charles Bradford Faughn, a dear neighbor. Brad was a man who could negotiate the best price with tradesmen and do a superb job on almost anything himself, a person who read interesting books and was eager to share them, a good cook, a devoted mate and a fine gardener. He built the micro greens garden, hauled hundred of pounds of organic dirt, brokered the hex stones that created the beach and fixed the garden’s bulkhead. He marveled at the miracle of seed and sun and soil much the same way I have always done. He died this morning. I feel blessed to have known him.

It's Not Gift of the Nile, Folks!

Judging from some comments, many of my well educated friends have read too many geography texts and see too many You Tube videos in which there are descriptions of the Nile " flowing gleefully over the Egyptians fields,adding rich soil to the alluvial plain." The St. Johns is NOT the Nile. My damage assessment is still going on. When it flowed over my fields via Beryl's breath, it salt burned my vegetation, and left a pyramid of dock planks, 105 Sprite cans and tons of Styrofoam peanuts.( Which should be banned from the earth.) On a brighter note,once again my garden has exhibited its Etch-A-Sketch side. Now, what new designs will appear?

Hurricane Beryl's Ballet

She pirouetted across my garden, dropping trees like abandoned partners. She spun over the river patio and hurdled hexagons. She deposited two kittens in the compost area and washed all of the mulch out of the labyrinth. For and afterthought, she sent horizontal winds into the attic laden with rain which created and interesting pattern on the B&B upstairs ceiling. Then she exited stage left. Not a bad opening act for the 2012 Hurricane Season.

Cursor Crazy

Laughter is therapeutic. As I stood before the 300 dear members of the Florida State Garden Club Convention, I was not at all certain my audio visual component would be functional. The laptop cursor had developed a mind of its own and periodically would drift to left or right and on occasion would disappear completely. I began having a 30 year flashback to that moment in Miami Beach's Fountainbleu Hotel when the power went out after my first slide and I stood in the dark telling 600 folks, " What you would have seen, would be??????????????????? Luckily, on Friday May 11 the A.V.gods bestowed mercy. The Power Point worked and my evangelical message concerning the necessity for community garden was delivered and seemed well received. Thank you, Mr. Cursor. Huge thanks!