Having spent the better part of three days (and a small fortune) at the Friends School Plant Sale, I am now officially committed to digging into my new place. With help and inspiration from my mom and sisters I returned with no fewer than five flats of flowers, ferns, grasses, vines, herbs, medicinals, natives and a few veggies, along with a couple shrubs, a Red Lake currant bush and a Reliance peach tree. To my dismay, the Persian lime and satsuma mandarin suffered crop failures and the Turkey fig sold out, but I picked up my Sapphire Tower and scored an extravagant passionflower at half-price. There was no monkshood to be had, but an enchanting Witch Alder and a beguiling Witch Hazel readily cured me of any disappointment. I've got Toad Lilies, Spiderwort and Goatsbeard, oh my.
The weather on Friday was miserable and Saturday was chilling, although it was beautiful to see the vibrant budding colors of May cloaked in white for a time, despite the slight damage it may have done to those most tender. Things brightened on Sunday and warmed up a bit, but between the frozen wet and the sale, we didn't end up getting any of the yard turned over, which was actually just fine by me. Rain today and in the days ahead means I'll have a few more evenings to plot things out before I set to work tearing up the lawn, another welcome respite from actually having to get to work... CM kindly delivered me a nice big pile of shit as a birthday gift, so I've got a good supply of composted manure to help get things started, once the sun comes around again.
The perennials in my gardens are filling out quickly and somewhat ahead of schedule due to the early Spring, making it easier for me to see how much space I really have to work with here. It's quite a bit; by my rough calculations, I've got around 1200 sf of "finished" garden space plus around 200 to be dug up in the back, not counting another 200 or so of raised beds for herbs and veggies, etc. that have yet to be created or the eleven window boxes and planters to fill. Should be enough to keep me busy for a while.
I went back home for the evening on Friday, to see my niece as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream. She was the essence of grace and presence, naturally, and the show was rather surprisingly well-played by the whole troop, with a few standout performances that kept the crowd laughing for two good hours. It was a bit of a trip for me, down memory lane (as it were), having played Hermia years ago in a similar production, and a singing Mustardseed in another sometime after that. It's hard to imagine that so much time has passed. Yet so it does. Another year of my life has ended, and begun, and it is what it is, isn't it?
Be as thou was wont to be;
See as thou wast wont to see.
Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower
Hath such force and blessed power.
I find in my long-neglected copy of The Riverside Shakespeare these words, a parking ticket now fifteen years overdue and a monologue transcribed by my own hand, oddly befitting but of unremembered origin...I should memorize a few, perhaps, to recite when I am older. Language lives on the tongue--but what am I talking about? I've lost track. Anyway, I would like to send my deep and abiding love and gratitude to my dear mother and sisters, for time spent these days past, and to the future you continue to inspire, to cultivate, and to dream. I know a bank where the wild thyme grows...
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