Appreciating Nature - Our Plants

These plants rode in the trunk of our car for over a week while moving in 2011

I am not really sure how long these plants have been in our family.  The Heart Leafed Philodendron was started from a plant my Mom had every since I could remember.  The other on the left came in an arrangement sent for one of many possibilities via floral arrangements so long ago that I can not recall when.  Many plants have come and gone, decided it was there time and I've loved them all.  These two old friends, however, rode in the trunk of our car for over a week (along with 2 others that are not doing well so they are in the "baby crib" being restarted currently.  A couple times a day we would open the trunk lid so they could breathe and get a little sun shine.  They give me hope, each time I water and mist (Sunday is the day for this loving task).  They remind me that along with the many reasons we left our former home, we also brought a lot of beauty.   They remind me every time I go in or out the door that we continue growing even if uprooted, shoved in a very dark place for a while and are neglected.  I so love the love returned from my plants.  

Further over on the front stoop you would see these two, the one on the left is a start from the above plant.  We started this one shortly after moving here to thin the recovering plant after getting it out of the trunk.  The Fern was one of the many adopted plants.  It came with another, a Boston Fern, but the Boston decided to transition.  There are more but I won't bore you with the variegated philodendron or the mother of millions (which due to its willingness to spread stays secluded in its own portion of the front porch).

Most of our plants have been given to us.  Neighbors just show up with them.  The Mother of Millions, silver leaf and ferns came from a lady who was moving and wanted her living greenery to continue.  The 3 varieties of Hosta from another sweet lady thinning her garden.  The strawberries and mint planted this year from other neighbors.  The most beautiful thing about our garden is that each time I water, prune, care for our plants the beautiful memories of how they came magically warms my heart with love.   

Think I want elephant ears for the yard and a spider plant for the house next.  Yes, I believe that would be very nice.  

 

Strawberries and Everyday Miracles

 Strawberries and every day miracles.... yes life as seen "Between the Cracks". 

This year we decided to add strawberry plants to our little back yard garden.  The previous tenants had the above strawberry planter in another section of the yard using it as a catch all while calling it a compost bin.  Here in year three of our little project of back yard love, we decided to dig it up, put it where we wanted it then use it for what it was designed to be, an upright, space saving, strawberry planter.  YAY us... only we forgot that strawberries are usually started very EARLY in spring or late Fall and this was quite late in the season.

With high spirits we pried, pulled and dug up the now half buried strawberry bin from its well established place in the yard.  Why did we not just use one of the new in the plastic ones from the garage?  All I can do is shrug and say... no we needed this one and only this one would do.

After wiping the sweat from our brows, moving the bin and wondering where we put the Alieve, it was in what we decided would be the perfect place for our new strawberry plants.  It was beautiful and perfect and ready.  So off to the store we go for strawberry plants.

At the store we picked up all of the seeds we would be planting for this year then asked where the strawberry plants and garlic would happen to be.  The clerk gave us a very strange look and pointed toward the clearance bin.  We found a package of 6 strawberry plants and the garlic at a price we could hardly believe.  The price could only be considered a MIRACLE.  Of course, after the garlic was planted I learned that we are suppose to plant garlic in the FALL.  OK so now we are calling the beautiful garlic growing an experiment.  I honestly have no idea what to expect but suppose it will turn out exactly as it is suppose to.   

The strawberry plants... ummm well I just was not sure what to think so I soaked them in water over night to at least be able to pull the bundle apart without them crumbling into dust.  I was not encouraged but with high spirits continued forward with the project.  Weeks after planting our newest garden addition I called over my Partner and several of the neighbors asking them what kind of strawberry plants these were?  In my entire life, I had never seen leaves like that on a strawberry plant. It was decided that they were not strawberry plants but were weeds that had come up in the soil.  Just in case though I kept tenderly caring for them.

Another week or so and I saw my neighbor swinging her Grandbaby on the swings in the park just behind our house.  We visited for a few minutes about her beautiful Grandbaby and then she says... "Hey, my Brother brought me over 6 huge pots of strawberry plants and I have no idea what to do with them."  I'm like woah..... really??? Is this really happening???  But this is our life of living appreciation and fully being open and receptive to getting what we want like a spoiled child from out of thin air.  I say, "I know what to do with them, come with me".

Oh, almost forgot, and why did we not use the new bin still in the plastic in the garage?  My neighbors Mother came to visit him and stopped to admire our garden.  She remarked over that Strawberry container and how versatile it could be.  Something like that would be just perfect on her back deck because she was well past the age of the bending and stooping an actual garden requires.  You should have seen her face light up... she just beamed sunshine and happiness as I said... Wait right here for a minute.  So that is where that extra strawberry bin was suppose to go, we were just holding it for her. 

Still chuckling over how synchronicity works but well... the Strawberries are doing just fine now and everything is right in our world once again. 

Diversity - Finding the Similarities

We moved here 2 years ago last month.  I'll try to keep this story short without leaving out anything important.  This is a skill I am working hard to gain, it is a work in progress.

The story of how we ended up here would be considered a miracle in itself but maybe another time I'll tell you that one.

We arrived on the hottest day of the summer that year (101 degrees) and set up our camping equipment in the back yard much to the surprise of all the neighbors on either side.  The home we were moving into was vacant and had been for over a year.  Being a bug a phobe (as I call it) we had stopped by a department store, picked up bombs to bomb the house before moving our things into it.  Over kill?  Probably but this is me authentic, unique and when my mind is set unshakable.  Our neighbors first impression of us?  Two crazy women, one bed in one tent AND they had a Doberman and a Mutt. 

Before coming I had heard all about the neighbors on either side of us.  Our friends lived on the one side so we were very familiar with them.  They filled us in on the others close while we sat with a fan blowing on us, the dogs safely under the shade of the huge maple tree (something I've always wished for) and just relaxing.  We were filled in on the neighbors from the Middle East... from IRAC and hardly speak English.  We learned about our friends perception of this.  Next to our Middle Eastern neighbors was a family (duplex) that were very quiet, the wife suffering from depression, often fighting and the husband nice but a rough exterior.  On the other side of the street were the "crack heads" with no evidence of this being truth but it was a perception.  We were given warnings to protect us from making mistakes with involvement with the "wrong" crowd.  Oh I so love them for their concern.  We listened carefully and thought (both my partner and myself) this will turn out exactly like we want it to.

The first year was busy with working on our duplex, finding a job, getting the pets settled and all of the normal things that go into a big move.  The yard was overgrown but it was exactly what I had again wished for, green and growing wildly just waiting for loving hands to prune it, make it ours.  I keep trying to tell the neighbors that I do NOT have a green thumb, I just help things that wish to thrive, thrive but they don't believe me.  This first year neighbors began bringing me their sick plants.  I would put them with the healthy plants and ask the healthy plants to encourage them and within a month or so send the now healthy plant back to its home.  Still laughing over that one.  Well all except for one that was a real survivor and the owner decided to leave it here and just come visit it occasionally.

Working in the yard gave me the opportunity to have short visits with neighbors as they came and went.  When the basil took over 5 different pots, yes it was a mess but they were too healthy to throw out, I took pots to many of the neighbors and even gave one to a sales person walking by trying to sell cable to the neighborhood.  Another time a lady from the apartment complex down the street asked about all of my plants on the porch as she walked home from the bus station.  She said, "I sure would like a start".  As I had restarted the over growth in pots that spring, I sent her home with a couple. 

It was during these wonderful days that the diversity in the neighborhood became a colorful, beautiful landscape of its very own.  The "crack head" neighbors are really sweet and visiting with the lady I learned that we had both lost a teen age child finding that we were much more similar than not.  The Middle Eastern Family has become an extended family, we share food back and forth, laughter, spoil their children on holidays and if we ever need anything heavy moved they are on their way smiling, happy to help family.  The neighbors next to the Middle Eastern Family moved but before doing so, each time I saw either of them, they would return a warm smile.  Another moved into their duplex, a black man who after visiting for a while out back, I learned that we both had a passion for dog training.  What a beautiful landscape of diversity and if I had listened to well meaning people who out of nothing but love wanted to protect us, it would have never been seen.

What did I learn?  We, as human beings, are more similar than we are different.  We each hold our own perception of events surrounding us.  We each choose, in every moment, how our own personal worlds will respond to us by saying yes to the positives and letting go of the rest.