The Wasteland
Ten months of neglect. My poor garden.
This was not my plan. But as the narrator of “A Christmas Story” said, “Life is like that. Sometimes, at the height of our revelries, when our joy is at its zenith, when all is most right with the world, the most unthinkable disasters descend upon us.”
Luckily, we’ve not suffered unthinkable disasters, just a bunch of illnesses and family issues and basement flooding and gutted vacation and what-not that ended up taking up almost a year of our attention.
Each thing was manageable on its own. But strung together, the tedium of “if it’s not one thing, it’s another” took its toll. After a while, I just wanted to stop thinking for a month or two, hide on the sofa with my puppy dogs, eat chips and dip for dinner (no, I didn’t; Mulch Boy would never allow me), and watch endless episodes of Ultraman.
But then, out of the blue, I found myself suddenly wanting to get off that couch. I looked at my disastrous yard and instead of feeling like I never want to see it again because look what a mess I made of it, I found myself thinking, “One day, weed the small bed; next day, edge the walkway; next day, trim the hydrangeas.”
Suddenly the gardening seems doable again, enjoyable again. Remember when we moved in, when these beds didn’t even exist? And look how nice they were just this last spring! Hey, Adrian Higgins just said in the Post that it’s time to start seedlings indoors!
I just cleaned up the indoor growing setup in the basement.
I cleaned and reorganized the shed.
I bought new loppers.
I think I smell Spring in the air.
This was not my plan. But as the narrator of “A Christmas Story” said, “Life is like that. Sometimes, at the height of our revelries, when our joy is at its zenith, when all is most right with the world, the most unthinkable disasters descend upon us.”
Luckily, we’ve not suffered unthinkable disasters, just a bunch of illnesses and family issues and basement flooding and gutted vacation and what-not that ended up taking up almost a year of our attention.
Each thing was manageable on its own. But strung together, the tedium of “if it’s not one thing, it’s another” took its toll. After a while, I just wanted to stop thinking for a month or two, hide on the sofa with my puppy dogs, eat chips and dip for dinner (no, I didn’t; Mulch Boy would never allow me), and watch endless episodes of Ultraman.
But then, out of the blue, I found myself suddenly wanting to get off that couch. I looked at my disastrous yard and instead of feeling like I never want to see it again because look what a mess I made of it, I found myself thinking, “One day, weed the small bed; next day, edge the walkway; next day, trim the hydrangeas.”
Suddenly the gardening seems doable again, enjoyable again. Remember when we moved in, when these beds didn’t even exist? And look how nice they were just this last spring! Hey, Adrian Higgins just said in the Post that it’s time to start seedlings indoors!
I just cleaned up the indoor growing setup in the basement.
I cleaned and reorganized the shed.
I bought new loppers.
I think I smell Spring in the air.
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