"I am the captain of my ship!" So said the ant as he stood on the cork bobbing in the middle of the Pacific ocean. "I've done my exercises, harvested that seaweed, and prayed my Rosary. The weather is calm, and I skirted that storm. I am indeed healthy wealthy and wise." Slowly, the camera pulled back to a satellite like perspective. First revealing 8 billion other ants scattered on bits of flotsam and debris. Slowly opening to continents and a planet and finally a solar system and our Universe.
The death of my niece Lisa has left me feeling a bit small. The YouTube videos I linked above left me feeling a bit like that ant, captain of my ship but master of oh so little. Lisa died after a long battle with cancer. I have no great wisdom about death or Lisa's life. I know intellectually that death will come to all of us. I admire Lisa for either accepting or ignoring that reality and in her final year marrying a good man, Ira, and getting some of that joy that often escaped her during life.
Last nights storm was wind, fury and lightning with a couple of inches of rain. To my drought parched friends and family in Colorado I'd be happy to share some of that rain with you but - see the ant explanation above. I think if you press *9 you can get through to the government department that handles rain. The garden handled the storm quite well. A bit of woodchip mulch pushed around, a hose on my water tank to be replaced and one of the early pepper starts looking up at me with a "really!" expression on it's leaves.
Next week I'll put out the rest of the peppers, tomatoes and such. Finding room will be the usual challenge. The overlap of succession planting is always a function of ignoring the mis-perception of physics. It seems illogical that a small raised bed packed tight with garlic and potato onions can fit a tomato plant that by itself will grow to take over the space. The missing perception is that fourth dimension, time. The potato onions and garlic are already sprouting seed stalks and scapes. It will be a while before it's time to harvest them and they will crowd, a bit, the plants I put among them. Mostly I think I can fill those beds with the last to be planted, melons. There will be a few stunted peppers and such in there, but we'll see.
The perennials in the garden are going to need wheels on them if that fourth dimension keeps rolling along. I'm watching right now as a bumblebee visits the gorgeous purple flowers of the sage. Last year the sages were two small companions to some tomatoes. They obviously liked their spots and grew and flowered, which is yay, but.. The flowers would look spectacular out front but are needed right where they are to feed good bugs. The bed they're in is getting kinda tight, we'll see! The Rosemary needs a bit warmer microclimate if it's going to survive. Where, I've no clue. Perhaps I can move it to plant with the Meyers Lemon tree I've got in a pot. My zone is wrong by just a notch for each to survive outside but perhaps with a bit of engineering I can arrange them in-between water tanks a south facing brick wall and a bit of a cover. Time will tell.
The compost takes time, the perennials and trees grow and change the dynamic of the garden over time. I thread the needle with succession planting and try to build something of purpose and beauty but always it is time, time. Time that unknowable future. Will it rain, give us drought or hail? Will some political scheme beyond my ken multiply or destroy? Will some universal clock ring a random or preset alarm bell? And what about God, does he exist, does he have a sense of humor?
I am the captain of my garden. I will sow, harvest, and Lord knows plan and plan again and hope he does have a sense of humor.
Oh and before I go a note of a political nature. Crony capitalism uses the word "capitalism" ironically. To socialize the losses and privatize the gains is not capitalism. Those who cloak themselves as capitalist but use cronyism are simply thieves.
Doug A.
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