Powells.com

Just a quick note...

I just discovered a new source for on-line ordering of books~they do offer Slow As Molasses Free Shipping when you purchase $50 or more...just read the fine print for yourselves...with amazon.com you only have to purchase $25 to get Slow As Molasses Free Shipping...but I'm willing to spend a little more to put money in the till for an operation I think is solely based on this continent instead of half-way 'round the world...

oh, and about that, I e-mailed Barnes & Noble several months ago & one of their customer service reps said all of their customer service is based in the U.S...I'm not sure if there was some kind of dodge in the specific wording, but I still try to shop bn.com before amazon.com unless the price difference is, to my cheap self, too great...of course, B & N's CEO makes an obscene amount of money...okay, call it "compensation" if you want...but still...how much "compensation" does one man need? 5.5 million in one year? and they've been in trouble for going out of their way to undercut independents...but amazon.com fired employees who were tryin' to form a union...

It is confusing...and irritating...

I guess you gotta pick your demons...kind of like voting these days...

I'm not saying people who live outside of the United States don't need jobs...what I'm sayin' is Americans need jobs as factory after factory is shut down and corporate jobs are trimmed left and right...and I don't think businesses should be sending jobs overseas...I know there have traditionally always been companies who moved internationally, but this...well, this is a horse of a different color...

the issue is a lot more complex than that~I know there are columns and columns of figures, stockholders to satisfy, huge executive paychecks to write and endless other foolishness...enough numbers to make the front part of my head go numb just thinkin' about them...but all those numbers really just seem like they add up to nothin' more than a poor excuse for being greedy, thoughtless, and downright ugly...


Well, for me, when I can choose supporting a company employing people here in the U. S., for only a few extra bucks, that is what I'm gonna do...that part is pretty simple to figure out...

So, small independent bookstores where I can loll about for at least a couple of hours at a time are my first choice (just bought a stack o' books at Malaprops in Asheville), but here in a small town where there is only a used bookstore that is, um, to be gentle, lacking, on-line ordering is going to happen and I'm glad to have found Powells...



anyhoo...check it out...Powells

***disclaimer: I just placed my first order with them today...soooooo...as with all things, proceed with discretion if you choose to order...

***added note of astonishment: I guess this qualifies as my first mini-rant on my blog...who knew where sharing a web address would end up as a little diatribe about the evils of outsourcing?

***additional note of irony: my first ad from ad-sense will probably turn out to be an amazon.com ad...or bn.com ad...assuming I even get approved now...oh well...save me the trouble of having to *filter* some corporations anyway...

The Ordering of the Bulbs

Thinking ahead to cooler days, time has come to order bulbs for fall planting...

This year alliums will be planted at Number 17...I ordered 3 different varieties from Brent and Becky's...but being sorta, um, frugal as well as a gardening nut, I could only bring myself to order one $8 Globemaster bulb...crazy...because if that one bulb turns out to be a failure, then I'll never know the glory of a bed Globemasters because I won't convince the Inner Cheapskate that forking over $8 for another Globie is a good idea...and if that one bulb flourishes, being a huge wonderful success, then I'll kick myself for not having planted more...

The biggest lesson I keep re-learning in the garden is Plant At Least Three of Everything...okay, except for that amazingly expensive dwarf Cutleaf Japanese Maple...even if your garden is a, nay, The Model of Restraint, having the same plant's colors, textures and dimensions flow throughout your space is going to help it all make visual sense...even if you buy plants with the abandonment of a child turned loose in Chuck E. Cheese's clutchin' a bag of tokens, having no plan in your mind or if, like me, you just lose your senses once your soles (hah hah...okay...I do love a pun, even a s-t-r-e-t-c-h-ed one) touch hallowed nursery ground...

(okay...hold it a second...I can't be the only gardener who coolly states "No, I don't need a buggy" to one's spouse...then ends up carrying, dragging, and pushing pots along the ground with your braced good leg until said disappearing spouse can be located, shot a warning glance and sent to retrieve a buggy...it really does happen almost every time we visit a garden center)

and load everything that catches your eye into your buggy, forgetting that your plan was only to have pinks, blues, purples, and a touch of white...

Remember~

Just about any color or size or texture can work in a garden if you place the same (or close to the same) all about the place...

In the spirit of that idea, amidst a brokered arrangement between the Gardening Nut and the Cheapskate, I bit the bullet, ordered 5 "Mars", 5 "Firmament" and 10 "Purple Sensation"...plus I ordered a few galanthus...I missed the snowdrops this year so I'm putting some in and crossing my fingers that they'll naturalize over time...

If not, I reckon my Inner Cheapskate and the Gardening Nut will have to take that to the mat next bulb ordering time...

What a Sad Little Face

This pitiful little face was one of the last things we saw before Mr. G and I left for a long weekend in Asheville...

Gillie a.k.a. Gillie Monster a.k.a Sugar Booger a.k.a The Booger obviously knew something was afoot...I don't really know how because we don't do a lot of travelin' together...actually, none since the Boog has been with us...and that little sad face is pretty much the reason why...

But, once we were on the open road, the mood lightened as we headed off to scope out Asheville as a possible re-location spot...

We only sang The Booger Song once every couple of hours...and then we'd sing the Baby The Woo song...Baby The Woo's real name is Suki...but bowing to the required law that affectionate nicknames shall be strange, we wound up with Baby The Woo...that's Woo in the background...Mikey the Black Shadow is peeking into the shot...


As much as I fancy myself a seasoned traveler, perusing the travel pages with great interest, basically, I'm a Nester Extraordinaire...I can be away for about 2, maybe 3 days, and then I'm really to Be Home...not on the way home...At Home...and every time I'm sitting through some endless drive or flight home, I make the same solemn vow to never stray from my own backyard yard again...because there's no place like home...

What gives me solace when I am away from home (havin' forgotten that vow many times over) is finding a garden where I can sit a while, maybe pull a few weeds...knowing this about myself, our B & B was specifically chosen because of its gardens...a Garden with a friendly Orange Cat is the apex of the Away From Home Comfort Zone...alas...no orange cat in the garden...but our last night there, as we sat on the front porch having our evenin' cup of coffee (makes me sleep like a baby...I'm afraid to even think what that says about my metabolism), a chatty Orange Kitty Girl wandered by the front porch, just to say "How ya'll doin?"...it was, possibly, the pinnacle of our trip...

Many a cat has crossed my path while I'm away from home and they are always a blessing to my soul...

The knot garden below sits beside the inn's carriage house, on a slope, and was formed with a great deal of thought and care...this garden reminded me of the importance of structure within a garden, even if the structure takes backseat to the flowers and decorative devices...and thus reminded, this fall and next spring will be spent adding much needed "bones" to my garden...




Asheville's gardens awe me as much as San Francisco's...I guess having cool temps in the summer (although not when we were there) even if only in the evenings and in the morning (and then how hot is it really going to get? Hot is 95-plus temps for weeks running and night time temps that don't go below 80....it is already "warm" when you get up in the a.m.) encourage the gardens to just throw caution to the wind and bloom and grow and bloom...every where I saw overblown flower beds filled with huge perennials...very few annuals...just made me sick to think of my for-all-practical-purposes empty flower beds limping along through a Georgia July with August about to come on...

I found another garden of sorts to enjoy~the North Carolina Arboretum...a great place...miles of trail, but since I was sportin' my strappy little Aigner sandals, that wasn't happening...plus, apparently our coastal Georgia heat followed us to North Carolina...it was blazing hot in the middle of the days we were in Asheville...

But, I'm getting ahead of myself...before we went to the NCA, we dropped in at the Western North Carolina Farmer's Market...it was a bustling place! I'm used to the farmer's market in Savannah (just not all that much goin' on) so I was happily overwhelmed by the many vendors and their beautiful piles of vegetables and fruit...and especially pleased to see all the plants for the garden! I directed Mr. G into the parking lot of Jesse Israel's shop, hopped out of the car only seconds after it rolled to a stop and start drooling over the great plants...I still regret not buying that white-tipped canadian hemlock...I just wasn't sure it would take the heat & humidity down here...and it wasn't cheap...

Several plants did manage to snag a spot in the mega mega mini-van before it headed off to the arboretum...a pot of yellow crocosmia (I have the orange & love it), an agastache (easy to find, but I haven't put one in here), a dwarf cavendish (for Mr. G who has a strange fascination with banana trees), a pot of hens and chicks (I've developed an equally strange fascination with succulents & simply cannot resist grabbing a pot of Hs & Cs whenever I come across one), and a caryopteris "Snow Fairy"...I'm pretty ticked with myself because I meant to ask Mr. G to swing back by there so I could grab some more yellow crocosmias and some Caesar's Brother irises...and some "Lavender Mist" meadow rue...dang...

Just across the way, we wandered through the building, looking at all the wonderful things, and I found a little lady with a wonderful German accent selling 3" pots of herbs and dried flowers from her garden...I bought a huge bouquet of dried sea holly and 3 pots of santolina...

We thought about dropping by on our way out of Asheville and picking up some of that lovely produce, but I was so worn out that I couldn't face dealing with a mountain of whatever once we made it home...

I did manage to uncover one more plant source before we left the mountains...there is a nice nursery in the little town of Horseshoe Bend, on the way to the Pisgah National Park...I ended up with 2 red cordylus and 2 "Red Buttons" fountain grasses...oh...and I picked up a delightful geranium with thick cream-edges leaves...I can't recall where that one came from...perhaps Jesse's? oh well...like I need something else to stick in a pot and tend to...

ah, if only plants and orange cats were not joined on the List of Consoling Delights by hot chocolates, glossy magazines, stacks of intriguing books, and lots of starchy cheesy foodstuffs....I'd be a thinner and more financially sound woman ...but perhaps not a richer woman...

This
photograph comes from the garden of MB, a dear friend...

It is as lovely as anything I have ever come across in the countless magazines I've pored over throughout my decades...

When I saw this photograph, I immediately thought to myself, "I want that spot in my garden"...not a spot like that one, but that exact slice of gardening bliss...

Of course, who wouldn't want such a beautiful vignette to pass by on the way to the compost pile or to the shed?

But, rather than straight to the junk shop for an old basketed bicycle in a fabulous faded color to stage a pale imitation of MB's wonderful bit of artistic gardening, this photograph led to me an area within my heart here I have spent many futile hours wrestling with feelings of unfulfillment and envy over what others have in their lives...

For the past couple of years, probably owing to many things~my son's move from teenager to young adult, the loss of grandparents for whom I cared not just emotionally, but physically as well, and the realization of my fading youth (if you've ever stood in front of your bathroom mirror and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d the skin of your face upwards or outwards from your nose, you know the feeling I'm talkin' about...)~a sometimes vague and sometimes decidedly not vague sense of unease has colored many of the waking moments of my life...honestly, I prefer the more vague sensations as opposed to the out-and-out dismay...at least you can drown those vague feelings with a bowl of rich chocolate ice cream or a Thin Man movie or a chat with a good friend...all three together, of course, can provide hours of relief from that insistent and irritating nagging voice in one's head...

Far too many precious minutes have ticked away while I wondered "what next?"...

God has had his ear chewed off while I moaned and whined, carryin' on about finding meaning in my life, making all sorts of bargains and half-assed promises...of course, being raised here in the South and knowing full well what a hissy fit is and how to pitch one...well, after I got tired of all that without having any discernible results, I'd have myself a nice little hissy fit...

"Fine...you know what? I don't care any more...don't tell me what I'm supposed to do with the rest of my life...I don't care...I'm just tired of askin' and getting no reply...fine...fine, fine, fine, fine...did you hear me? I. don't. care...so there...fine..."

After one of those episodes, several days might roll by before I'd go crawlin' back...

"Okay...tell ya what...how about just one little sign? something simple...no need for drama...well, okay...a booming voice with a bright ray of light would simplify matters...little room for getting that message scrambled, right? heh heh..."

Silence...well, except for all the other personalities who live upstairs in My World...amazing how we can pressure ourselves without any help from any one else...

So the cycle would go...Endless whining, pretending patience and openness to what would come, getting a little irate, taking a "tone" with God, apologizing and settlin' down for a while...then the hissy fit, followed closely by sulking and ignoring God other than a cursory "Hi, howyadoin'" in the a.m. (I might have been showin' my behind, but I wasn't completely stupid)

Then, I read a book titled Second Calling...most of the book failed to elicit much of a response from me, but I kept reading...and, near the end, my patience was finally rewarded...the book's author writes of a concept evolved out of the biblical story of manna...

Taking that concept, wrapping my brain around it and running with it has been a godsend for me...

I've entered a place did I didn't know existed within my soul...

Each day, I begin my prayers by thanking God for all the wonderful things within my life (I try to be thankful for all that is within my life, but I'll be frank...I haven't reached the stage where I can do that and mean it...) and I know now that what I have is ample for my day...and for my life...

If I am blessed in the future by doors opening into new areas, then I hope I will be able to bravely step across those thresholds...I know that doors of choice open all day long for every one...and each choice leads to another choice...and another...the image I keep in my mind's eye of this belief is of a rain chain...

It is the new areas that I have craved admittance to since the old areas where I was needed and valued have changed or vanished altogether...

And, therein, I believe resides the heart of the matter...most of my anguish came from not being "needed" as I was before my son began his transformation to adulthood and my grandparents died...so when I began to daydream about what was to follow, it became an exercise in vanity...being all about Me and feeling valued and powerful and a Take Charge Kind of Woman...and, of course, since it was a daydream, I was about 50 pounds lighter, had great Big Hair, immaculate make-up and a smokin' car...

But, while daydreams are all well and good, for me, those particular daydreams demeaned the reality of my life...they undercut all that I hold closely and dearly and worked so hard all those years to create...

Sometimes, my hard head can make learning what should be an easy lesson so very difficult...

and if you should happen across a shabbily fabulous old bike with a basket for holding big blooms that at this point exist only in my gardening fantasies...

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

I have no idea who makes these What-Are-You quizzes up, but they are a fun way to spend a minute or two...

So, I am a Snapdragon and ""Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

And it is true! I do love to make people laugh...that is a good thing, right? well, at least it is a harmless thing...right? okay...the desire to make people laugh, especially those we hold close to our hearts, is a good thing...as long as the laughter doesn't dismiss or gloss over the uncomfortable feelings exposed when life's little messes come along and your loved one is looking for safe haven while sharing anger/sadness/jealousy/uncertainty/[fill it in here] with you...

Making others laugh can be a gift, but the gift has to be balanced with discernment...believe me, I've dropped the ball more than once when it comes to be discerning about whether someone wants me to listen with my mouth closed and my heart open or whether he/she wants someone cracking jokes about a crappy situation...

I guess one can cultivate a lot of abilities...the ability to be discerning...the ability to profusely apologize when one misses the Discernment Boat...the ability to find new short-term friends if one possesses neither of the previous two abilities...

As I've gotten older, I think...I hope...my discernment skills have moved beyond Beginner to Intermediate level...I still have to apologize often enough to realize that I have yet to become the Zen Master of Discernment...

We are the proud new parents of a set of Adirondack chairs and footrests! I've been coveting these for years, but being the cheapskate I can be, I've always been able to talk myself out of taking the plunge...

and now that we have them...have parked our butts in them...have drank our coffee as people more conscientious than us passed by on the way to church...have drank our coffee and grinned at one another...

I have no idea why we waited so long...

There must be a lesson of gigantic proportions in this tale...

Anyhoo...these came from Cranberry Woodworks, a company based in Boone, North Carolina. Ever happy to save a buck where I can, I ordered the Do-It-Yourself kits for the chairs...the footrests come fully assembled.

This lovely plant is my first ever datura...I still can't believe I actually have a datura about to bloom in our front courtyard! Mr. G picked this little darling up earlier this year from Jane Fishman's spring garden exchange in Savannah...

I stayed home that day for some reason, but Mr. G., in Savannah running an errand, was kind enough to stop by, drop off a huge potted asparagus fern the previous owners left here and pick up a few seedlings for me.

The gardener in me hasn't grown ruthless enough to simply pitch the asparagus fern over the back fence. My one and only citrus tree wasn't quite so lucky...after 3 years of struggling with that blessed orange tree, begging, pleading, coddling...over the back fence it went...and I've not had a moment's regret or shame since then (about the orange tree, that is)...

I gave serious consideration to just sitting the Asparagus Fern by the road and letting the chips fall where they, well, fell...but the plant swap seemed a more assured chance of letting the Asparagus Fern find a kind and lovin' home...something I couldn't provide since asparagus ferns just don't float my boat...in fact, there is something about them that I pretty much actively dislike...there just is not rhyme or reason to why certain plants warm our hearts and others leave the cardiac unit cold...

Anyway, the poor abandoned thing sat on the back deck through frost and freeze, still managing to send out little green arms come the spring...anything that determined deserved better than my, at best, benign neglect...so I gave Little Fernie a haircut and sent her out into the world to seek her fortune...

I like to imagine that Little Fernie sits somewhere, basking in the the glow of her new parent's admiration, with a place of honor...and an assured spot inside when one of Savannah's handful of freezing nights comes...