The Serpent's Garden
11/04/2011 08:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaLooks like Izzie has finally managed to escape the evil influence of those infernal dementors. A couple of days of rain sure helped to wash them off
So the recent absences in Cyberia have been attributable to interesting activities in the mundane muggle world rather than some sad serpent pity party
But was a bit peeved about the incompetent goblins at the day job concerning a certain city school fete which is held only every second year
In the past would have either requested the day off or swapped a shift with one of the 5-9 house elves who would only be too delighted to get an extra few hours on a Sunday
The fete was on from 10am to 4pm but had to leave just after 12.30 due to starting work at 2pm
The two big attractions from last time were the fruit and vegie stalls and the books of course
Got some avocados and real kosher free range eggs and sat around drinking coffee and nibbling on Italian short bread biscuits before pottering on over to the book stall
Got a big fat juicy hardback copy of Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" plus a book about pleasure gardens, another on exorcising the demons of procrastination, a parody of fairy tales "This little piggie went to Prada" and Walking in this World the sequel to "The Artist's Way" for the princely sum of five silver sickles
Was in the process of paying for the stash when another book hunter spotted the big fat Dan Brown book and was just about to snatch it when the serpent informed him that it was already taken
It's not that Izzie needs any more books. Soon the buggers will be taking over the serpent basket and Izzie will then have to sleep on the floor
But this stash was just too irresistible. Been nibbling here and there and the Julia Cameron one is really very good in spite of all the lovie dovie new age spiritual stuff. There is actually a method to her madness and a very down to earth practical core once you get past all the "Great Creator" slush
Slinked back to the Lair after the work and was reading the garden book which had lots of wonderful ideas for themed gardens including scent gardens, a posy garden, tea gardens (where all the plants can be picked and put in a pot) wildlife gardens, touch gardens and even a night garden - some of which - especially the night and scent gardens would have a lot in common
Each chapter had suggestions from large to small and quite tiny gardens. Got to thinking that now that the rains have finally arrived and it is planting time, this would be a good occasion to start from scratch again and get rid of all those weeds that never made it past the hell that was summer this year
So did not give into the temptation today for an afternoon snooze after work but got busy moving rocks, pruning the macadamia nut tree and removing quite a few critters that curled up their toes recently
Also sat and watched the tiny birds twittering around in the wattle tree while plotting and planning
The serpent clutter and hoarding addiction extends also to the garden where we have bought a ridiculous number of baby trees, shrubs and other seedlings many of which have long departed this mortal coil.
The garden diary contains the complete record of our follies and failures since April 2007 and it would be just too too scary to do the sums. But slowly learned that anything planted after September is likely to meet its demise by January. April and May plantings have the highest survival rate
Wattles and woolly bushes do best of all as they are such tough little buggers.
So the trick now is to do a cheap skate autumn planting because there's no point in tossing more dollar notes down big holes and then just burying them
Buying fruit trees is allowed only on the condition that we dig and prepare the holes first and fill them with juicy tasty soil and compost. And of course coming up with some form of irrigation or reticulation other than watering by hand. It's the lack of a reliable watering system that is the weak link in every Izzie attempt at serious gardening. It seems such a waste to use drinkable mains water on weeds. The rainwater tank really does not have enough pressure to be useful for any serious watering but is perfectly fine for filling watering cans or buckets.
Got a mango tree back in October and procrastinated so long with planting the critter that the ma came and rescued it from an early demise. Not going to ask for it back. Will simply dig and prepare the hole first and then buy the tree next time so that there's no excuse whatsoever for serpent laziness. Mangoes and figs seem the most likely for the next attempt at trees
So decided that April is for planning and May for planting. Except for garlic which needs to be in sooner rather than later. Maybe it will be third time lucky. Always managed to get nice green garlicky shoots which are very tasty in stir fries but never did get any bulbs to set before the sun sizzled them to smithereens
It's nice to finally have the energy and inspiration and especially the weather for plotting and planning grand projects again
So the recent absences in Cyberia have been attributable to interesting activities in the mundane muggle world rather than some sad serpent pity party
But was a bit peeved about the incompetent goblins at the day job concerning a certain city school fete which is held only every second year
In the past would have either requested the day off or swapped a shift with one of the 5-9 house elves who would only be too delighted to get an extra few hours on a Sunday
The fete was on from 10am to 4pm but had to leave just after 12.30 due to starting work at 2pm
The two big attractions from last time were the fruit and vegie stalls and the books of course
Got some avocados and real kosher free range eggs and sat around drinking coffee and nibbling on Italian short bread biscuits before pottering on over to the book stall
Got a big fat juicy hardback copy of Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" plus a book about pleasure gardens, another on exorcising the demons of procrastination, a parody of fairy tales "This little piggie went to Prada" and Walking in this World the sequel to "The Artist's Way" for the princely sum of five silver sickles
Was in the process of paying for the stash when another book hunter spotted the big fat Dan Brown book and was just about to snatch it when the serpent informed him that it was already taken
It's not that Izzie needs any more books. Soon the buggers will be taking over the serpent basket and Izzie will then have to sleep on the floor
But this stash was just too irresistible. Been nibbling here and there and the Julia Cameron one is really very good in spite of all the lovie dovie new age spiritual stuff. There is actually a method to her madness and a very down to earth practical core once you get past all the "Great Creator" slush
Slinked back to the Lair after the work and was reading the garden book which had lots of wonderful ideas for themed gardens including scent gardens, a posy garden, tea gardens (where all the plants can be picked and put in a pot) wildlife gardens, touch gardens and even a night garden - some of which - especially the night and scent gardens would have a lot in common
Each chapter had suggestions from large to small and quite tiny gardens. Got to thinking that now that the rains have finally arrived and it is planting time, this would be a good occasion to start from scratch again and get rid of all those weeds that never made it past the hell that was summer this year
So did not give into the temptation today for an afternoon snooze after work but got busy moving rocks, pruning the macadamia nut tree and removing quite a few critters that curled up their toes recently
Also sat and watched the tiny birds twittering around in the wattle tree while plotting and planning
The serpent clutter and hoarding addiction extends also to the garden where we have bought a ridiculous number of baby trees, shrubs and other seedlings many of which have long departed this mortal coil.
The garden diary contains the complete record of our follies and failures since April 2007 and it would be just too too scary to do the sums. But slowly learned that anything planted after September is likely to meet its demise by January. April and May plantings have the highest survival rate
Wattles and woolly bushes do best of all as they are such tough little buggers.
So the trick now is to do a cheap skate autumn planting because there's no point in tossing more dollar notes down big holes and then just burying them
Buying fruit trees is allowed only on the condition that we dig and prepare the holes first and fill them with juicy tasty soil and compost. And of course coming up with some form of irrigation or reticulation other than watering by hand. It's the lack of a reliable watering system that is the weak link in every Izzie attempt at serious gardening. It seems such a waste to use drinkable mains water on weeds. The rainwater tank really does not have enough pressure to be useful for any serious watering but is perfectly fine for filling watering cans or buckets.
Got a mango tree back in October and procrastinated so long with planting the critter that the ma came and rescued it from an early demise. Not going to ask for it back. Will simply dig and prepare the hole first and then buy the tree next time so that there's no excuse whatsoever for serpent laziness. Mangoes and figs seem the most likely for the next attempt at trees
So decided that April is for planning and May for planting. Except for garlic which needs to be in sooner rather than later. Maybe it will be third time lucky. Always managed to get nice green garlicky shoots which are very tasty in stir fries but never did get any bulbs to set before the sun sizzled them to smithereens
It's nice to finally have the energy and inspiration and especially the weather for plotting and planning grand projects again
no subject
Date: 2011-04-12 12:44 pm (UTC)A Walk on the Wild Side
Date: 2011-04-13 03:02 pm (UTC)Will do a proper read from beginning to end and only then will be able to comment but so far from what the serpent has seen - this book is much more sensible and practical and infinitely less slushy and sentimental
Actually tempted to follow the 12 week (what is this obsession with that infernal number?) program but will have to save the start for the serpent holidays in late May as squiggling at 5.30 in the morning does not sound particularly inviting. But from the recent lack of online or offline squiggling - depriving the Pensieve of pondering, musings, pity parties and assorted ramblings is definitely not conducive to creativity.
Curious to know of the Cat experience with the morning pages knowing that you are so so much more disciplined than the serpent when summoning the creative muses
Still cannot believe that we got five such tasty bookses for a mere five silver sickles - especially when the original price tag of $$39.95 of just this one is still stuck on the back cover
Re: A Walk on the Wild Side
Date: 2011-04-13 03:26 pm (UTC)I couldn't stand the handwritten morning pages for any more than a few weeks, no matter how many times I tried. I think that the benefits of handwriting are greatly exaggerated. My current sweet spot for the morning pages practice is a daily post to http://750words.com crossposted to a privately hosted Wordpress blog. 750words.com is great for badges, stats and motivation, but if you ever need to browse your entries later, it's rather unreliable and cumbersome (and the online editor is buggy sometimes). I try to write it in the morning, but if I'm in a hurry, I complete the writeup during the day. Don't know if it actually helps creativity or anything, but having a place for whining and rambling in private is definitely addictive.
Oh and the 88 cards Tarot Queen certainly knows a thing or two about discipline, which us mere mortals can't ever hope to achieve... ;)
Re: A Walk on the Wild Side
Date: 2011-04-13 03:50 pm (UTC)Stramge that the DG is infinitely easier to make a story from but maybe will do that one next year. Will be interesting to see how the same cards with different decks can change the story
Still struggling to find some way of linking the RVR cards in some sort of seemingly seamless saga. There is much less unity in design in this deck than the DG which makes it that much trickier.
Will be rummaging through the decks and notebooks tomorrow hoping for inspiration. So so way way behind on Wriye at this stage. Is almost a lost cause. Still not gotten around to doing the Freytage TFW exercise using seven centrals cards from the random nanowrimo draw
Thanks for the tip off on Books of Blood. Way behind in offline reading too. Got another two weeks before the book is due back for the final time and cannot be renewed so is good to know which stories are worth checking out first. Liked the meat train and the one before it with the tattooed body and presently in the middle of the one with the demon sent to torment some boring old geek
Re: A Walk on the Wild Side
Date: 2011-04-13 04:05 pm (UTC)Well if you count all the drafts towards the word count, you have plenty of time, seeing that you practically have 50K in your pocket already, in November :) My current WC is 33K (44%), but I'm horribly behind the BYB. Don't really like the way it's going, too - they ask to write random scenes here and there, instead of taking care of the overall structure. Also, I hate posting unfinished stuff, unless it's really funny or something.