Moving Meditations

There has never been a time when I have ever called or considered myself a designer or an artist. I have too much respect for either tradition to muddy their waters with my ego, and I am horribly terrified to be considered any kind of dilettante, though I know I must be one. Sure, I like to make things, and I love to handle and learn new crafts, but what I do has much more to do with a desire to keep my eyes and thoughts sharp, while at the same time, connecting both with my fingertips. I feel very much the same way about growing my plants lovingly from seed, and to tending my garden, keeping my thoughts, and actions in line with what I see. This is purely a religious act for me, a form of moving meditation, and this is why I garden.

My Newest Gesneriad: Kohleria

After a rough evening of therapeutic foster parenting—that had been preceded by three other difficult days and evenings with the same 10-year-old client—when my husband arrived home last night I knew that the first thing I would do when I gained my freedom today was run up the hill to the spring plant sale put on by the Portland African Violet Society. As usual, I was not disappointed, and as always, it was the calm and soothing plant purchasing experience I needed on a day like today.

I am just a novice when it comes to my knowledge of African Violets and their many lovely cousins, but from what I have been learning from watching last year's acquisitions over the past seven months or so, these plants are just a lovely addition to any collection of houseplants and for those of us who want to see blooms and blooms, these do not seem to disappoint.

One of today's purchases was this Kohleria "Tropical Night" plant. As can be seen in the photo, it was hard to miss at the sale and I was really excited once I put it in the windowsill upon my arrival home. Though it will grow quite a bit more in the coming months, its lush tropical Central American beauty just warmed my heart and melted away something tired inside of me. What I'm left with after that is my continual and ongoing fascination with African Violet folks, and an earache I just cannot get rid of from this horrible head cold I've contracted sometime in the last few days.

You Know You're in the NW When...

You are walking along the sidewalk in downtown Seattle, it's raining, you look down at the grate you are about to cross, making sure you won't slip and slide into the street, and you see this. Where else in the world do ferns grow like this? I am sure they are out there, but this little sight was kind of funny and I had to smile. Hope it makes you smile too.

The Blues of Springtime, and Becoming a Therapeutic Foster Parent

As we slowly liquidate the sprouted seedlings in the basement, moving them into larger pots, and then into the neighbor's borrowed greenhouse across the street, I feel spread thinner and thinner. This is the happiest time of the year, it is the busiest time of the year, but it is the most painful time of the year too when my chronic illness and immune system just fall apart. Some part of me says that I am far from the only one using gardening and its many pleasures to alleviate the effects of chronic pain and, just generally, the blues that come with all of this baggage.

Garden therapy is probably the most important job I perform, though now, therapeutic foster care is probably becoming more important. Of course one always hopes that their own children will help them out in the garden, but we all know that it's a lot to ask of a brief visitor in your home with their own troubles and issues. When I started a few months back, I was worried that the kids might hurt some of my plants, but that is far from true. The plants are either ignored, or the blooms are lightly pawed and stared at for rather long periods of time. Crafts for the garden have been far more popular, in general, or anything craft-like. Many of the girls have also loved flower fairies while some boys have actually liked flowers and the complicated process of how things grow.

As things grow, I will return to bartering some plants on craigslist for weeding to alleviate some of my physical stress from the hereditary angioedema. This is a strange lesson for the kiddos to learn, but it is one that they seem to understand far more than I'd thought since many of them already have needed the rules bent for themselves in some way. Needing to enter what I prefer to call an early retirement used to feel pretty horrible when it meant that I had to say NO to many of the career choices I had opening up to me. Now, there is the ability to teach again and to help them with things few adults know how to do for themselves when their own lives fall apart midstream. To live on the fringes, making a life for yourself with dignity and the ability to take pride in your own self-care and the activities you love is not such a horrible thing. I am just so happy that I am able to be a homeowner, with the ability to do the things that I am doing now, with these amazing kids.