My Garden Tidy-Up

21 Aug '06 6:28 am

Despite the embarrassment I will tell you a sequel to my seed "collecting" activities around Lake Garda (of blessed memory) in Northern Italy earlier this year. I was struggling through an alcoholic haze, and on an untried route(!) to the hotel when I found a lot of large seeds around the base of a tall cypress type tree. I collected a pocketful which I duly transferred to an old plastic bag back at the hotel and then labeled. Some weeks later, and back at home, closer inspection showed my seeds to be the stones from olives that had passed through the alimentary tract of some local birds. Mind you, that Bardolino wine was something else. Gerry.

22 Aug '06 2:14 am

Tee hee, Gerry I loved your story!! Laughing

I'm sure most of us have been there or done something silly whilst, how shall I say it - er, "not at our best"!! I know I have, although I don't think any of my embarrassing stories are gardening-related, so I won't bore you with them!! Wink

Norvona, your poem is beautiful, and having pictures to go with it was a lovely visual-aid. Isn't it lovely that so many of our forum friends have such creative talents? There's poetry, art, needlework, carving and all sorts of things we all enjoy in addition to gardening - the fact that we all love gardening and nature is definitely due to our gentler, creative sides being foremost, it's all to do with the same part of the brain, isn't it. Smile

22 Aug '06 8:41 am

You are absolutely right ,Bambi ...I have been teaching dyslexic children to read and write since 1985 ..They come to me out of school hours. The specialised tests they have from a SLD psychologist will show that they are pre dominantly right-brained ,which is the artistic ,musical,creative ,spiritual part of the brain ,whereas schools attempt to teach them from the left brain...As you have ,I easily recognise this wonderful sensitivity in the contributors to this forum...and this is why we all understand each other.
Dixie.

22 Aug '06 8:41 am

You are absolutely right ,Bambi ...I have been teaching dyslexic children to read and write since 1985 ..They come to me out of school hours. The specialised tests they have from a SLD psychologist will show that they are pre dominantly right-brained ,which is the artistic ,musical,creative ,spiritual part of the brain ,whereas schools attempt to teach them from the left brain...As you have ,I easily recognise this wonderful sensitivity in the contributors to this forum...and this is why we all understand each other.
Dixie.

5 Sep '06 12:10 am

What a lovely, diverse selection of people we have here in the forums who do such important things in their communities - there are teachers and artists, and those lucky few for whom gardening is their passion and their living!. Plus, I've just found out that our own Christopher the Garden Gnome is a magician (amongst all his other creative talents! Shocked

)

Although I love my own job as an estate agent it isn't my true passion, but it pays the bills for now! In fact, this very day, my husband has started his first teaching job after having completed his training in July, so when he's settled into that, I think a couple more life changes are going to be happening. So, today is significant in that it is another step towards our dream - him a teacher, me a writer and living in the middle of nowhere with a wonderful garden surrounding us and LOADS of animals too! Pray

On another subject (well, back to the original one really!), my plans for the garden are definitely coming together. I think I'm going to plant wild flowers in the top right-hand corner of the garden around the tall fir-type bush thingy (v technical, I'm sure you'll agree! Rolling Eyes

), some cyclamen underneath the acer, I've got some herb seeds which can go in the bed against the house which is underneath the sitting room window and next to my hibiscus, I think my tomatoes will do best in the corner next to the variegated tree on the left-hand side as that spot gets the most sun. I've also got some tulip bulbs which I'd like to plant along the back wall. That about completes the garden, so I'm really waiting for planting time, but in the meantime I'll have some pruning to do and preparing the beds to make them all nice and ready for my planting-fever in a few months!

7 Sep '06 6:24 pm

Bambi, I love it when other gardeners twitter on about their garden plans - I mean 'twitter' in the nicest possible sense, by the way! Anyone who can describe a conifer as a

10 Sep '06 1:39 am

LOL! My dear Moosey, you are absolutely right - I did twitter rather a bit in that post, didn't I?!?! Laughing

I should really know what a conifer is, but you know when you just can't find the word, a vague description has to suffice!! Wink

With regards to the snakes, well, we had a bit of a disaster this morning! I was wandering around getting ready for work (boo - working on Saturday again!!) and happened to look into one of the tanks but couldn't see either Beren or Luthien, the Royal pythons who live in it! Well, we had fed them last night and it seems one of us left their door open (only about 2cms, mind you, but that's enough) and they'd escaped. Now, this has happened before so we weren't too worried to start with and in fact, we found Beren quite quickly as he was just curled up behind my husband's art portfolios, but Luthien wasn't in any of her normal spots (she usually finds the drawer where we keep all their supplies and curls up in a bag of substrate or something). We turfed out most of the room and shone a torch behind the cupboards and stuff, but it got to 8.55 and I had to leave for work (half an hour late, but that's beside the point!)

Now I'm waiting for a call from hubby to say she's slithered out of her hidey-hole and all's well, but I'm not really holding my breath - wherever she is, she could well stay there for hours or even days! When I get home this evening we'll probably be pulling furniture out and everything!

Hope she's alright - she's such a beautiful snake, and she's only a year old. Sad

All the others are fine, though, and we've been thinking about getting a nice mate for Mrs Hudson, our adult Corn snake, so we can start to breed them, and then we'll have lots and lots of lovely little snakies - hurrah! Smile

10 Sep '06 2:47 am

Dear lovely Bambi! You could be my daughter, if you are not yet 30 as you told us once...But, my love, just tell me about your pet snakes : are they behaving, say , like cats or dogs?? How do you play with them, show them your tenderness and love? Do you ever take them in your arms?? How do THEY show you their love? What do the eat?

Well. I'm posing to you all these questions, cause I know how deeply and frankly you love and admire the whole Animal Kingdom...But me, although I could never kill any snake -- I would rather start running, if I could, I could NEVER adopt a pet snake at home!! Why? I think it would be impossible to hug them and press them on my chest , like I do with cats and dogs all the time... Plus, I think....I am rather afraid of them...I am not naturally attracted by them...

Now. The fact that you know I am a true friend, will it be enough for you , to explain to me, how come you decided to adopt pet snakes, together with your cats? And what is the reaction of your cats? Are they....friends or what??!!
Can you express your feelings? I would appreciate that immensely!

10 Sep '06 4:25 am

Dearest Liza, you are so sensitive that you appreciate that others like things you may not, or that you may fear - I believe that is the best quality anyone can have - to accept others' feelings even if you don't understand them yourself.

My snakes aren't like the cats in that we cannot give them affection because they don't feel like mammals do. We do hold them, though, but not very often as they can become stressed if they are disturbed too much. I think their appeal lies mostly in knowing about them - how they work, as it were - and appreciating their beauty and magnificence. Their brains aren't as advanced as a mammal's so they do not recognise us or anything, but I suppose the best way of describing their 'love' for us is to say that, when they eat well and breed well (we haven't tried that yet as they are still too young), and shed their skins well, that is our reward, that they are 'happy' and not stressed or ill in any way.

They don't come into contact with the cats if we can help it, because the cats would probably kill the smallest ones, and maybe have a go at the larger ones too - you know how cats love to investigate anything that moves, and ours are still very kittenish in that they 'dab' at things with their paws all the time! Most of the time the snakes are in their tanks and the cats can't get to them, but they do sometimes stare at the movement the snakes make in that way that cats do.

I don't think I've really described them well enough for those who don't know about them to understand just what amazing creatures they are - their colouring, their movement and yes, their feel, are just incredible! I love all animals, as you said, and I just find it fascinating to know about them and their ways!

11 Sep '06 7:51 am

Dear good friend, Bambi! I enjoyed every line of your reply! Your explanation is full of right scientific information, enthusiasm, humor, and admiration for what I usually call "Divine Art"!

I loved your explanation concerning cats/snakes probable interaction..Are you sure , that only snakes are in danger and not the cats as well ? I loved your "kittenish" expression! My Tina lady cat , who died of cancer last July, was 17 and still very ...kittenish! I miss her so...Out of 6 cats I had when we moved into Belgium 11 years ago , only Tina' mum is left, 19 years old . She is still shining and healthy and looks much younger...Only, very-very attached to me...

I completely share your feelings of admiration for these beautiful creatures! I had experienced these feelings with the big , green, beautiful crickets in Corfu about a month ago...The funny looking face of my husband, though, was telling me that he wasn't sharing so much the same feelings...But he has been accustomed to me , after 35 years we know each other..

Well. Thank you again so much for the wonderful reply, dear Bambi! Both on the explanation level and the quality of narrative level!

My Garden Tidy-Up

My garden tidy up

Seed Collecting

Left Brain-Right Brain

Left Brain-Right Brain

Twittering!

Lovely snakes (???....)

Snakes

What an amazing reply!