Hidden GardensTonight I found another world. It’s been hiding in plain sight in an alley that is just a few steps from my house. If I had stayed glued to my recliner and not gotten myself out the door for a walk I would never have seen it. It was a reminder that sometimes it’s a good idea to take another path. How did I find this magical place? I decided instead of my usual route walking the streets in my neighbor I would walk down the alleys. The houses in my neighborhood are mostly small older homes squished together onto small lots. Everyone surrounds their yards with fences to give the illusion of privacy. After strolling down a stark tunnel of tall fences and garage doors, I headed into the alley of the houses directly across the street from my house. What a surprise! Almost everyone had planted mini gardens in the tiny spaces in front of their garages and fences. The houses were completely unrecognizable from the alley. Although I may have waved at some of these folks from time to time I had no idea who these precious gardens belonged to. Who knew there were so many creative artists living just across the street. Some of the gardens were meticulously planted and arranged and some were created using worn out containers that had had former lives in the kitchen or the closet. There were driftwood borders, repeated by different neighbors, in long stretches on both sides of the alley. Obviously they inspired each other. They inspired me too. I thought about my own alley, particularly the neglected section behind my house. Although I have spent hours digging and planting veggies and other plants in my front yard, the space on the alley side of my back fence looks like a weedy jungle. I don’t want to turn this experience into another reason to feel like a sloth, even though I can be very sloth-like at times. I want to think of it as inspiration. When I do have time to attack the alley with my weed whacker I might want to consider making a little hidden garden of my own. and be open to the beautiful surprises I can find by taking a different path.
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There are a lot of critters in my neighborhood, possum, raccoons, squirrels, gophers, rats. Except for the gophers and rats, I feel it is my duty to be kind to my forest friends. Because I had an abundance of tomatoes this year I didn’t mind if I found the occasional chewed up tomato skin indicating that they were enjoying the bountiful crop as much as I was. However the other day when I went out to check on my garden I found a bunch of half chewed tomatoes on the ground not to mention a couple of defiled tomatoes that were still on the branches, including a GREEN one. THAT is not OK. It was too late to figure out some better way to protect the remaining tomatoes so I was forced to pick most of them. I will do a final giveaway to my friends and neighbors and sadly accept that for me the tomato season is over. Despite my disappointment that the squirrels took advantage of my magnanimous approach to sharing my veggies, I do have to admire their skills. They are amazing creatures with the athletic abilities of an Olympic level gymnast. I found this really cool YouTube video called “Backyard Squirrel Maze 1.0 - Ninja Warrior Course” that illustrates this. It’s longish but so worth watching. I would give it a 10 for cuteness and entertainment value. It sounds dangerous but the Beast Grip is actually a contraption that holds my phone and makes it easier to take pictures. It also makes it possible to add special lenses to my phone like a micro lens and a wide angle. Yesterday I headed out for a walk around my neighborhood with my Beast Grip in hand. It’s a route I have walked hundreds of times but I was on a special mission to find things I hadn’t noticed before, or see things I had noticed in a new way. This is what I found. Some of the photos are edited, which I also did right on the phone. Sometimes I really love technology! I had fun exploring this new world that I have not really seen before. It slowed me down. My body didn’t get as much exercise but my brain and my soul were very happy. This is the Beast Grip
![]() Cats are my soul connection, but I have had birds on my mind for a while. Lately they have been showing up in a way that has usurped cats. Yikes! They have taken over my art projects. At Christmas I spent days obsessively cutting out cardboard birds and painting them to use for my outdoor decorations. I hung them from lighted branches and made a string of white doves flying over the word “joy” spelled out in fake greenery and sparkly lights. I could feel the joy every time I looked at them. When it came time to pack up my decorations I had to keep out a few. I still have them hanging out in my living room. ![]() I put birds that reminded me of my sister in what I call an art “shrine” made from repurposed cardboard boxes. There’s a cormorant like the ones we had seen at the beach sitting in the trees spreading their wings out to dry. There are photos of the turkey that crossed my path while I was out on a walk just a few days after she died. There’s a big blue heron like the ones that visited the pond near her apartment, and mini versions of the flying doves I used in my Christmas decorations. What is it about these birds that is making them occupy such a big space in my brain? I know I feel a sense of freedom in birds and their ability to fly. I can imagine myself escaping into the air, floating away from daily cares and the reality of gravity. It’s a wonderful image to contemplate when the sadness of missing my sister gets overwhelming. And even though turkeys aren’t an expression of free flying abandon, my other-worldly experience meeting up with a turkey on a walk has a sense of spiritual comfort and connection for me. There are changes happening in my life right now that are scary and unsettling. I would like to be free, soaring above it all like a bird but it’s hard to take that leap of faith. Even though I would like to spread my wings I feel like I’m not quite ready to take off. Fear can make me want to cocoon in my safe little world, sitting in front of the TV with my cat in my lap. But if all I do is watch people on TV do stuff I might miss out on my real life. Birds are a reminder that I need to do the things that make me feel healthy and happy, like getting out and walking and being open to the unexpected weird joys of life.
After days of rain we finally got a break in the weather and I headed down to the beach for a morning stroll. I was not alone. The locals were out in force. There were joggers and dog walkers, families with kids, surfers striping off their wetsuits with modesty towels wrapped around their waists, and other beach debris collectors like me. The beach was a veritable treasure trove of driftwood that the raging winter storms have dumped. I carefully wended my way through heaps of water worn branches and giant redwood logs. I wasn’t going to pick up any of it but I couldn’t help myself. While my sister was visiting a few weeks ago, we spent a lot of time on the beaches collecting driftwood. Now I can’t stop.
My eye was caught by something interesting. Oooh, oooh, twisty sticks! I saw a very cool idea online where someone had painted driftwood sticks and arranged them in a container like a bouquet. I had to have them so I gathered them up and hauled them home. Will they ever end up actually becoming a part of my décor? Who knows. I have boxes of driftwood in my living room right now, waiting for my creative inspiration to turn into creative action. I inherited this compulsive desire to collect natural objects from my parents. Our house was always full of things we found on weekend car trips like pine cones and cat tails. I learned to appreciate the beauty and decorative aspect of this stuff. I still have a giant pinecone wreath, leftover from Christmas, hanging over my fireplace. My parents made it when we were kids. I remember my Mom working on it. It took weeks and a lot of careful consideration to decide exactly where to place each and every pine cone. The driftwood sings to me. I love its unending variety of colors, shapes, and textures. I love seeing it just sitting there in baskets and boxes, even if I never actually DO anything with it decorative-wise. My cat Mario loves it too. He likes to sit among the containers and check out the beachy smells. I think he is as addicted to it as I am. I am not fond of bugs, computerized or otherwise. Recently I had a Little Miss Muffett moment while I was relaxing in my recliner. I felt a bit of movement on the back of my shoulder and when I reach up to check it out I felt something round and bug-like. I have no idea what it was because I frantically brushed it off of my shoulder. I don’t know where it went. I couldn’t find it. That alone creeps me out. I imagine there is a squished arachnid keeping me company somewhere in my recliner. I need to vacuum thoroughly.
When I was a kid I was terrified of wood ticks. Actually I still am afraid of ticks. My family often went out for picnics and fishing expeditions into the wilds of Minnesota. My Mom told us when we were toddlers she would put me and my sisters in the bathtub when we came home and pick the ticks out of our scalps. Just the thought of it makes me squirm. I remember riding home from an excursion into the great outdoors. I was sitting in the car behind my Dad and I saw a tick crawling on the back of his collar. I guess someone grabbed it. I doubt that it was me. I just remember spending the rest of the drive feeling like I was trapped in a vehicle full of creepy crawlies. I couldn’t wait to get home and strip down. I know I am not alone in my fear of bugs. It’s not a very rational fear. I am way bigger and smarter than they are. Or at least I am bigger. In high school biology we had to make a “collection” of either leaves or insects. There was only one person who did insects. She was one of my friends. I couldn’t even imagine actually choosing to go around and collect bugs, but she always marched to a different drummer and was much braver and more enlightened than the rest of us. My internet research revealed that insects have been on this planet much longer than we have and they way outnumber us. About 80% of the Earth’s animals are insects. They have been present on earth for about 350 million years. Our ancestors have only been around for about six million years, and the modern form of humans only evolved about 200,000 years ago. The earliest fossil cockroach is about 280 million years old – 80 million years older than the first dinosaurs! I know that they are an important part of our ecology and that life on this planet would cease to exist if it wasn’t for bugs. And despite their Alien-like appearance, they are much less scary than we think. Of the huge numbers of insects on earth, only one percent are harmful to humans. Most insects are harmless or actually beneficial. For example, without bees to pollinate flowers, plants would not have a way of reproducing and we wouldn’t have anything to eat! I do like bees, and butterflies, and ladybugs, and other "cute" bugs. It's the ugly ones that send chills up my spine. Despite their beneficial attributes, we humans continue to denigrate insects and try to squish and spray them into oblivion. Even calling a computer attack a “bug” is a putdown of their real value and importance. I doubt that I could ever learn to love wood ticks in the way I love my cats, and I’m not going to stop protecting myself from a spider crawling up my shoulder by smashing the bee-geebies out of it, but perhaps I can learn to appreciate bugs in the same way I have learned to appreciate opossums. I just hope Weebly can get that darn bug off my blog site. |
Leslie Masona woman in search of her post-retirement future Guess what! By subscribing, you get notices about the latest Little Old Lady with Cats posts sent to your mailbox!
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(from an entry posted on 5/1/2015) “I definitely fit some of the characteristics of a little old lady with cats: Retired - check, Single - check, Like to knit - check, Have cats - check. . .I do not want to get stuck in my Little Old Lady persona, however. In fact, this blog is a risk taking experiment in exploring and redefining what I want my retired life to look like.” Categories
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