for it to be fall just yet. Yes, yes, I know that its - October. And yes, yes, I've seen that the almost timely sales of colorful candy has begun - and heaven help me, I saw a SALE on Christmas trees already. And - even still - I'm - I'm not READY to turn in my cute little open toed sandals, and my flirty short skirts, and the light and summerly billow sleeve tops. I'm not READY to unpack the pants (none of which fit - so why bother unpacking, hmmm??) and the sweaters and the knee high boots and the closed toe shoes. I'm not READY for the trees to start turning colors, and for the early morning nip in the air to last all damn day. I know, I know - after summer comes fall, and after fall comes *shudder* winter - but then! comes spring, and I suppose that's kind of nice, so I might be able to get over the whole end of summer bit, but - I'm not READY.
But, whether I'm ready or not really makes no never mind to the state of the weather, now does it? And really, I should be thankful that I'm in the south - first frost would have already happened in Indy by now. And I would feel even more foolish still strolling about with bare legs and knee length skirts. *sigh* I suppose I need to reorg my closet - and I really need to face up to the fact that - well, - I ain't got no winter clothes. Tsk, let's be honest with ourself, I can't FIT into my bloody winter clothes. Mind you, I really didn't have that many - I've got some 5 or 6 year old sweaters, and about *thinks* 3? really 2 pairs of decent winter pants - several winter skirts - msot of which I've actually never worn, and the ones that I have worn, well hell, even I'm too old for them now. But, what I'm really shortish on are stockings. I hate pantyhose with a deep and abiding passion, and trouser socks really only work when you have, well, trousers. I'm currently plotting on the cheapest possible way to refresh my supply of clothing. I need pants, really - 3 pairs will last me for most of the winter - 2 pairs black, and one pair brown. I don't THINK I need any shoes, but I'll have to double check. The socks I can get from the Dollar Store. I'll try the thirft store for the pants - but - it's usually a true adventure finding my size....so maybe I'll try VC instead. Hmmm....
Let's see - what else is new? I'm composting - I can't remember if I mentioned that before - it's rather interesting, as I've become a curb bandit. Bags of grass clippings and leaf rakings are not safe from - DumdumDUMMMMMMMM - the leaf bandit. (If anyone in Memphis has bags of leaves they want to get rid of, and don't want to have to pay the city to pick up - I'll come get them!!!!) I've got a 7x12 area in my front yard that is dirt - good dirt too, as I think that landloard dumped some useful stuff there in the spring, and another smaller area - 1.5X4 or so, that is reserved for the strawberries. Yummm. I'm also trying to consistently remind my beloved husband to bring home the HUGE 5 gallon buckets from work so that I can use those as container plants. So far, my listing of veggies to grow is pretty short. Tomatoes, green peppers, habeneros, strawberries, going to try the herbs again, going to try lettuce again as well, (I think both died due to too much sun and too much heat and not enough water - I'm actually CONSIDERING growing them inside in front of our huge window downstairs....but I'll most likely stick them in buckets outside so they can be moved around as needed) garlic, maybe onions, cucumbers, some sort of squash (I like it, hubby doesn't) maybe spinach- oohhh - maybe kale, cabbage!, hmmm.... not sure what else. Sunflowers!
I was lucky enough to score a REALLY great deal at the Library Book Store Saturday - the Squarefoot gardening book for 1.50 (it usually sells for 18 bucks) and a Rodale book on common garden problems (and how to fix them) organized by both plant and by pest for 2.50 (and I don't even know how much that one costs as it's out of print now - I'll have to check the back cover) but - SCORE. I've also ordered a boatload of seed catalogues......I don't think that they even START to show up until November at the earliest though.
It's - interesting - really. I've ALWAYS wanted a garden - it's soooo.....satisifying, really. It's so - lovely to DO something that actually provides results. *frowns* I'm not saying it quite rights - results isn't really the word I want to use. *sigh* What I do for a living - I'm not really PRODUCING anything. I'm not creating anything - I'm just a cog, in a huge system, turning and turning and turning - and for what? To make a cheaper ream of paper? Bah! I'm so disconnected from the end results of my work, it's almost like my work doesn't HAVE an end result. *laugh* Theres a sci-fi story about how the government creates jobs in the future - there is one shift of men who tighten all the bolts on a building, and another shift of men who loosen them. Each of them really feels like they are doing something worthwhile - but really, it's busy work of the highest magnitude. When I'm at work - I'm doing busywork. When I'm in the garden, elbow deep in moist leaf bits, or wiping dirty sweat off of my forehead as I turn over the dirt, or uncovering FLAGSTONES that some brilliant person thought it would be a bright idea to bury, or carefully replanting bulbs that decided they wanted to start growing AFTER I turned the dirt over (seems like the dirt was so packed down that nothing would grow - but now that I've loosened it up - watch out mama!!!) in my starwberry patch - that is NOT busywork. It's hard work, and it's not glamourous, and it's certainly not well paid, and really - I'm sure that once you add up my labor cost and the cost of me screwing up, and the cost of the seeds and all the other odds and ends - really, it would be cheaper (at least for the first year or so) to just go to the dang store and buy it - it's so much more FULFILLING to look out my front door and see the actual - results - of my effort. Hm....that's an interesting insight. I PREFER doing work that I can actually SEE the end result of - doing something that truly produces something - a tomato, a website, a joyful birth, a poem. Humph.
I plan on actually starting from the seeds (that's another book I've been keeping an eye out for - Seed to Seed - basically explains how to get seeds from all of your plants) and we are trying to figure out where exactly in our house we are going to set up the germination tables - I think I might use the walk in 'pantry' type closet that is currently the store house for everything plus some stuff& junk - most of which we use infrequenlty enough that they could actually be stored in the attic) so - that'll be part of a project that'll keep me busy through some of the fall - as really, once I get the compost started good, there's not much else that I can do with the dirt until March or so.
So yes, ya'll get to hear about my garden plans until MARCH. Hehehheee.....
I've got a little - side business (other than the doulaing bit) that I've been plotting on/considering for the last year or so. I haven't put it fully into operation because there were afew design elements that I hadn't solved to my satisfaction just yet, and it's interesting, as the answers have been just POPPING into my head lately. Hehehe. So.... the last bit of a stubmling block is - purely creative. I'm trying to figure out a - theme, so to speak. Or really, a series of themes that can be linked together - a series of visual themes. Once again, I've come up with the idea around what I want, and now I'm just waiting for the little spark of - hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm - brilliance/inspiration to strike. And I think it might have just struck, just by writing about it - I'll have to look into that a little more.
Heavens, but I'm in a chatty mood today.
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