Sidetracked Charley

Growing up in Albuquerque I came to expect roses for my birthday as Mother's rose garden was usually in full bloom. I loved a yellow one in particular. This year in the high country I will be lucky if it doesn't snow. Still the lettuce in my green house is good. The hollyhocks bit the dust and the poppies are not coming back up. The winter was just too cold and wet. But the sunflower seeds are planted and if BoBear does not get through my security measures and dig up the flower beds there will be something blooming this summer - later this summer. There always seems to be changes around my birthday. This year it is an empty rental unit. But the tenant is leaving me a queen sized bed, a white leather couch, and a small kitchen table. The beginnings of a guest house for visiting friends, or if the world continues along the same bath, fleeing friends. With Dog Gone Park providing income I think I can do without the rent. I have before. And if art sales pick up I can do imp...

There was a television show of the same era as the original Twilight Zone I used to watch. The basic theme was an event in each episode which changed drastically the direction of the characters and the plot. I became obsessed with defining those events in my past. I had some big ones. There was my mother's breast cancer, the art teacher coming after me with mat knife and then inviting me into he storage room for me to apologize, and being struck by a skier while teaching. But not all turning points in our life are so clearly defined. Sometimes we continue on our planned route without realizing we must have taken a turn because this is not where we thought we would be. As my sister would say in our off road adventures, "Not lost but just unsure of how to get back to where we started." To which I would ask, "Is that what we want to do? Go back?" It rarely was. We sort of enjoyed going beyond the limits of the GPS. Note: in the mountain west that is easier ...

During the days of the Black Death women survived to a greater percentage then men. Theories abound as to why. I hod with the men never do as they are told theory. They just didn't drink the herbal tea their witch wives told them they should. The end result was more surviving wives ended up in control of property the Catholic church wanted. And so was born the Spanish Inquisition, which in truth was everywhere in Europe and not just Spain. The church in all its evil maleness came up with a plan to get the property and put women firmly back where they belonged: under the control of their male masters. They promptly declared all surviving females of the black death as witches and offered to remove the satanic demon from their bodies with a bit of torture they would have to pay for. Well, the old priests quite enjoyed the torture part so they made it worse and worse and worse to the point a women could be found innocent of witchcraft and possession only by dying w...

And I am so depressed. I had such plans for spring and summer. I hit the ground running till the 18" of snow on May 9th. For the next few days it seemed to be one road block after another. Gutters were suppose to go up today. Handyman broke his truck. And to further impact my schedule I volunteered to have the June 10th garden club meeting at my garden. Too bad they may need to go into the house too. I should relax and just take it all one chore at a time but I get overwhelmed at the enormity of the task before me and sit like a rabbit in Watership Down totally tharned out in the middle of highway. In part I just feel so far behind. Enter the Garden Journal I keep. I thumbed back to last year and I am really about two weeks ahead as far as edibles in the hoop house. But I made no notes regarding poppies or hollyhocks. None of the former and only a couple of the latter have poked their leaves above the soil. And this coming weekend was when I went to the nursery in La Cue...

A foot of snow when three inches was forecast. No power. No internet. No cell phone service. Grateful I still have my land line. But I can reach nobody who has a cell phone, even those out of the area, because I deleted the long distance option with Century Link because of the expense. This is like being on Lake Powell in a house boat totally cut off from the world but today it is the snow and not the high canyon walls limiting my access to the world. Because of the heavy spring snow on the hoop house I am having to go out every hour or so and shake or brush it off the covering plastic to avoid total collapse. Note: if it weren’t for the solid ends it would have collapsed already. We are looking at three more days of this. Currently I have a fire going and am thankful I took the extra effort yesterday to bring in an ample supply of firewood. But I am wet and tired and frustrated. At least, before the power went out at 4:35 a.m, I had my coffee made, and had cooked and eaten br...

Inside my hoop house My garden journal, an actual physical sketchbook, in which I record my successes and failures in edible gardening at 8250 feet since 2011 served as my reference when I was urged to enter a State Garden Club contest. And the same journal is also my record of first frosts and last frosts, the late snow which brought the hoop house down, and the hail storm which shredded the 4 mil plastic covering. I now use 6 mil. And am a firm believer in climate change. My photography has recorded the development and growth of the hoop house which once covered two raised beds and is now 11' x 16'. Every year I add refinements because every year I challenge, not always successfully, the hail and snow and winds in an effort to extend my gardening year. Or should I say eating year. I eat what I grow. And I grow what I like to eat. This year it was the new back wall. My contest entry was already submitted with last year's successes and failures.  The rigid front wa...

Nothing seems to be working as it should be. I certainly hope someone or multiple someones are keeping records in a locked vault should anyone want to start this experiment in democracy over. Supposedly our founding fathers put in adequate protections to keep us safe from a nefarious dictator taking over. But I guess they did not imagine a president and an entire party being in league with a foreign nation out to destroy us from within. And it only took two years of all four branches of the government being in control of one party to make it virtually impossible to rescue us even after losing control of just one branch. The other branches at the direction of the president/dictator are totally blocking anything being done to rescue us. The general population is being kept in fear, sick and poor. It is time for our version of the French Revolution. Roll out the guillotines. I went to a resistance meeting which usually gives me hope and came back super depressed. I spent much ...