Tuesday 15 June 2010

Noticing

This morning I was planning a lesson for a writing workshop and decided to use my camera to try something out.  I took photos of the Paw plant, an enormous creature that was a couple of inches high two years ago when it was started from a plant that dated back to a plant grown by someone I loved, now long dead.

The Paw plant has completely taken over my den window, and I have several smaller rootlings started downstairs. A rabbit makes its home in its branches and it is in bloom right now.



The other day Kenya raced over to my bedroom window to bark furiously at the Mergansers that were trespassing.  At that window I have dried wild flowers and grasses.  Her excitement caused the bullrushes to explode into the room and all over her.  By the time I got my camera out, she had shaken off most of her fluffiness, but here is what I managed to capture.


  And here is my sleepy girl this morning.  Most mornings she gets up on my bed for a cuddle before we start our day and she becomes far more interested in sticks, cookies, Sadie and toads than in snuggling with her mom.

3 comments:

Barbara Carlson said...

Plants that one has had for many years are like valued friends. I recently repotted two plants I have had for 40 years. One is so rare it is not on Google. A lilac (I was told 40 years ago) that every ten years or so has little purple flowers on TOP of its leaves.
The other is a rubber plant that has, over the decades, waxed and waned (down to 3 leaves). A dear friend 20 years ago saved it at that point by putting it "immediately!" into a bathtub full of warm water and then draining the tub to leach all the built-up minerals. It was very grateful.

The third is a ceiling-high tree that my long-gone, old, funny neighbour was getting rid of -- by putting in the elevator. Her short-cut to taking it to the trash.

Oma said...

I love reading your stories,and particularly liked the idea of sending one's plant on a journey in a public conveyance! Next best was the idea of giving a dying plant a second life by immersing it in a warm bath. I do that to myself from time to time.

Barbara Carlson said...

My feisty Hungarian neighbour did this with all sorts of household items. I asked her what the largest thing she'd ever put in the elevator was.
"A headboard. For a double bed."

I've kept a journal for 29 years and she figured prominently in it. Last year I condensed its 3,500 pages into 85 pages in a book called "A Journal's Story".

I made 10 binder copies and have loaned it out so far to about 50 people. When some people bring it back, they are hugging it, then they hug me... it's wonderful to get such feedback, as you can imagine.