The Art of Gardening

I took a stroll around the block yesterday and came upon a lovely sight -- a maple tree, glowing yellow, that stood a little in front and to one side of a silver fir. The juxtaposition of those two brought such delight, and I thought, 'Isn't that part of the true art of gardening?'

Years ago I was fortunate enough to visit Sissinghurst in the south of England. Walking around, I was truly blown away by just this thing of juxtaposition. Not so much the flowers, but the shape and colour of leaves, how this plant set off the other at its side, or behind or in front. What amazing knowledge and imagination Vita Sackville-West and her husband (Harold?) must have had to create these exquisite beds and vistas. Also, of course, they planted with the awareness that their garden would only be at its best years in the future. Nowadays, in our suburban subdivisions its more of an instant thing: plant three shrubs when one would do so that the garden looks filled and established right away. Truly a different approach to garden design.

I wish I had the Sissinghurst kind of talent that I'm so in awe of, but it's not going to happen for me in this lifetime. Sometimes my husband and I achieve serendipitous effects, sure, but it's more by good luck than planning. Right now I'm doing the cutting down of dead perennials. Little by little it's getting done, and once the leaves have all fallen and been swept up, our modest garden will be ready for bed.

Songs and melodies (longer post)

In my life I often go about with a song in my heart or a melody on my mind. This is part of my birthright, a heritage from my Dad, who knew the words to so many songs, and cheerfully sang or whistled about the home. I'm happy with that, and so was my mother. In her later years I was kind of surprised to hear her say how much she enjoyed Willie Nelson, and in particular his song 'Crazy'. So I began to pay more attention to this artist, and soon after heard an interview with him by someone whose name I forget. But this guy asked Willie how he came up with so many songs and melodies and Willie answered in a most wonderful way. He said words to this effect: "Melodies are all around us, just out there, in the air. Can't you hear them? All we have to do is reach up and pluck one."

Doesn't this hark back to the time when we were all connected and could hear the harmonies of the spheres?

But today, our air is increasingly polluted, so I have to wonder if that's affecting all the music and songs that are being composed and widely distributed today. It struck me that most modern songs are by no means easy to sing. That, I'd say is really sad. I heard my step-granddaughter, who has quite a talent, learning to sing 'Roxanne' via Rock Band or whatever the name of that is. Hmm. Okay. She did sing it a couple of times around the house, but not much. And that particular song is actually a fairly mild example. Rap, of course, is quite another question.

These are the thoughts have have been fluttering around me, but I want to end with an anecdote. Years ago when I was at the Royal Ballet School, we were given the task of choreographing a small dance. The music I chose for mine (I can't remember, but maybe there were three of us) was Ravel's 'Pavane for a Dead Princess'. About thirty years later one of our sons learned to play it on his flute. Maybe because I love the silvery sound of this instrument it occurred to me that this would be a piece I'd like to have played at my funeral (no morbid aspect intended!!). I remembered that this morning, and thought well, I wonder if I would change my mind and choose something different now, all these years later (probably thirty, coming to think of it!). It was quite a while since I heard this music.

Off I went to bath and when I came back to the bedroom what do you think was playing on Radio Canada? Uh huh. You guessed it.

Minimizing electricity use

I'm slipping in late here, but still wanted to blog on the climate change blog action day.

When we first came to North America, I was astonished at the proliferation of lighting in hotels, restaurants and supermarkets. It's admirable that some of the latter at least are making some sort of gesture towards a lower level of lighting, but you still see lots of artificial illumination even in places where there's plenty of daylight.

However, what I'm doing these days is trying to be mindful of the small things that add up to unnecessary use of electricity in the home. The thing is, every little tiny light that shines uses power. Think about the smoke alarm, the illuminated digital clock on your stove, same kind of thing on your micro-wave if you have one, even your toaster perhaps and so on and so on. Some of these, of course, shouldn't be switched off, but others certainly can. We actually have a printer for our computer that needs to stay on, and yes, shines a light. I would never have bought that if I'd known.

So I do what I can. If I need to recharge the battery on my laptop, I make sure to unplug at the wall when it's done, otherwise the current continues to flow. Same with our cell phone. Our son has gone one better. He charges his cell in the car via the cigarette lighter. This lead was ordered on line, and I think that's a good idea.

I make sure to shut the door of our drier so the light doesn't shine to no purpose, and of course to switch off lights when we're out of the room. I'm sure there are other things, but these are what came to mind when I started to think about how we live today. In future I'd love to be greener, and to make more use of solar power. Hopefully that will happen.

This probably doesn't add up to a whole lot, but I'm sure that every little bit of saving has to count. And if I'm using electricity, I try to remind myself to be grateful.

I can't resist sharing this! Plus, October 15 is Blog action day

Well, Tuesday evening we were heading to a potluck celebration for Michaelmas Day. The radio was playing jazz, someone on alto sax with a tune I knew, but could only remember part of the title, which was, La la la and Roses. So I'm trying to think of flowers of three syllables, marigolds, hollyhocks, and so on. My dear husband's contribution was... chrysanthemum!

Anyhow, I wasn't getting much further when we came to a stop sign. We waited while a woman who was obviously walking home after a day at work, having got off the bus, crossed the road in front of us. She was wearing a short skirt with sheer grey stockings, and they were embellished with dots the size of a quarter, at least. With my gaze fixed on that unusual legwear, behold, the missing word came to me.

Polka dots!!! Yes, polka dots and roses. Not another flower at all.

Hmm. I'm not sure what to make of this, but there you have it.

And I'll be blogging on the 15th about climate change, which is this chosen subject for this years' Blog Action Day.

See you then.