A sigh of relief escaped my lips on June 19th! On the 18th 190-230 people toured our garden. It was a rewarding and humbling experience to talk to so many people that paid good money to see my garden as well as 5 others. I’m glad that the Linn County Master Gardener’s had another successful garden tour. The weather was cool and drizzly, not the best for touring gardens. At least, we didn’t have to feel guilty about not working. Gardeners are such wonderful people. It is always a pleasure to mingle with them. Very rarely will you find a cranky one and even rarer still, an obnoxious one. Perhaps gardeners are more in tune with nature and therefore more centered. Or perhaps, all of them like me have had our best laid designs ruined by frost, rain, deer, snails or Willamette Valley clay. Gardening is always a challenge! The rewards are breath-taking. Just to be able to say, “I grew that from a seed” is uplifting and yet humble at the same time. It’s like I’m saying to myself, “I can’t believe I actually grew this beautiful, flowering plant from a dried up, hard seed. I just can’t believe it. It’s a miracle.”
Back to the present, I enjoyed it but I am really glad it is over! I actually had a day last week, when I didn’t have anything that I absolutely had to do. Oh I had laundry that needed to be done (and I did 2 loads). There were 1 or 2 plants I had brought home after the event that I planted. But it was my day off and I didn’t have a list a mile long or anything that had a timeline. It was wonderful! I sat outside and read an e-book on my I-pad until the neighbor’s contractors and the heat forced my inside. Tipper, my dog, and I had a most glorious day. Mitch and I finished it off with a simple supper and a bike ride to the Pix theatre to watch “Larry Crowne”, followed by a glass of wine at Vault 244. It was wonderful.
I worked the weekend and then came the 4th of July. Somehow I managed to avoid any work on the 4th. No watering at the nursery! Mitch and I stayed home and relaxed. We worked when we felt like it and relaxed the rest of the time. It was an amazingly mellow holiday. Only Tipper was agitated, by the fireworks of course. She seems to be back to normal today. We followed the whole day up with a productive snail/slug hunt.
Tonight I worked again at the computer. I admit to feeling lazy. It is hard for me to keep up my intensity at this time of year. The beginning of summer always seems to call for embracing and celebrating freedom and partying. I feel such a primal urge to …I’m not even sure I know what I want to do, just that I feel like I can do it! I’m free. I want to simply loll around and breathe in everything. This coincides with a lazy spell for me. I fight it every year. If I do not keep up my fortitude? my commitment? my intensity (yes that is it) I fall behind. You don’t believe me? If I lose more than a day or two of intensity, I fall behind a week. It is horrible. This year I have fallen so far behind, I fear I will not ever make it up. I will have to (and I already have) concede many tasks that I simply cannot complete. That is at work. I easily concede tasks at home that I cannot complete. I either hire them done or live with the consequences. At least I think I have a slightly tidier house than a prostitute but perhaps only slightly cleaner.
What would Jane Austen Grow? 
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