Diana's Blog

'Morning Light in B Major'

February 1, 2009

OF RABBITS, MOLES, AND MUSIC

Can it really be February already?  Days into weeks into months are getting away from me. There is little more time to dilly-dally (dilly-dallying is actually one of my favorite pastimes – though I prefer to think of it as productive, well-directed, dilly-dallying). So, I’m about ready to head out the door, to get the packing shed cleaned up and organized for the season, though there will be little packing to be done this spring.

For those interested, however, I do foresee myself getting back to a limited mail order business this fall.  But I need more organization in my life, so for now, the packing shed will be holding gloves, irrigation supplies, fertilizer, slug bait, tools, twist ties, pens, brooms, and other frequently used items.  I have spent the last week cleaning and organizing the potting barn, taking 15 years worth of old pots and ripped greenhouse plastic that had been stashed away in a couple of the old horse stalls (out of sight/out of mind), to the recycling center, in good faith.  I can only hope they actually do get recycled. I am really quite horrified by the amount of garbage (and so much if it is so easily recyclable!) being tossed non-stop into landfills. Maybe I will rant about this on another day.  

The plant season will be upon us shortly.  Actually it has already started. Hamamelis ‘Arnold Promise’ (a bright yellow Witch Hazel) has been blooming for about a month already, just outside my back door, lemony fragrant when the days are warm enough. The buds on the fasciated Pussy Willow in the border along the back of the parking lot are starting to split, showing the characteristic silky silvery-grey fuzz. Hepaticas are starting to bloom in the raised bed in a small unheated hoop house, as is Galanthus nivalis (Snowdrops). And the rabbits are poised to pounce. Not that they haven’t been pouncing and bouncing all over the place all winter anyway, eating everything with a hint of green to it ---

I really don’t know what to do about the rabbits. Coyotes and cats used to keep them under control, I think, but the cats are gone now. The coyotes are still around (I hear their mesmerizing, eerie singing at night, sometimes they are REALLY close), but they are no match for the proliferation of rabbits. Yes, rabbits do ---- like rabbits!  I get it now. Maybe we induced this by creating such an inviting habitat for them, with lots of natural cover and an extensive gourmet restaurant within short hopping distance. Their favorite foods seem to be the emerging shoots of Epimediums and Clematis. And this winter, I discovered, too late, that they also love to eat the stems of shrub peonies, especially the expensive ones  They snap them right off, or just sit there munching on bark. I see them hop away from the headlights of my Jeep as I drive in at night, or I will spot them in my garden in the morning from the front window. That’s when I run outside, winter coat haphazardly slapped on over my pj’s, to chase them away, yelling like some kind of crazy person as they casually look up at me with a clear sense of entitlement and then slowly hop-hop away just a short distance, unconcerned.  

And I really don’t know what to do about the moles either.  What used to be nice smooth green lawn has erupted into a field of mini-mounds, one after the other. (Last year there was one particular molehill that kept getting larger, almost daily. Instead of mashing it down like I usually do, I left it as a kind of experiment. I wanted to see how long it would take to make a mountain out of a molehill –)

So I have to let them be for now, though I may go on a rampage soon. I’m presently in the throes of cleanup/organizing, and I’m actually enjoying it! The garden is one of my next projects, after some seed sowing, and hardwood cuttings.  

I haven’t done any fall garden cleanup this time around, other than a little raking up of leaves off of the lawn early on, and even that was minimal. And the only reason that the front part of the garden (another out of sight/out of mind area) does not have a heavy covering of maple leaves smothering what is left of the grass, is that the neighborhood kids came in and raked it, unbeknownst to me, so that they might have a big pile of leaves to play in. They told me about it after the deed was done - you got to love ‘em.  So now it’s mid-winter, and I like the natural look of leaves and stems decaying in their natural state, I rather like the way the leaves on the beds have gradually morphed from crispy golds and reds to a uniformly rich brown ground covering mat through the winter, and I know that they are gradually releasing their minerals back to the earth, adding humus, feeding the worms and the bacterial life, enriching the soil, as it was meant to be. It feels right. I’m changing my gardening philosophy, or rather, going back to it, after a 30 year diversion (that’s another story for a different day). And lately I’m considering getting rid of the lawn completely (or mostly) and planting trees and shrubs and understory plants in its place. I think I’ll start with the worst mole infested, semi-shaded area by the house, and see what happens. It would be nice to just be able to let nature take it back, but unfortunately that relates to weeds, weeds, and more weeds, so I will need to exercise some level of control over the process.      

But the music keeps me energized and enthused. I’ve spent the last 2¼ years taking weekly piano lessons,  mainly learning blues patterns, boogie-woogie, and some New Orleans style stuff. What better way could I find to express feelings and to create?  I can’t get enough really, I would play half the day away if I could. I live in Battle Ground, WA which is just north of Vancouver, WA, which in turn is just across the Columbia River from Portland, OR. I spend a lot of evenings in Portland listening to music, mostly blues bands, and especially keyboard players. Portland is known as a music town, of all types of music - jazz, blues, rock, latin, folk, anything. I feel extremely fortunate to be able to go to Portland just about any night of the week and hear truly world class musicians, for a pittance of what they are worth. Be assured that you will be hearing more of this part of my life as I blog on.

So, now I’m heading outside, but tonight I will spend a couple more hours practicing.  I’m currently working on the New Orleans classic ‘Big Chief’, and some slow blues. It’s not quite easy yet, but it sure is fun, and when it does feel right, it’s worth all the wrong notes, bad timing, and heavy hands it took to get to that sweet spot.       

Jan. 15, 2009

So, it's been 2 years now since I've actively pursued this business venture. I took the time off to reflect and try to reorganize priorities and decide how to proceed in my life. Fast ? Yes, the time went too fast. It's hard to keep up. Like any vacation ( though I never considered this a ‘vacation’), at the beginning, the time seemed to stretch far into the future, the days ahead deliciously empty and ready to be filled with relaxation and adventure and learning. Yes, plenty of time.

And suddenly it's over. I did  accomplish some of what I set out to do. Didn't even get started on some. Got realistic and realized that I would never be able to do some of the things in this lifetime that I would like to do. It's all about time, isn't it? And having to come back to reality and knowing that I AM getting older and that I really better get serious. Wanting to resist it, but knowing that resistance makes it worse, as it just takes one out of the moment, and then the moment is missed, and that is really what makes the time fly. I’m working on it. Actually, I seem to be saying that about most things in my life these days. ‘I’m working on it’. It’s the best I can do. But its been an interesting, somewhat enlightening, last couple of years, and I will be pursuing these thoughts in writing here as the ‘time’ goes by, but for now I just want to get this web page up and running. .

Collector's Nursery,16804 NE102nd Ave, Battle Ground, WA 98604, 360-574-3832 / dianar@collectorsnursery.com