tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27254015.post4623848894582712342..comments2024-03-09T10:15:11.266+13:00Comments on Unravelling: Thinking abouot Not Thinking / Straitjacket Part 2Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01350447919000146804noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27254015.post-85620930504083526202010-06-30T11:50:10.039+12:002010-06-30T11:50:10.039+12:00Gardens, eh, Tranputo. Can't live with it, ca...Gardens, eh, Tranputo. Can't live with it, can't live without it. Actually, I can; I wouldn't mind living in an apartment as long as I have plenty of living space, and nobody above me, (don't want their noise) or below me, (don't want them to have to live with my noise, especially the loom vibration!). <br /><br />Ben and I were actually talking about a year or two that we might have been able to live above an Indian restaurant in Auckland - I automatically rejected it as we lived for 5 years in an apartment. The last months after I left my job to prepare for our move to NZ, I smelled their dinner every night at around 4PM while the mother cooked early for her kids; they were not strange smells, just good food, but it made me feel physically ill to realize we lived in such proximity to strangers, and around 3PM every day I had to have a lie down or very unhealthy preprocessor snack to dull the senses. Towards the end, on occasion, I started drinking, too, but I was aware of the danger so never more than a glass or wine, but it was more than once in a while. <br /><br />Anyhoo, this afternoon might be a gardening afternoon.Meghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01350447919000146804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27254015.post-81268950746579254892010-06-30T08:07:07.393+12:002010-06-30T08:07:07.393+12:00One important word I forgot to say: cover crop.
I...One important word I forgot to say: cover crop.<br /><br />It's saved my bacon. Something like oats that's easy to turn over (clover and rye not so good, if you let them go too long). The only way to keep back weeds is by planting something else. Fight vegetation with vegetation.Trapuntohttp://trapunto.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27254015.post-69833472010808249322010-06-30T07:59:43.714+12:002010-06-30T07:59:43.714+12:00It sounds like you and I have some of the same pro...It sounds like you and I have some of the same problems with gardening. I especially identified with what you said about it taking more time and energy to approach it incrementally. Gardening is different from other tasks, in that when you approach it incrementally you never SEE progress, because like you say (I also live in a rainy sunny climate) incremental progress is instantly overtaken. Whereas if you make a big push, you at least get a temporary vista of what you've accomplished. A big push can also put you enough ahead that the maintenance tasks aren't quite so overwhelming, as long as you make a careful habit of them. Or so I've been told!!<br /><br />I belive it's possible to work with the current instead of against it and set up a beautiful-varied-yet-low maintenance garden, but that it requires a lot of work and thought (and plant knowledge) at the outset. I see current and past gardens I've made at rentals as being a self-training course for MY garden, the one I'll eventually plant to suit myself and take into old age. But I also try to enjoy the blooms along the way. And I'm kind of addicted to planting trees and woody perennials--THERE's progress that goes on without you.<br /><br />Regarding the rest of it. I think Not Thinking is overrated. Especially by artists and spiritual folk. Especially when they are trying to write books, in which they are automatically intellectualizing the virtues of Not Thinking. Your struggle with it has made me really curious about Running With Wolves. I expect I'd hate it unappologetically, judging by past books I've encountered on similar topics.<br /><br />A lot of inspirational stuff seems to inspire everyone but me. It *is* kind of lonely. But then I find other weird books that aren't about art or inspiration at all, that speak to my art. I don't get to share them with anyone, but that's okay.Trapuntohttp://trapunto.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.com