COOLER DAYS

The cooler days of fall are here. No, they are not cold, but the air conditioner is at rest, plug is pulled, breaker switch box turned off. That, of course, means yard work time. Groan! Actually, I love working in the yard – I just don’t know how to pace myself as well as I should. I got another 2 tons of mulch dumped out front the other day, and I am grateful, but it is a chore for me to move it all. I am also grateful for the little tractor and wagon as I would never be able to walk all that much mulch to the places that need it.

I have another wagon – the best $50 I ever spent, though that was years ago – 15 at least. I often sit on it to do my weeding, but it has been known to tip over when I get too close to the edge. It will carry 3 flats of pansies, gardening tools, gloves, water bottle, you name it, any place I need those things and then give me a place to sit! The new ones cost a bit more and are 1/3 the size of my wagon. ONE THIRD! I saw them unloading a couple cartons at the Garden Center the other day with the words AMES PLANTER WAGON on the big box – the box was the size of my wagon and I got all excited. I thought it would be great to have a new one, the old one is, well, feeling its age… Can you imagine my dismay when the girl cut the box open and there were three wagons in that box instead of one? That was when I headed up to the John Deere place and bought a BIG wagon to go behind the tractor/mower I got from them this summer. The old wagon can carry some heavy loads. It helped me move my new Buddha I got for my birthday from my van to its current resting place until I figure how to get some rocks to give it a better place in the woods. We don’t have rocks here. I have had to bring all my rocks down from Pennsylvania. This is one of the stone walls up back behind our house in PA.

It will seem very strange to buy a pile of rocks and pay someone to bring them to my house. The Old Buddha still sits out back. I will probably have to move him next year as his stump is really deteriorating quickly.
Anyway, I over did the wood chip/mulch shoveling and planted 8 flats of pansies all in one day. Not real smart. So I am finishing the weeding and planting from the walker.

It, too, has a seat. And wheels, and seems to be pretty tough. It hasn’t dumped me yet. I have learned to use it when I watrer the garden rather than stand for an hour or two. That has been a big help tho it probably looks a little silly from the street! Well, who cares?!?!

TODAY'S INSPIRATION

I read this article today and was so impressed.... I think we need all the inspiration we can get.
Have you read any of her work? I am going to have to get a copy of something - it all sounds interesting. She is 87 - so hey, there is hope for the rest of us, eh? j

Doris Lessing wins Nobel for literature
By MATT MOORE and KARL RITTER
British writer Doris Lessing won the 2007 Nobel Prize in literature, the Swedish Academy said Thursday, citing her "skepticism, fire and visionary power" in dozens of works, notably her classic "The Golden Notebook."
Lessing, who at 87 is the oldest person to win the Nobel Literature prize, could not be reached to be told of her award, the academy's permanent secretary Horace Engdahl told The Associated Press. Lessing's agent, Jonathan Clowes, said she was out shopping in London.
"We are absolutely delighted and it's very well-deserved," Clowes said.
Lessing was born to British parents who were living in what is now Iran. The family later moved to Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe. She dropped out of school at age 13.
She made her debut with "The Grass Is Singing" in 1950. Her other works include the semiautobiographical "Children Of Violence" series, largely set in Africa.
Her breakthrough was the 1962 "Golden Notebook," the Swedish Academy said.
"The burgeoning feminist movement saw it as a pioneering work and it belongs to the handful of books that inform the 20th century view of the male-female relationship," the academy said in its citation announcing the prize.
Other important novels of Lessing's include "The Summer Before Dark" in 1973 and "The Fifth Child" in 1988.
Lessing is the second British writer to win the prize in three years. In 2005, Harold Pinter received the award. Last year, the academy gave the prize to Turkey's Orhan Pamuk.
"When you look at my life, you can go back to the late 1930s," she told The Associated Press in an interview last year. "What I saw was, first of all, Hitler, he was going to live forever. Mussolini was in for 10,000 years. You had the Soviet Union, which was, by definition, going to last forever. There was the British empire — nobody imagined it could come to an end. So why should one believe in any kind of permanence?"
Lessing's family moved to a farm in southern Rhodesia in 1925, an experience she described in the first part of her autobiography "Under My Skin" that was released in 1944.
Because of her criticism of the South African regime and its apartheid system, she was prohibited from entering the country between 1956 and 1995. Lessing, who was a member of the British Communist Party in the 1950s, had been active in campaigning against nuclear weapons.
The literature award was the fourth of this year's Nobel Prizes to be announced and one of the most hotly anticipated given the sheer amount of guessing it generated in the weeks leading up to award.

THE OCTOBER "GARDEN"

OCTOBER.... sigh..........

If they gave an award for weeds, I am sure I would be in the top 5. My modesty won't allow me to claim first place, but it would not surprise me! It is a good thing I live on the very edge of town with a tenth of a mile of woods separating me from the folks with perfectly manicured lawns. That way, maybe the rest of the town won't notice. On the other hand, I have more flowers blooming at any time of the year than any of the rest of them. People come up to me in the grocery store or Post Office, strangers have even pulled in my driveway when they see me working out front to compliment me on my yard or to ask what this or that flower is. Not many people are used to the fall blooming azaleas, and actually, I haven't seen any others in town. It is a small town... just under 500 population. If we have a moderate winter, I can have something in bloom every week out of the year, generally camellias and pansies. The earliest camellias have started to bloom, the rest are budding up nicely. I have had to remember to water them; it has been so very dry. It is easy to remember to water things that are blooming or veggies, but we ofter forget about the trees, shrubs, and bushes we tend to take for granted. My neighbor has purchased a chipper and while he is learning how to use it, I get his practice piles! I have had 3 truck loads dumped out front at the end of my turn around. The top of that pile is over 4 feet high! I bought a wagon to go on the back of my new John Deere and that has been a huge help compared to walking one wheel barrow load at a time around the property. Truth is, walking down to the furthest end (1/10th mile) and back, let alone push a load of mulch down and back, is very difficult for me. Not whining here, honest, as long as my wheelchair stays in the barn, I am reasonably happy, I am just being honest with my limitations even tho my brain still thinks I can do what I did 20-30 years ago. Anyway, I planted a new fall azalea yesterday. Can you believe I have some digitalis in bloom? Are they confused or what? See the dead leaves on the ground? If you look real hard you can see that same old pansy in bloom right behind the digitalis. See that bit of purple? See that spot of white?The English Daisy plant has finally opened. This was just one plant in a 4 inch pot about 4 years ago. It is real tall, too. Punkin had a flea emergency. One of the fall azaleas next to the daisies. These are volunteer tomatoes, cherry and plum, growing out of the compost pile! The window boxes are looking a bit sorry, but the camellia is coming along. This one is over 8 feet tall now. Gee, thinking of all the work I have left to do is making me tired. Maybe Punk has the right idea, but I will find a softer place.