This and that

Monday, August 17—summer is over.  I know it is.  This realization came most unexpectedly upon me this very morning the moment I came down from our upstairs bedroom and stepped into our kitchen... from outside those windows, the darkest night was peeking through.  I looked at it and she looked at me and I couldn’t believe how sudden and how unexpected the seasons had started changing. 

Earth has rotated, the clock has moved and by 6:30am it is still as dark as dark can be.  When did that happened?  I mean, this change?  

Right until yesterday we used to wake up by the power of daylight.  Light shining through our morning.  Light peeking through windows and openings.  But that’s not anymore. 

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Sept 5

How many days and weeks have passed since I last wrote. Days go by like water escapes through our fingers, and here we are standing at the brink of yet another ending. 

I have pruned again and again...  once, twice, or three more times; this time, not caring where I cut or what I took out or pulled out for good... like the phlox and the lilies.  

Is it alright to take things out of the garden without the feel of guilt hanging from your thoughts?  It is, and I’m done with much of it.  The heat this year has been beyond believe, as never before, and with me working full time outside our home there’s absolutely no desire whatsoever to deal with the pests and infestation that has come down this year over my precious garden.  So, I didn't feel bad about having removed and pulled things out for good. 

 

I’m trying to do the same inside the house.  These days of retrospection have made me want to simplify my life; simplify my home and so I just closed my eyes to the unnecessary in life and have given away things I'd had never done before.

I should had sold a few of these things I gave away, but selling bring its own stress, and thus I rather give than sell.  

I have cleaned my closet deeply; which means I have gotten rid of most of my shoes; particularly high heels that I know I won't use nor want to use again, as well as purses and bags and jewelry...  Even if I still love these things, I’m done with them.  So out of my closet and my life they went.

I gave away a lot of those little things I used to love years ago; the things you acquire and accumulate through the years just because you had a blog and needed to post pretty things all the time or because you saw something you like on someone’s else’s blog and you needed to have it too or make it or whatever it was...  I’m done with all of that... done with the accumulation of unnecessary things.

I want to leave light, walk in the light and have my house free of a lot of things I won’t use again or don’t want to use again.  And thus, yes, my friends, age changes you, life changes and it changes you—at least it does it to me...  and my thoughts and my desires are on another level these days. 

If I should find pleasure with anything these days it would have to be my plants... they are my pastime and my therapy.  They make me so happy and they give our home such vibe...

They are living things, they respire, move, and respond to stimuli and they give me something to love and do from the conform of my home.

 

Remember my cute little candlelight lamp?

I decided to paint it white...

Take care my friend...

Be safe

Keep your faith alive!

Gypsy dreams

We drove up and up seeking higher mountains. Zigzagging through winding roads we drove all the way to “deer” campground—the campground where deer ramble about freely... or used to, but they were not. For this year, none was found. Except for the large crows, not a bird of prey either like it used to be... and the campground felt so emptied and void of splendor without the beautiful presence of these creatures.

This campground had always been notorious for the amount of wildlife. We even had a beautiful red fox visiting our campsite last year. It sat very closed from where we stood and it stayed there for a long, long time... just there, as if dreaming or pondering on some deep thoughts. It felt so peaceful. But everything felt so different and strange this year. For this is the year of the great calamity and this is the year of the angel of death, and perhaps, somehow our wildlife knows that something is very wrong in the world of humans and they want to stay away? They must be aware too, I supposed, of something else coming... something we humans can’t see, or fathom, but they do. And thus, they’ve fleet.

It seems to me, that even the animal world has taken a different course this year, and as this terrible virus keeps taking human lives, something sinister has descended upon our earth and it has been affecting humans as well as nature and other forms of life too—our animals, our trees and our flora and even our waters.

Our gypsy caravan, however, felt wonderful... comfortable, colorful and just gypsy sweet!

Eating our breakfast in the early morning in the comfort and cozyness of our gypsy caravan

it always is so good... so perfect so dreamy!

 

The Fisherman is the guy in charge of washing the dishes... 

I force myself to put on a little bit of make up so I won't scare people away, 

and I'm done!

Don't even have to comb my hair... 

...just be who you are, witchie look or not!

  

We walked and rode our bikes that evening, and I found a little gift left behind by some awesome soul for me to find...

The following day, I found yet another one! I adore it!

I can’t explain exactly why I always seem to find these little gifts; I have an eye for it, I guess, because I have an eye for nature and these little gifts stand out from nature in very obvious ways, so I find them... and they are like little blessings to me; or little joys to my soul when I find them and bring them with me like the precious treasures they are.

I also went searching for treasures in nature and found these amazing branches covered in moss. I’m planning on placing them on a pot and displaying them just as they are. The lady at the quaint little souvenir store in downtown, by where we had coffee this morning keeps two large pots filled with them at the entrance of her shop, and I love how they look, along with the many other beautiful flowerpots she keeps all around. They bring such joy to the place!

 

 

This is such bohemian town and I love that the campground is just miles from it, and from the lake and many other local shops that you can always visit.

The sun never came out on our second day, but for a little moment in the afternoon, and it was cloudy, and the atmosphere carried a hint of a pink haze in it. We walked down to the lake in the morning and it was quiet and precious, and the lake seem phantasmagoric and far away under the pink haze light.

 

...the gypsy caravan in evening light...

 

 

   

The only thing that steal from us a little bit of this joy it was that the Fisherman lost his reading glasses somewhere in that beautiful area where we sat down to enjoy the view of the lake while enjoying our coffee. We looked and looked around and asked people at the shops if someone may had found them, but nobody did. I felt sad for him

Rainless

We haven’t been graced by rain for so many months now, that the beautiful and evocative smell of it had been erased from my memory.  My soul craves rain, and it craves and dreams with the cold winds that comes with rain and those cloudy moments when mist and rainwater unite and transform the garden at length; changing it into a strange, dark beauty of sorts. 

I like it that when it rains, trees and things get diffused down, and everywhere you look reminds you of another place… a place you never been to in real life, and yet you know it by heart.  I just love it—love those cool days when the garden looks and feels cozy and dark, like a cave above the sea.

All day long this past Sunday I waiting for a downpour; for the sky turned into a promise, and all day long it remained gloomy and heavy with a horizon looming with rain… Yet, it was only but a tease, and by the end of the day that evening, everything switched back to the usual cloudless blue sky.  Dark clouds dissolved into nothing, giving way to scorching bright light again, and to a deep blue colored sky.  Thus, rain, or the false announcement of it, melted away with any remaining hope left in me. 

I was able to work on half on my garden this past Friday, and all those roses by our bedroom windows are gone. Down to the ground they are. The Mexican Primrose and tall Dahlias are out too. And it didn’t bother me—it didn’t bother me at all to see those beds now looking so desperately in need of life and so pathetically naked.

The roses were doing so bad, that it just made no sense to keep them as they were any longer. It is a lost case with the primrose, however, for these are most annoying little things, and they will continue on coming up and taking over.

I have learnt that one must be careful with how you employ your perennials, for although they are most trustful in the way they come back year after year, they too can be very rowdy and invasive and they can make your garden look a little disheveled, if you are striving for order.

Mom’s little garden was cleaned too.  Shasta Daisy, and garden phlox were pruned down to the ground, and so were the irises and whatever else I have growing there.  I’m thinking I want to have most of the Phlox completely removed.  For how annoying they are, with their tendency to crawl, instead of standing straight up. 

I was only able to worked part of the garden, and not as much as I should have, or wanted to… it is so much; so much is going on out there, so much craziness taking place in the garden this year with everything growing out of control and perennials everywhere quickly dwindling in beauty and bending over against each other.  Now that I work outside my home, I just don’t have the time the garden requires, and things have to be done by area and by moments. 

This is the entrance of the garden and my favorite part of it.

I like to keep things here neatly looking, and clean, but things have gone out of my hands and climbers are throwing long shoots everywhere, perennials are done and they need to be pruned down, or even be taken off for good.  I had it with them.  I had it with the garden phlox and I want to have them all pulled out, but these plants are extra stubborn and they will keep coming up, no matter what you’d do.

Houseplants

It’s been so hot around here lately... August, had finally forced me to bring my houseplants in again.  August is a fire-spiting monster here in our high desert and although I was hoping for a longer season outside, and a period of strengthening and growth for my plants, one by one they had to be hauled back inside... 

Thus far, they seem to be doing good, and I think they appreciate the cooler temperatures of the inside of the house; particularly the ones which naturally grow on the forest floor or underlying layer of vegetation where is cooler; such as my Maranta, or Prayer Plant, and my beautiful Monstera deliciosa. I can hardly wait for these two “Delicious Monsters” of a plant to grow to their gigantic sizes.

Unfortunately, our living room is the darkest room of our house.  It faces north, and right outside those windows sits our covered porch.  Its roof provide good shade to the area, but it also prevents sunshine from streaming in.  And because the curtains of grapevines covering the front of the porch get fuller and lusher during summer time, the living room gets even less light and it feels dark and cozy like a cave. 

Every time I think of those beautiful days of the south, and the amount of light our small living room at our little white cottage used to get, I then want to move to another house; or open up a hole on the roof, or bring the sun down and sit on it…

Somehow thought, that’s the area where I have relocated most of my largest houseplants to…  and I worry that they may not do good without the needed light.  Did you know that enough sun will also keep the stem of your plants from rotting? 

Light—like a plant, my own soul craves light.  Lots of it!  I always have.    

I’m hoping they’ll adapt where I have placed them, because if they don’t that means I’d have to move them back to that area by the kitchen where they used to be, all strung against the windows where they do get plenty of sunshine… 

I don’t want to do that again; however.  For I like the cleaner, clearer look of the space now with less plants in it, and I love the way my plants are now distributed throughout the house, instead of all being clumped up in one place… so I’ll wait a little longer and see how they adapt.

I have two humidifiers that I am constantly moving around so that all my plants can have the right levels of humidity they need and I also keep a growing light on all day, particularly under my Philodendron Xanadu. 

I love this plant.  It is old and big and I love how it looks sitting here in our living room.  Philodendron Xanadu tolerates low light conditions but the plant will be much less dens with long stems and smaller and sadder leaves. So if you want yours to really dance, place it an area with lots of bright natural light…  

Hopefully, she’ll like it here… but I know this corner is so dark.

I also love, love my Prayer Plant.  When it gets dark in the evening, the leaves of this plant start to move around and raise themselves up. Then they fold themselves shut, just like praying hands. It's nice to take a moment before bedtime then, just to pause and think about what you are grateful for today!

I also brought in one of my angels
And I'm loving how he looks sitting here so much!

My house looks like a little jungle...

and I just love it!

I decided to transplant my huge asparagus fern the other day for an easier handling in winter, and now I have three of them instead of one...

This one is growing up on the wall...

and this one down onto my kitchen plates...

Another fern... this one is growing on a pebble tray for extra humidity...

I love this little candle lamp I found this weekend at one of our local thrift stores...  love the soft light emanating from the little leaf-shape windows and I love how it looks sitting among my plants on this cute mosaic table by one of the window.

Instead of placing a candle inside, I inserted a string of Christmas lights and I love all the little lights now shining through!  It looks so romantic in the evening when the sun comes down and the house stays lighted up only by little fairy lights...

I also decided to add some more white to this area to enhance light.  So I found my old sit covers and this is how my living room is looking like now... I like it!

It’s been said that the clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.  Well, I want my home to be that sanctuary where I can fly to the Universe from the very center of it!  So ‘thank you’ dear plants, for always making so happy!