Read For Some Epic News
Soooo there's news at the beginning and a big announcement wayyyy down at the P.P.S....
I have some very exciting news, I recently got a new work space.
*cue fireworks
… oh wait, I don’t have the budget for that
anyway…
I’m essentially using it right now as my office and the best thing about it is that I have a pretty killer view. It’s a little snug but it works for me and overlooks what’s still blooming in my front garden.
Have you figured it out now?
It’s the back of my car, which my other half has been teasing me for working from but honestly, it’s a big upgrade from just sitting on the driveway. It gives me a bit of shade, keeps me partially blocked from the wind but I can still feel the warmth from the sun and I can overlook the garden just right to take in the flurry of life skittering about it.
-Also I laid a blanket down, so really, what more could you ask for?
I have worked on Substack posts like I’m doing now, edited photos and so on and in my free time it’s been used for breakfast picnics at the park, reading books at dusk with my kids and playing Ghoul Fish (no that is not a misprint and it’s awesome).
It’s basically a Subaru commercial in the making complete with cuddled kids holding rechargeable candles for reading books before bed and a small but bustling garden in the background.
From this spot I have observed my garden intently and in doing so I have managed to document 30 different butterflies and moths along with a handful of bees and grasshoppers among other things.
…But no wasps, I don’t go near those guys if I can help it… -not so subtle shiver of fear-
I’ve seen several more but they either moved on before I could snap a picture or they’ve been too skittish to capture in photos, at least with my current set up.
So, I’ve been developing our garden for almost ten years now but after a relatively dry summer there’s not a lot still in bloom...
A tiny bit of sunshine filled coreopsis, exactly three echinacea blooms that are ever so slowly fading out and one lone cosmos plant with giant white blooms. The zinnias and blue mistflowers however are still blooming profusely, even as their flowers are starting to fade.
All in all there’s maybe four square feet of flowering plants and despite that being a relatively small area in the scheme of things, certainly a far cry from a wildflower meadow, it is absolutely humming with life with a level of biodiversity we’ve never seen before.
This is in part due to bringing in more native plants for sure and I assume also because it’s had time to establish. Also, we let it get messy and we haven’t used any chemicals in years… but I think the biggest difference is that the last few years we haven’t done the usual fall cleanup. I leave the faded brittle plants untouched until early spring and even then I’ve just been cutting back the dead and making a pile with it in the backyard. Because in the mess and decay are a heap of unseen creatures using it to get through the winter. Nesting. Hibernating. Waiting for their time to come again.
I’m telling you this for two different reasons…
First, if you’ve been keeping up you know that I have been in the process of healing. I broke my right arm (why yes I am righthanded) just over a month ago, had surgery where they screwed a metal plate into my bones and the pain somedays is (insert curse of your choice) unreal. The tendons, muscles and ligaments are tight from lack of use and while I’m happy to see my incision is healing just beautifully, having pain swing in the way it has off and on is hard. It’s just hard and as time goes on the bursts of pain can be worse but but they’ve also been shorter lived.
That said, working from the back of my car and taking in this garden has saved me over and over again. Its saved my head from spiraling. It’s filled me with wonder and awe when I could’ve been overridden with frustration among other things. It’s grounded me when I’ve needed it most and it’s been a place to rest.
Second and probably most important is that the garden is it’s own testament to the power of healing. When it first began it was nearly devoid of life. There were no caterpillars or chrysalises to be found, just some gnarly garden spiders and the occasional butterfly. Over time it’s become a place that breeds new life and is rich in biodiversity. Something that so few of us ever get to really experience. How many times have you walked down a path and had a literal flurry of butterflies flutter around you before settling once again?
Life is so interconnected and woven together, not just our lives but the lives of everything and that’s not some woo woo nonsense, it’s just truth. We are all tied up together in a big ol’ philosophical tapestry, so big you’d never be able to take it all in and it’s absolutely riddled with holes and you yourself can’t repair them all.
But you still have a choice, you can sit back and watch it continue to unravel, ignore it all together or choose to try your hand at repair.
If you choose repair there’s a thousand different things that can look like, for me it focuses on the land and the things we share it with.
Now you gotta know, you’re going to have missteps but that’s okay. That’s human.
And maybe your efforts will feel small and unseen, like a small patch of garden but every repair adds strength to the whole, it supports everyone. Unseen or not.
So what will you do?
Now I’m off to get ready to join in La Scarlatte’s next live Folded Worlds. She shared a video the other day of her testing this idea out and it left me excited by what’s possible. I even went back and watched it again with my kids.
Cheers,
Bec
P.S. To answer your final burning question, no I haven’t had anything fly into my car beyond a leaf bug that quickly found it’s way back out.
P.P.S I’m planning to open my shop back up in about two and a half weeks for some print preorders. More on that hopefully coming soon.
