I think we all need a little break from politics so this is a diary about how my dog and my garden help me to cope with the frustration I feel with the political situation, world wide.
Well thanks be to heaven, I have the sweetest female dog named Lady, a bit a mongrel, but beautiful all the same. When I reach the stress level in my daily life of politics and blogging I take a short break and go outside. The minute I step outside the door Lady is by my side and follows and watches me everywhere I go. As I look and inspect my plants she puts her nose in them and sniffs as if to share my pleasure.
She waits patiently by the gate that separates her from my vegetable garden while I check my strawberries to see if any are ripe yet, knowing when I come out she will get her special petting time.
My plants are my great pleasure in life at this point. I have over 150 container plants,(most of which I started from cuttings) plus tiny vegetable garden and of course my much prized staghorn ferns. If you don’t know about staghorns, they grow on boards hanging from the fence or tree or anywhere you want to put them. They have luscious long fronds that are shaped like horns and thus the name and a shield frond that will eventually wrap around any object they are attached to and in a few years produce baby ferns that build and build as a colony until they can become monstrous, We had one that measured 4 feet across and 3 feet deep, just filled with dozens of ferns.
Strolling through the plants I stop and inspect each one, at least thirty times a day (have a lot of stress ). I know the day they first sprouted, the day the first leaves poke thought the soil, the day there flower buds finally burst into bloom, the day the first strawberry turns red, and oh so many more such things that seem to interest only me and not at all the visitors I drag around to have a look.
To me both my dog and my garden are sublime. They bring me back to earth to enjoy the fruits of it and give me a brief respite from the horrors of the world and then it’s back into the house and onto the computer and checking Booman to see what comments I have missed.
I want to know how you cope with stress; about your animals or pets and your garden if you have one.
All of the above although I don’t drink much any more. Lovely diary and makes me want to see your garden and the strawberries. 30 times a day, eh..but I just kinda virtually pictured myself on your walk so I just had a bit of a mini break myself. And mongrels make the best dogs I think or maybe it’s cause I’m just always for the underdog.
I’ll come back to diary tomorrow and post some more.
I should have put an ‘all of the above’ but didn’t think of it till you posted, then I tried to add, but you can’t, I guess after diary is posted.
30 times a day is a conservative estimate but I won’t admit to more.
You didn’t say what specifically you do to cope, care to inform us.
I wonder how many of us smoke and find that they smoke more when blogging, I do.
This is nice Diane, you will make us all forget and think of better things. For the first time in months I’ve been able to get out since there’s actually some sun out there – still only around 50 though. I do stuff in there garden, truth be told I hate having to maintain plants – but I’m so starved for sun. I mean I like plants – they just don’t complain enough when I ignore them. Have two dogs (Ducky and Teaser) – but one’s (whippet) close to 16 and in no condition to do much with. The other’s just a young pup. He’s a Jack Russell (Ducky), and the most interactive opinionated little guy I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. What’s great about dogs is that they won’t ever let me forget they exist.
Dogs are so interesting aren’t they, the unconditional love(I think it is anyway) is so total it’s awesome.
We our having our pre summer weather in Cal. which always preceeds our spring which follows our post summer, confusting I know, but that’s how it is here. We have what we call June gloom which is always overcast and chilly and then is immediately followed by a stinging hot summer, and so on. In other words we can have summer any time of the year, Dec. or Aug, but never June.
OK, diane101, a little dog-blogging.
Bart. 110 pound Rottweiler mix (take your guess about the mix–my best estimation is, given his jowls and face, Walter Matthau). Saved, by my signif. other from the shelter, utterly devoted to her and, now that we’ve gotten together, to me.
Two years ago, blows out his anterior cruciate ligament on the right side. Surgery. Total knee reconstruction. Money. Recovery period.
Two weeks ago, same thing on the left side. Surgery. Money. Recovery. But now we’ve living in a house with main floor and second floor.
So, I stayed nights in the dining room on the main floor with him for about a week.
But now, with the vet’s OK, we’re back in bedroom upstairs.
And he goes up the stairs to be with his people at night, no matter the difficulty, no matter the limp, no matter the pain.
Big dog, big big heart. It humbles me.
(Small brain, but that’s another story.)
Want to do a chain story like we did last night, but you chocolate must start it, ok.
A man named George arrives at the Pearly Gates with a huge book under his arm and tells St. Peter that he’s ready for his heavenly glory and his gold toga to which St. Peter replies:………….
hey Diane..that’s all I’ve got and I’ve got to sign off for now(time for supper, yeah I know I eat really late) maybe when I get back here tomorrow I’ll find a good story going.
I hope you haven’t minunderestimated your chance to get in here, I have a few questions for you I’ll start with what kind of book do you have there George..to which George replies “What this, this is a book,er ah.. I always wondered what..er.. books were, now I know,er..ah.. next question, Mr. er…what did you say your name was?……..
To anyone who happens to click on this comment, we are doing a story thread(see above comment), feel free to jump in with the next installment.
St.Peter is my name….wherein Georgie interrupted him saying hey Turdblossom always said the nicknames I give are such fun so from now on I’ll just call you ‘Petey-pete’heh heh kind of a joke Peteypete-a riff on my old friend ‘pooty-poot’..say where is he anyway?
Mr. man,” St. Peter thundered, “I think you are in the wrong place,at the wrong time, and with the wrong book, perhaps you should”………
..say excuse me Peteypete but you don’t seem to understand who I am so you’d better quit your thundering at me or I’m gonna tell your boss that YOU were the one hiding those damn WMD so watch what you say or……..
roared St. Peter, you don’t scare me little man, who do you think you are, you think you have a straight track to the Big Man, think again, I think he has a few words to say to you, let’s go.”…..”Whatttttt, waittttt, I mean,,,”Lets talk , er, where’s Karen Hughes, I don’t know what to say…..,” sputtered Georgie, …..
My sister, who is my best friend relaxes me. When I talk to her or am around her I always feel better.
That being said she also makes it possible for me to be able to have a few things that I do to relax. She’s bought me two computers now and pays for the monthly internet fee. And pays for my weekly visit to the video store to get at least 3 movies each week.
Movies and reading, movies and reading, rinse and repeat that’s what I do to relax. With a side trip to check on the few plants I have outside my apartment door.
I love everything about movies. I’m one of those people who watches all the extra stuff on the dvd and usually wants to know more. I’m particularly fascinated as to who wrote the screenplay, was it based on a novel, was it original, true story, wonder if the movie is very different from the book and so on. Jaws was one of the few movies that was a good as the book it was based on.
Even the stupidest movie can usually teach you something if you really look for it. I think that one of the greatest things to happen was the advent of being able to see movies at home. It’s given me a chance to greatly expand my horizon into other cultures. Releasing foreign movies on video is so great…movies that simply don’t play in most cities and towns here but with video I can now rent all these movies and be entertained and learn something of another culture also. One of the first foreign movies I remember having an impact on me was a Japanese movie called ‘Shall We Dance'(remade here last year with Richard Gere/J-lo/Susan Sarandon)and it was a beautiful story and one everyone can relate to.
Watching ‘Hero’ with Jet-Li was one of the most gorgeous to look at movies I’ve ever seen, kinda like a moving art gallery and the story was wonderful also.
I love movie trivia and when the Silver Screen Edition of Trivial Pursuit came out many years ago I think my sister and I and a few friends went through the whole thing in a month or so.
I think this is getting a bit long so as far as my reading goes, I read several hours every night-fiction unless I pick up books I have here like both the Clinton’s books and read another chapter or books to do with religion-such as ‘When God was a Woman’ or Joseph Campbell’s book. Or books to do with forgotten/overlooked history as in black history, women’s history. Once again I’m lucky that my sister loves books and buys books for me(besides going to the library).
I could probably write all day on books and movies but this has gotten to long. But I did get relaxed just writing about my books and movies…just happy thoughts for me.
Like Chocolate, I love to read to soothe stress. I can get into a really good book and be totally oblivious to everything going on around me, for hours at a time. That’s my favorite way to be ‘taken away’ from daily life and stress.
Diane, your garden sounds lovely. I’d love to see the strawberries! And your precious Lady sounds like such a good friend. We’ve got our two dogs – one’s a black Lab and the other’s an Australian Shepherd – and our cat, who I wrote about in Carnacki’s ‘Got a Happy Story?’ diary, and the three of them shower much love on their family. Life wouldn’t be the same without our fur babies.
when I get my first real crop, I will send them via this site, so be on the lookout! So far I’ve just had a few, but there are tons in the works. I might end up with dozens of quarts, just from a pretty small patch.
Strawberries are one of those lovely foods that not only tastes wonderful but they happen to be very healthy…which is how I justify my buying of them all summer long even when the prices get high. Besides it counters my unlovely habit of smoking. Yes, I do smoke a lot while on the computer by the way.
Yes, Mindmouth, reading is just such a joy and I can’t understand people who don’t read. I’ve got books stacked up in almost every room, including cookbooks in the kitchen and magazines piled up too. I really do panic if I don’t have books and magazines around and I mean that in the very real sense. Which is also another reason to love the computer as you can find and read just about anything on your computer.
My mornings all start the same way. Body clock goes off at 5:45. I am not a bed lingerer, so the coffee gets made and the first of many, many cigarettes gets stoked. Those quiet pre-dawn moments are all mine. As my eyes struggle to first focus, I get on the computer for some `bot bridge. Playing bridge jump-starts my brain the same way the coffee and smokes jump-starts my heart. Weekends are great because husband and daughter are lingerers, so if we aren’t off to soccer early, they are going to stay in bed.
Outside my window, dawn was breaking on one of those days that makes you glad to be alive and on planet earth. I live on a small reservoir that supplies irrigation water for cotton, corn and soybean farmers.
This is Louisiana. We really only have two seasons, Summer and Winter. Today was going to be one of the two dozen days that constitute Spring. The azaleas are about half done with their blooming, the pollen is high, the bees will dive bomb you and even though we had a good freeze this winter, the mosquitoes are back already in full force. They’ll carry away small children and worst of all, we live with the constant threat of West Nile Virus. We live with a can of OFF at every door and in every vehicle. It takes a good deal of discipline to remember to spray yourself when you go out. The problem is there is no effective way to protect your pets.
My husband finally begins to stir. We’ve planted five flats of impatiens during the week, a couple flats of begonias and there is still a good bit of winter mulch to rake out of the rest of the beds. He is a contradiction, too. He is a lingerer, but also complains about burning daylight. Nature calls, he gets up. I meet him with some coffee. We sit on the porch, enjoying the morning and read the local rag. There’s not much of interest except the op/ed page, so we start on the yard.
He’s raking out the leaves from around the irises and these two nectarine trees and he calls me over. One of our cats, Juny is down. She’s cold, her breathing is labored and raspy, and her eyes are swollen and bulging. I bend down and pet her, speaking softly. She can’t raise her head, but she tries. I’d seen this before last summer. West Nile in cats. The vets don’t know exactly what the incubation time is once they are bitten, but she seemed fine Friday night. Now she was cold, barely breathing and I was having to swat away the blowflies. They are like the vultures in the movies, once they start hovering, it’s over.
I didn’t want to do it, but I had to wake my daughter up. I didn’t know what would be worse, her waking up to a dying pet or not having a chance to say goodbye. She cried, I consoled, she was able to say goodbye. We put Juny on a blanket in the sun, half hoping that she’d warm up, lift her head and go racing for the porch when she heard the feed hit the dish. She was gone in an hour.
My daughter and I had errands to run so we took off to town. When we got home, my husband was still working the lower 40. He is the lawn…Zen and the art of lawn maintenance. A man and his John Deere lawn tractor. He saw us toting our wares from the van to the house and came flying up the hill. I really thought that something was terribly wrong, but I was the one that was wrong. He led us to almost the exact place where Juny had lay dying just three hours before. In Juny’s place was Blossom, our mama cat and three kittens. The kittens look to be about three weeks old and were most likely born under the house. I don’t know if it was just the warmth of a spring day or if Blossom felt the loss, but what a great time to introduce her kitties. Two of the kittens are polydactyl just like their mom and the other has normal paws.
That is my spring circle of life story from Saturday.
Diane101, thanks for the diary.
Loved your comment, and I have comments to make on your comments, such as hi to fellow smoker, but don’t have time right now, will be out for awhile so I will write more when I get back.
Loved the cat and kitten story.