10.25.2010

Gardening the Rain

OK, it's done, for now. :  ) Introducing, the rain garden! Newest addition to our little homestead.

We disconnected the downspout, ran a new pipe about 6 feet from the house, buried it in gravel. Then we dug out a creek bed and put down river rock in it. The extra dirt went to build up around the ponding area at the end. The outlet is covered in rocks from Kathi's house - free : ) Then we put new compost in the ponding area and all around the garden.

Apparently this is the time of year to buy plants too! I was able to buy a bunch of native plants, each plant at least 20% off. We planted more sword ferns, soloman's seal, Oregon grape, snowberry, strawberries, rush and violets in the ponding area, and more. We had kinnikinnick, and an ocean spray plant. Some lupine and bleeding heart.

No more mowing that side of the yard--- well, no more mowing the weeds that were the only thing that grew there!

10.13.2010

One of My Favorite Things

Honeyed, glistening, angular light
heightens the resolution of what it touches.
Warm breezes, scented of brown leaves, the last push of the garden,
chased by cold nights. Frosty mornings.

10.04.2010

Harvest

Unseasonably green woods snake through
toast colored soybean fields
reach toward fresh, 
deep breath, inhale, exhale, rooted, solid ground beneath me, 
blue sky.
Little cotton ball clouds watch over us. 



10.02.2010

"Home" Again

Week back in Missouri, back "home." It's been 20 years since I left for college and the Pacific Northwest. While I've been back and forth quite a bit over the years, so much seems to have changed since I last really looked. Driving through town today with mom, she pointed out the library is no longer the library and the old high school is completely gone. The other day, at my nephew's football game, I saw for the first time that the building I went to 5th and 6th grade in is also completely gone. I have a lot of good memories of the library and it actually makes me kinda sad to know that I'll never be able to go back. There's a really pretty, much larger, new library, but feeling wistful. Kinda like I went to bed one day and woke up 20 years later.