Came upon this little tryst this morning. Kind of creepy, it looks like one is trying to kill the other but in actuality I think they were mating...
Sunday, April 3, 2011
It's Spring and We're Making a Garden
Happy new garden day to me and my neighbor Amy. We planted two trees in the yard today, avocado and blood orange. Bought some berry vines, jasmine, strawberries and peppers -which still need a home in the yard and will live in pots for a little while. And most exciting of all is that the guy at Home Depot showed me some kind of mulch that you mix with the soil in your yard if it's clay (which ours is) and it turns it into good planting soil. This was an awesome revelation for me as I didn't know such a thing existed.
Next on the agenda (I'm thinking) is to build a fence around the area we want to install raised beds for veggies and herbs. I'm so excited about having started to transform the yard that I had to post without photos as it's too late now to take any tonight but will post some tomorrow.
Next on the agenda (I'm thinking) is to build a fence around the area we want to install raised beds for veggies and herbs. I'm so excited about having started to transform the yard that I had to post without photos as it's too late now to take any tonight but will post some tomorrow.
Wooooow. Just had the most surreal online adventure. For some reason I suddenly remembered once seeing someone perform on the glass harmonica. This, in case you're not familiar, is an "instrument" consisting entirely of glasses, filled to various levels, with water. The musician then runs his finger around the edge of the glass to make in "sing" and does this is whatever pattern to create whatever song. It's brilliant. I saw this guy open for a friend of mine years ago and it was seriously beautiful. So first I went looking to see if I could find a good video, there are many and I must admit I only watched one which was great but didn't exactly express the originality of the performance I saw, before getting distracted. Because then I remembered Gwen, who I was there to see perform, and started to look for videos of her music.
I was hoping for, perhaps, some bit of an old live performance. I would assume she's still playing but bands change over time and you never know who they'll be next or what they'll be called. I'm going to make a long story short because I have a feeling it's not all sorted out in my head yet. So here it is:
Once upon a time I knew this really wacky girl named Gwendolyn (listen to samples of songs, look around the site...). Really imaginative and fierce and crazy talented. She played something like freak folk ages before anyone that phrase was coined or anyone else seemed to play it. Her influences seem to be totally unrelated to her sound.... always a sign of brilliance (yes, I used it twice) as far as I'm concerned. We both grew up around the same city, were involved with people in the same, huge crowd. All my friends back then were musicians and film students, it seemed, and most of my social engagements were going to see bands play or screenings of somebody's short films. There was a lot of variety, it wasn't a crowd where everyone was doing the same thing, everybody had their own idea's and sounds. It's been a while since I found such a group of original, eclectic and inspired people. Anyway. It seems Gwendolyn went on to form a band that performs music for children. I remember hearing this somewhere years ago but didn't really process it entirely because to me her music had always seemed like it was sung for children and even a lot of the content seemed appropriate. Gwendolyn and the Gooodtime Gang, however, is truly for children. (Go check it out and then come back, no really.) So? Oh my god! Isn't that FASCINATING? It's just me, isn't it? But I'm just so impressed with her for her confidence in following what she loved and using it to create something that she enjoys and that supports her (notice also, she scored music for the show Weeds).
Most of all I'm totally impressed and happy for her for creating for herself the kind of life I'm sure she wanted, although I'm sure it's not exactly what she thought might happen because that's how life works. And what hit me second was: that's all I need to do. It's not that hard just don't be discouraged or worry too much, just do what you need and want to do for yourself and it'll turn into SOMETHING.
I was hoping for, perhaps, some bit of an old live performance. I would assume she's still playing but bands change over time and you never know who they'll be next or what they'll be called. I'm going to make a long story short because I have a feeling it's not all sorted out in my head yet. So here it is:
Once upon a time I knew this really wacky girl named Gwendolyn (listen to samples of songs, look around the site...). Really imaginative and fierce and crazy talented. She played something like freak folk ages before anyone that phrase was coined or anyone else seemed to play it. Her influences seem to be totally unrelated to her sound.... always a sign of brilliance (yes, I used it twice) as far as I'm concerned. We both grew up around the same city, were involved with people in the same, huge crowd. All my friends back then were musicians and film students, it seemed, and most of my social engagements were going to see bands play or screenings of somebody's short films. There was a lot of variety, it wasn't a crowd where everyone was doing the same thing, everybody had their own idea's and sounds. It's been a while since I found such a group of original, eclectic and inspired people. Anyway. It seems Gwendolyn went on to form a band that performs music for children. I remember hearing this somewhere years ago but didn't really process it entirely because to me her music had always seemed like it was sung for children and even a lot of the content seemed appropriate. Gwendolyn and the Gooodtime Gang, however, is truly for children. (Go check it out and then come back, no really.) So? Oh my god! Isn't that FASCINATING? It's just me, isn't it? But I'm just so impressed with her for her confidence in following what she loved and using it to create something that she enjoys and that supports her (notice also, she scored music for the show Weeds).
Most of all I'm totally impressed and happy for her for creating for herself the kind of life I'm sure she wanted, although I'm sure it's not exactly what she thought might happen because that's how life works. And what hit me second was: that's all I need to do. It's not that hard just don't be discouraged or worry too much, just do what you need and want to do for yourself and it'll turn into SOMETHING.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Alright, I'm climbing out of this cave slowly but surely, though we had unfortunate weather today which made for no inspired outfits and I am in semi lock down mode as there have been workers in my yard all day clearing the jungle of overgrown weeds and tree trimmings that have been left behind for far too long. It's like a miracle that I can actually see the dirt. It's a good metaphor for Neptune's exit as I'm now left with the raw foundation for the garden I'm going to plant.
I want vegetable beds, herbs, giant succulents and lot's of fragrant flowering plants like roses, jasmine, and gardenias. I might also need a pineapple guava tree. We'll see what happens once I get out there. I think I'm going to have to hit some nursery's this week and likely snatch some babies from the wild agave on the side of the stairway up my hill. Perhaps tomorrow I will get one area planted as a christening to the new garden. Now for some inspiration....
I want vegetable beds, herbs, giant succulents and lot's of fragrant flowering plants like roses, jasmine, and gardenias. I might also need a pineapple guava tree. We'll see what happens once I get out there. I think I'm going to have to hit some nursery's this week and likely snatch some babies from the wild agave on the side of the stairway up my hill. Perhaps tomorrow I will get one area planted as a christening to the new garden. Now for some inspiration....
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