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if you double click you can see  3  spindly grape vines.  They were from the sale table at Home Depot mid summer last year.  So,  planted late.  After getting their vines a little walked on and Goat chewed.  They then were given water.  Diligently.  And also benefiting from the water,  the Vetch which became luxuriant  and  mesmerized us with its tiny orchid like blooms.  As it went and at the end of summer,  the grapes had disappeared.  Then,  all winter.  Under dried Vetch vines.  Spring.  but….Rattlesnake season down there.  Hesitance. 

 


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Alyssia Emrie and i went down yesterday and made our sounds of Presence,  just in case,  and with our hands cleared away the matted Vetch.  Lo and Behold….Grapes.  Never pruned as grapes like to be,  this one wandering one trailing vine far from it's plant of origin,  but…..Grapes.   They all made it.   Better,  more knowledgable  and conscientious care should have and could have been taken.  But they made it.  Success or Failure?

 


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once again,  we let the A yard meadow go wild.   Because of beings like these.  For "Defensible Space",  a term in much use in Fire Prone lands,   that should not happen.   Success  (wild flowers)  failure….

 


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the Hydrangea,  given to Daughter Jenny by her son for last year's Mother's Day.  Planted but subsequently eaten to a nub by Goats.   Dug up and repotted.  Sitting in pot through summer, fall , winter and spring.   Down at Campsite A.  No one was clear about where to plant it.   Yesterday (and today) it sits in the pot and developes it's first bloom.  S or F.

 

 


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and a single chicken.  We began with 4.  One seemed to die of natural causes.  Two,  probably Tay.   One.  People don't have a single chicken.  We do.  We can't decide whether to get more.  How to deal with more.  Chicken Limbo.  But we have an extraordinary Chicken.  one more example of S or F.   

These are just small examples of many things here on this Hill where what was Planned and Imagined didn't quite happen.  There is sensitivity to this as to why.    Back at the other home in New Mexico,  the Place with the Raft,  similar things.  Things not working out.    Other cases of S or F.,  mostly F.  and i was going to write a lot of thoughts about all this yesterday….i had a lot of thoughts,  but as i was uploading these pics here,  successfully, today…..,   a very  INTENSE  Electrical Storm.  HAIL.  The phone bleating flash flood warnings.    BIG STORM.   and now its passed through and a gentle rain and i think…what does it matter.    We do what we can as we go.  We do what we can as we go.  OK.   

May is the month of reckoning.  The last day of it,  the time of Turning to Just Go.  Once again,  doing what we can.  Whatever that means  to many varied sensitivities.  

 

 

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18 responses to “yesterday again. Sensitivities. journal post.”

  1. hermosa Avatar
    hermosa

    I stumble on words like “success and failure” because they have too much judgement in them. They feel hard. Whether something “works or doesn’t work” fits in with me better. They are softer. Different and yet meaning nearly the same….. I’ve had some failures (they do exist) but mostly as we go along trying things/life out, it is only a matter of whether it worked or didn’t. Your grapes are wonderful. With little attention they survived. How wonderful !
    I am impressed by your willingness to try new things in a new home land.
    To me that is success.
    love,
    hermosa
    ps. do get to that defensible space…. and leave some islands and pathways for the wild things to move thru.

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  2. Mo Crow Avatar

    (((Grace))) love how you are getting to know The Hill and all her beings, as Jude says, Love takes Time.

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  3. Michelle Slater Avatar

    Success is a seven letter word. Failure is too, but Love is just a four letter word and everything you’ve done is about just that. LOVE

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  4. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Coming to know a place, the land, takes time and for me, it has been and is, the willingness to just go and try and see what comes that matters, whether or not the outcome turned out as expected. Many years ago when we embarked on our journey of discovery, it would have been so easy to become paralyzed by all that was new, to sit and read about planting in the tropics of Maui, in the forested and mountain area of Washington, in the Hill country of Texas, in the great smoky areas of Tennessee and now here in the deserts of New Mexico and do nothing, just read about what could be and grow but that’s not how we are. So we tried planting what we knew and sometimes, we did get a harvest and sometimes, not. Sometimes what flowered in one part of the country did not in the other but through it all, it mattered to us to put our hands in the dirt, to come to know the different soils, the weather patterns, the creatures that came to dine in our gardens! and by doing so,this journey of coming to know a place has been and continues to be a gift.

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  5. joanne Avatar
    joanne

    I let my grapes ramble up and over a trellis. They don’t make many grapes this way. I know I should be hard pruning them. But I actually don’t care that much about the grapes. And I like the shade they provide. We had land like yours and because we don’t have your grand daughter here—we cut down trees and clear cut weeds-repeatedly. We have a place for wild and places for NOT wild. What wanted to live, just moved into the wild area on its own. Nature has its way. And what the dog or deer should not eat–we fence. Even little fences around a protected shrub. I have tall narrow fences around the two peach trees. I want peaches. We make choices and Nature adapts.

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  6. dee Avatar

    Agree with Hermosa about the openness to experience feeling like the success here. The one chicken cracks me up a little. I guess they are social creatures and that’s why people have more than one? In my yard, plants that thrive for years (success) have been known to precipitously decline and die for no apparent reason (failure? Or the natural end of their time?). Two formerly happy hollies have to come up this week. They’re mere sticks now. I have two hydrangeas to put in their place. Southern exposure. Near a stone foundation. We’ll see.

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  7. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Joanne, when we moved to our New Mexico rental, an established grape arbor greeted us in our backyard. We’ve been here six years and my husband grafted a few grapes from the original and now we are trellising and training these grapes on the other side of our yard. We too, just like you, enjoy the shade that they provide. We do get an abundance of grapes, harvested each year, some years over 50 lbs. We have made wine (the less said about that the better!and we also make raisins. Now raisins are inexpensive so why go to all the trouble to make raisins…well there is something quietly joyful about the fall ritual of cutting down branches of grapes, putting them on window screens that are placed on top of old bricks to dry in our hot New Mexican sun (our version of drying racks). When totally dry, we spend a good afternoon sitting outside, picking off stems, sorting the raisins into 2 cup baggies to give to family and friends. Our grand kids know that their Halloween goody bag will always contain raisins. It is a fine ritual and one that I look forward to each Sept.

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  8. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    It is always very exciting seeing what comes back after our long winter. I’v slowly been moving a few plants to what will soon be our new home. We will be very close to the lake after our move so it’ll be interesting come next spring waiting to see what returns.
    But that’s a ways away so now I’m just looking forward to settling into our new home end of June. It has turned from scary to exciting.
    Love your lone chicken Grace ..

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  9. joanne Avatar
    joanne

    Raisins. Marti I am seeing this process in my mind and loving it. Slow is what I like best about the garden. I am always saying to my husband–slow down-there is always tomorrow.
    My friend gave me two small starts from her grapes. A big concord (I am growing a smaller seedless variety) and a Leon Merlot. Her grapes are giants. I have these two new plants along a tall deer fence. I’ll prune them correctly and possibly in a few years be able to make jelly–or raisins.

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  10. grace Forrest Avatar

    sometimes i like to just get a thought OVER WITH…a
    consideration OVER WITH…S and F does that. Clear cut.
    and yes. very judgemental.
    yes…that defensible space is the top priority right
    now. Fortunately, a lot of the wildflower blooming
    is complete now…things have gone to seed.

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar
  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    that’s what saves the day

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar

    it’s so ever present…so much offered, everywhere

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar

    compromise is a big word here

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  15. grace Forrest Avatar

    no one’s decided about this hydrangea yet….i think
    maybe now we should wait till this bloom happens??

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  16. grace Forrest Avatar

    am looking forward to your move, hearing all about
    it. Close to the lake…nice.

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