brain mutations, gardening, books and no tv

Thanks to Judith and Dave for the housewarming card (and the first piece of mail I've received in my new P.O. box.)!

So the part of my brain that was always somewhat bored by gardening talk has suddenly mutated. I find myself inexplicably excited by conversations about hostas, soil acidity and mulch. I'm suddenly noticing what everyone has in their gardens, the tulips in the park, the hanging flower baskets in restaurants and street corners.

To put things into context: I am not a good gardener. I once spent an hour and a half transplanting seedlings which turned out to be weeds. I killed the first meaningful gift that Jeff ever gave me, a spider plant. Yes, I know spider plants are impossible to kill. Jeff won't let me near any of the houseplants with good reason.

Yet I find myself drawn to our garden first whenever we visit our new house. I'm still not used to the fact that we'll have our own private space outdoors we don't have to share with anyone else; in our condo, whenever we wanted to sit outside, we either had to get in the car and drive somewhere or we had to find a public park. I would have loved to have a balcony oasis space like Allison's.

My partly insulated basement office.

Going to the house today! Jeff's doing some indoor stuff; I'm going to work outdoors. Unfortunately my grubby clothes and shoes are all still in the storage locker. I did find ONE pair of shorts; I remember throwing this into my "to keep out of locker" pile at the last minute just in case we hadn't found a place by spring. HAHAHAHAHA. Shows you how naive I was about the amount of time involved in the whole househunting and buying process. Until we finally move and unpack, I'll be wearing and washing these shorts quite a bit, I suspect.

Have I mentioned how much I'm looking forward to getting my things out of the locker?

We've decided not to get cable tv in our new house; we've already been four months without tv and haven't missed it. When we feel like watching something, we rent it. Doing a lot more reading as a result, as well as walking outdoors, cooking from scratch, playing music, etc. And actually talking to each other instead of staring at the screen! :-)

We'll probably subscribe to cable again eventually, but so far it's been an educational experience, seeing the ways we've each been filling the time we used to spend in front of the tv. I used to rely on tv for entertainment sometimes when I didn't have energy for anything else, but I'm realizing that watching tv often made me feel more tired.

Books I've read recently:

The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton (adult)

- Love Hamilton's writing style, her characterization. Depressing story, but I still felt compelled to start reading her next book.

Insulated walls and ceiling. Next: floor.

No Small Thing by Natalie Ghent (juvenile)

- YA fiction. I was never into the whole horse thing like all the other little girls, but still quite enjoyed this book. Again, for me it's the characterization that's vital to hook me into a story. And I was definitely hooked.

Naomi's Road by Joy Kogawa (juvenile)

- The story was so engrossing that I wasn't even distracted by the fact that my sister illustrated this book. Not surprisingly, of course, it was a pretty depressing context (Japanese internment during the war) but Kogawa manages to tell the story from the young protagonist's point of view without heavy-handedness or dwelling on gruesome details.

Black Rain by Masuiji Ibuse (adult)

Speaking of gruesome details...I bought this in on our Japan trip but never managed to finish it. I tried again recently. The story focuses on one young woman who was caught in the radioactive rain that fell after the bombing of Hiroshima, and is drawn from real-life diaries and interviews with victims of the atomic holocaust. Couldn't get through this again...the explicit descriptions literally made me nauseous.

Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman (adult)

Read this collection of short stories a little at a time, finally finished it. Some of the pieces are definitely in the horror genre. Quite enjoyed this.

Going to the Erasure concert with Craig, Derek, Luisa, Andy, Christine and others tonight!

Photo I took at the cottage several years ago. (Later note:
Chris Conway used it for one of his CDs.)

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