Wednesday, May 24, 2006

The privileges of adulthood

VolMom is a gardener par excellence. She regularly wins awards in Lawrenceburg. People go and have their bridal photos in her yard.

She regularly involved me and VolBro in the gardening. But mostly in the weeding and mulching not in the decision-making. Whenever some fanciful plant caught my eye in the gardening catalogs, she'd always have some reason to dismiss it. If the flower was some other-worldly blue, she'd point out that a filter had been used. If it had a spectacular giant bloom, she'd point out that it was trick of perspective.

I always wanted to plant allium, the large ornamental onion, and VolMom always said no. In seed catalogs, it was usually pictured in full bloom with a small, blonde child standing next to it, and the kid always a little shorter the top of the seed head. They look like big starry lollipops.

With adulthood comes responsibility, working and paying bills and stuff. But with it also comes the power of decision-making. Ice cream sandwich and a beer for breakfast? Why not. Stay up late, watch a movie full of swearing and bare breasts. I can if I feel like it. Alliums in the garden. Absolutely.


Globemaster
This is a little "arty-shot" of my Globemaster allium.

VolMom wouldn't let me have garden statuary either. And do I have some now? Is my garden a sculpture park - an outdoor museum of gnomes and lantern boys and concrete deer? No. Sadly the Vol-in-Law has put his foot down. But I am allowed to hang pictures in the garden.


Rotation of IMGP2247
Found and purchased art

Fancy at the shrine

canna and lavender
Traditional folk-art fence decoration

IMGP0957 crop1
Part of a slate and mirror mosaic, which in its making resulted in a trip to the emergency room with glass in my eye

UPDATE: The Today Programme - the morning news radio for the intelligentsia and policy makers of Britain did a little feature on sneaking a garden gnome into the Chelsea Flower Show - the creme of garden shows in England.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

ahhh I can't wait until I live somewhere with a garden. I've always wanted one. And there will be gnomes. . .

Anonymous said...

Wow, I love the mirror mosaic. It is worth a trip to the emergency room. Love that creativity.

As to the allium, I hate wild onions so much, how could I invite a giant one into a garden? Yours is beautiful, but I'll bet wild onions are not a garden problem for you either. How quickly we forget.

And you know I love blue flowers most of all. But seriously, some of my very best plants have come from you. I will send pictures as soon as I can figure out the technology. I have them in the camera, all I have to do is get them in the computer.

My computer life span has ranged from card punch input to all this digital stuff. As the years advance the technology swiftness diminishes. Oh woe. Ageing is not for the faint of heart.
VolMom