Oh The Drama

A friend of mine liked to say, "you need to do what you have to do...before you can do what you want to do." For me that meant there are always landscaping tasks waiting in cue. Not that I'm complaining. Landscaping is my time to contemplate another project piece.

There's quite a bit of repetition when working from one home landscape to the next but sometimes a simple task can become rocket fuel for a short story.

For example, recently I was asked to relocate a Cherry tree as soon as the weather permits. This relocation would be to a different property. Not really that unusual until you find out that I had just moved this same tree to this property last year from yet another home. And it had only been at that home for about a single season. Oh the drama of it all. The world truly is a stage and we are all but mere players...and grips...and writers.

This pic shows a cast stone bowl created from a Hosta leaf and finished in rust.

Snapped Handles Cracked

When I was growing up it seemed to me that my father had but one single shovel, rake, saw etc. And those tools lasted his entire life. They had that look and feel of being well-used. Each scrape and dent a permanent record of another task completed.

I enjoyed thinking that my garden tools would grow old with me. In some small way it would make me as my father and grant me passage into that place one can only belong to after years of being shaped by an honest days work.

But instead of being broken in my tools are forever breaking down. I now have a collection of snapped handles, cracked shovel blades and collapsed wheelbarrows. All of which provides a healthy supply of spare parts but denies me an accounting of my tasks.

This pic shows the detail on a 24" cast stone Gunnera leaf.