The Elephant's Child

What You See: How Japanese Gardening Ideas Changed What I Do Outside.

I love Japanese gardens. The peaceful serenity of them, the deep thoughtfulness that goes into every aspect of them.  One aspect of designing a garden in the Japanese aesthetic has to do with "borrowed views," the parts of the world surrounding the garden that are not actually part of the garden itself but which are visible from it, and therefore become part of the design and structure of the garden. 

I've tried to take that idea indoors and to use it to dictate much of what I do outdoors with my flowerbeds.  Nearly everything I do outside is informed by what that view looks like from inside the house. (This is why, by the way, I dislike "foundation plantings"; I can't see them from the house!)

The view out of the front window of my entryway. 

Here, the peachy-pink of the dahlia and (yet to bloom) geraniums contrasts with the royal blue of my motel chairs and my bicycle.  All is set off nicely by the white wall and column of the porch. 

 

I made sure to paint the back of my wicker furniture because I see it from the house. 

This view needs some work yet.  The little green and wood table by the pink wicker chair needs to be darker and more solid-looking, but not too dark, because then I'll lose my nice antique bronze table lamp against it.  By a month from now, the hanging planter on the porch will have filled out a bit and will echo the rest of the porch colors with pale pink petunias and bright blue lobelia.  The tree's canopy and the white wall of the porch become a striped wallpaper for the "room" of the front porch. 

This is my view from my seat at the dining room table.

My hardest fought battles have been for control of the Long Bed in the backyard.  Everything out there is arranged so that it displays nicely from this seat in the dining room.  Can you see what this bed needs yet? Here's a clue.

No, not an English cottage in the background.  Here, I drew it in. 

Needs something to stop your eyes from going past the end of my property line. 

With a sculpture or artifact or tall plant there, the neighbor's garage across the alley would still be technically visible, but you wouldn't "see" it the same way.  Right now, his garage is a borrowed view I don't want. I need a garden folly there! Or something.  The trick is finding something without spending any money at all on it.

Just for fun, here's the Long Bed from the upstairs bedroom, take a week or so ago when the Eastern redbud trees were nearly finished blooming. 

Ahhhhhh.  That's seven years of hard work.

If you enjoy flower gardening (and only if; this post is not meant in anyway to guilt you into redoing outdoor beds unless you actually enjoy doing that kind of thing) have fun thinking about how you'll see that new perennial plant you picked up from the inside of the house before you decide just where you're going to plant it outside. 

Sparkle Kitty's Birthday List

Sandbox

Swimming flippers

Skateboard, helmet and kneepads.

For water to be cheap this summer so that you can water your garden as much as you'd like and so that I can play in the hose. 

A "Useless Box" Kit. 

 

Things Are Better.

Haven't posted for a while. Life has been ticking along nicely, though. This afternoon in particular I was struck by how good I feel these days.  Such a contrast to how I've felt the previous 10 months or so.  There are some good reasons for the change, but that's another post.  

I caved to the urge and used some garage sale proceeds to buy some annuals for the front porch.  By August, I'm usually sick of watering out there and I wonder why I bothered doing up pots, but I can't not buy flowers!  I had too much fun color coordinating the flowers to the colors I painted the porch furniture.  I'll take pictures of that when I'm all done. 

 

This year, I bought a begonia for the first time.  I'm hoping I can overwinter it in the house this winter, along with my geraniums.  And I couldn't resist some black dragon coleus; so exotic looking!   

Can't Do It.

I was recently tapped on the shoulder at a car event locally and asked if I would sell our Mercedes.  Then, the person suggested that he'd trade his '97 Subaru Outback for her. Straight trade. Wow.

All sane people would jump at the chance to trade an older car for a car 13 years newer.  But we can't bring ourselves to do it.  Thing is, MM and I really like this car.  I really love it, in fact.  And as MM said the other night, it's a good project car because it looks good and mostly runs instead of looks bad and mostly doesn't, which is the state of most people's project cars.  

We have future plans for the car, once we can get to the various bits that need work. But for now, she runs and looks beautiful. I've lost track of the times a drive out in the country in this car has lifted a sour or sad mood.  It's impossible not to feel better after driving our Mercedes. 

Writing Distractions

All the novels I've read lately that I've loved have been written by men. 

Forgot to check starting word count. 

Stuck, again.

Don't know what to change,

but don't like this section.  

                    Oh, got an itch. Ouch, my neck hurts.  

Wish I could have a beer.                   I'm going to really miss beer.    

                                                                Am I cold enough to put on this flannel shirt I have here?

Ah that feels better. Guess I was cold.  

 

Now I have to use the bathroom.  Ok, done.

  Something hot to drink would be nice. Should I make tea?                                                                  

Oh, yay, there's a little coffee left! 

Gotta remember to blog about the sparkling water and grapefruit juice thing.  I wonder what's online about the various benefits of grapefruit juice.  I do like grapefruit juice.  Hm, not much really online. Oh, what IS the grapefruit diet anyway?  WebMD says it causes cancer, I bet. HAHA. I made a funny.  

What a dumb diet, the grapefruit diet. 

I wonder if I put pencils on the edge of this bucket if the cat will knock them off like she does when I put them on the table?  

Oh, cool, she does! She's so funny.

 

Gear shift knob. What does the gear shift knob in an E30 M3 look like anyway?  ::opens Pinterest:: ::opens Google Image Search:: Oh, it's got M stripes on it, cool. 

::posts photo to auto forum::

::starts discussion about stick shift knob shapes::

::remembers ten minutes later that I'm supposed to be writing::

Sigh.

 

Prayer Plant Blooming.

 

Maranta leuconeura

 

Not sure what the trigger is to blooming, so it's always a surprise.  Bloom happens nearly overnight, and doesn't last long.  It's kind of tiny and plain, but still fun.  It washed out in the photo, but it's a pale lavendar color. 

Rolling Car Show.

Kindle

I would like to hear from those of you with a Kindle Fire.

How much reading do you do on it versus how much is it used for games/email/tablet type stuff? If you've used both a Fire and a standard Kindle for reading, what has been your experience reading with the back-lighting of the Fire? (For me, a Kindle feels like a real book mostly because the surface is very page-like; there's no back-lighting like a computer screen has.)

Sparkle Kitty has asked about saving up her money for a Kindle Fire, mostly because she wants to play Where's My Water.  Last night, though, she messed around with my regular Kindle and the ablity to make the text bigger was a huge hit.  She really liked that.  (An aside: we need to get her in for an eye check up.  She says words get jumbled when she tries to read text at the font sizes of most kids' chapter books.  I am not sure if this is just a beginner's issue that will improve as she tackles harder reading or something more serious.) 

I have no issue with her getting into chapter books on an electronic device, but I do worry a little about her doing so on something with back lighting.  Backlight  = screen.  And a "screen" acts differently on your brain than something like the e-paper surface which is very paper-like and static. 

Also, a basic Kindle is $69 and a Fire is $199.  Big price difference, too.  

The other thing I don't care for is the combination of a book in a device that has games*.  It makes it much harder to put down the game and go read something if the games and apps are right there in your book.  It's both healthy and very nice to be able to shut down the tech and just go read.  You can do that with a standard Kindle (yes, it's "tech" but it's not games, apps, and email), but you can't with something like a smartphone or a tablet or a Kindle Fire.  The internet and apps come right along with you. 

 

 

 

*This is, by the way, the reason I think that a dedicated e-reader device will remain useful even though everyone and their dog now has a smartphone.  You can take your Kindle out to the backyard and ignore the rest of the world.  If you read on your phone, the rest of the world comes with you, even if you silence the ringer and notifications.**

 

 

**This is in no way an idictment of those of you who read on your phones.  Nothing wrong with it.  I just know that for myself,  and for my kid's personality as well, it's good to be able to physically walk away from the games, apps, and internet at times. 

This Post Is About Health Stuff and Food Reactions.

I had another nasty food reaction.  At least, I think it was a food reaction.

My thinking was distorted. My ability to process information was messed up (I got ready to turn left to enter a freeway ramp, but then didn't recognize the ramp entrance, for example.)  My carpal tunnel problem came back in my arm. And most unpleasant, I got bad bloating.  Really bad. To the tune of 15-20 lbs of weight. 

I do not ever, ever, ever want that to happen again.

Ever. 

The problem is, I'm not sure what I reacted to.  I got very sick on March 14th after eating some peanut butter.  It may have been the peanut butter, or it may have been the New Glarus Spotted Cow I'd had the night before.  (I have reacted to some beer - not all - previously. I have previously had Spotted Cow without any problems.)  I bloated up some.  Some of the bloat went away after a couple of days, but not all.

Shortly thereafter, I visited a friend's house for several days.  She's great about making sure I can eat at her house, and I have not been glutened there before.  I did have rice krispie bars there; rice krispies do contain a very tiny trace of gluten, in the malt flavoring used.  I did have one dark beer there - a black lager.  I have had black lagers before without problems.  The other drinks I had there were wine and a gluten-free sorghum based beer. 

I took Communion while there.  I have not previously had problems with the Host.  And I have paid very careful attention to possible reactions from the Host, because most of my gluten-free friends cannot tolerate it. 

 I had a McDonald's shake on the way home.  I've combed through the ingredients and the ingredients of the vanilla shake syrup they use, and while it does contain a lot of sugar, there is nothing that should be an allergen for me. 

I bloated up even more during my time there and once home.  A lot more. 

Yesterday was the first day I felt remotely normal and like myself since before March 14th.  Felt completely different yesterday from how I felt on Tuesday or Wednesday. Clear head. Bloating much reduced (not completely gone, though. At least I can wear my clothes now...) Stronger. Able to do what I needed to do around the house instead of being in a foggy daze. 

Yesterday night, I took Communion at my home church.  I have previously been ok communing there with the regular wheat-based Host.  I was worried when I got home, and asked MM to pray for me.  I prayed, "No poison can be in the cup that my Physician sends me" at the rail.  I hope I will be ok.  I feel ok today.... I think.  

I am now kind of afraid to eat, though!  Yesterday and today I have been EXTREMELY careful about what I'm eating.  I'm watching the sugar (good idea anyway, and what if I'm reacting weird to sugar? c.f. that shake) I'm eating zero processed anything.  I didn't even add a sprinkle of sugar to my plain yogurt this morning: just a few crushed un-sweetened frozen strawberries.  (It was a little tart but really not bad at all.)

And I guess it's time to go talk to my Pastor(s) about the Host. Even if I don't think I'm reacting to it, I need to not be putting wheat into my gut if I know I'm allergic to it.  I asked MM about communing in one kind for a few Sundays just to see if it makes a difference (maybe I'm not noticing a mild reaction?) but he does not like that idea.  So perhaps I will ask Pastor if I can touch the Host to my tongue and pass it to my husband to consume before I request rice-based wafers.   I hate making a fuss, you know? 

I kind of envy GF friends who get violently sick immediately after ingesting gluten.  It's a lot easier to track down where the culprit is that way! 

Paper Cuts

Due to some unintentional experimenting yesterday, I can now conclusively say that these items are things you should definitely not put in a paper cut.

1.) hand sanitizer

(that hurt.)

2.) Melaleuca Tub and Tile, which is citric acid based. 

(that really, really hurt.)

3). Acetone fingernail polish remover. 

(that burned like a thousand suns and turned the cut bright red as well.)

 

I do not recommend repeating my experiments for yourself.  

Just take my word on this.