I know that I haven’t posted much about gardening lately. Frankly, I haven’t posted here in over a week now, period. I have started and stopped many times. I starting working on the follow up to the series on garden writing. And then I backtracked and started a second follow-up post that I have since abandoned. Last week I wrote a piece on the massive bounty of Jerusalem artichoke that I dug up from the garden, but it was so meandering, shoe-gazing, and long-winded that I had to permanently sequester it to my drafts folder to retain the little dignity that I still have.
Since then, I have considered writing out the Jerusalem artichoke pickle recipe that I canned earlier this week. I am rather proud of it. But how-to.. ugh… not in the mood. I have toyed with countless rundowns of the fermentation experiments I am currently enjoying and the interesting things I have encountered, but it all seems like too much. Too big.
Since my cat died, I haven’t had an inordinately difficult time finding joy. I have felt a lot of sadness, but good feelings and play have coexisted alongside. One of my happy places has been combing through PetFinder looking at rescue dogs and fantasizing about adopting one. Dogs, being very different from cats, are a soothing source of comfort now. Cats are a sad reminder of the girl we just lost. I pet one last week when I went into a pet store to pick up holiday food for my fish tank. The cat was long-haired and pretty like ours. It was sitting at the counter when I went to pay. Right up in my face and impossible to ignore. I forced myself to pet her but the feeling was uncomfortable.
I have posted several pictures of my day-to-day holiday doings and personal experiments on my Instagram and Flickr accounts. I continue to run at the mouth on Twitter. Not even grief will stop me from putting my foot in my mouth on an hourly basis! The first, hot-off-of-the-press, early, full-colour, printed and bound copy of my new book, Easy Growing: Organic Herbs and Edible Flowers from Small Spaces arrived in the mail. That was exciting to see, although I have since come up with at least one recipe that I REALLY wish could be added in. Alas, that always happens. PR work has begun and we did some more work on the trailer over the weekend.
And as for writing, well, I’ve managed to pull off work-related writing that needed doing. But when it comes to this site, everything that comes out of my fingers is meandering, unfocussed, and kind-of embarrassing, really — not unlike what you are reading right now!
So, I don’t know. It seems like I need to approach things in small chunks. Or perhaps just get this strange awkwardness out of the way before I can get back into the swing of things. Consider this the releasing of that awkwardness.
Let’s talk about you. What are you doing right now? What are you making, receiving, enjoying, growing, experimenting with, eating these days?
p.s. Happy Solstice! The days are going to get longer and hopefully brighter from here on out.
p.s.s. Threaded comments have been implemented to the site. It will make responding and conversing so much easier!
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