You Grow Girl™

Speaking of freakishness, yesterday afternoon we were outside (yes me and someone else, I don't speak about myself in plural form) digging up plants in preparation for operation, "Garden Eviction" aka "Invasion of the Garden Snatchers" and a pretty wacked out guy came by to talk to me. I really am a freak magnet because even when someone is with me, the wacky people are always drawn to me despite the choice. I must look approachable which is strange considering I often have a look of distaste on my face. The look on my face yesterday was especially vexing considering I was digging up my garden--an unhappy event. I often think that crazy people have some kind of special insight into the world and perhaps they can see that underneath my snarling exterior I have a lot of compassion. Or maybe they're just acting on impulse. Anyway this guy staggers up to me, as people often do around here, and started mumbling about congratulations, the number 52 and you're a little drunk. He was all giddy and oblivious to what I was doing. Finally I figured out that it was his birthday and that he was fishing for praise. I think he really did deserve it too. I shook his hand and he left. I said to Davin that this was a "...shining example of why I wasn't going to miss this garden" but we all know that I was using humour to hide my true feelings. Sniff.

Then my friend who lives in the building came by and started relating her run-in a few seconds previous with the same guy. Then I told her about how I am contstantly finding stuff in the garden, the most recent objects being a smashed black lamp with shade and a half full bag of cookies. The bag of cookies actually disappeared a few minutes after I pulled it out of the bushes. My new theory is that the garden is either someone's secret stash or a portal into an underground world much like the children's book about the kids that find a secret underground world by going through a trap door in their playhouse. The cartoon adaptation of this story was occassionally played on The Saturday Morning Special when I was a kid. I think it was called "The Land of Od" or something like that. Either way someone is going to be very disappointed when the garden is replaced by a City owned garden. Actually a woman came by and asked if the garden was a City garden and Davin said "It's not now but it will be soon". Tears.

I still haven't related everything that happened over the weekend so I'm going to continue now. On Friday morning I put up a photo of a really crazy looking chandelier sent in by a reader for the How's It Growing page. What a coincidence because on Friday night I helped my friend finish packing for her move to another country and she gave me a very similar light fixture that she had hanging in her living room. It has orange and yellow ochre flowers made of metal with a giant glass globe underneath. I now have it hanging over my desk.

On Saturday Wing Chun gave me an excellent birthday gift that included the book "Leaves In Myth, Magic & Medicine". I can't say enough good things about this book. It provides historical information about trees that are surprising hard to come by. It has beautiful auto prints (prints that are made using the actual leaves as printing plates) created by the author herself.

On Monday Beate came over with some fresh organic produce from her garden and wild blueberries from the Farmer's Market. I spent Tuesday afternoon making Zucchini Relish and Green Tomato Chow Chow which I then canned. As I was poking air bubbles out of a jar of relish, I had the sudden realization that the reason I like canning so much is the odd similarity to highschool science experiments. Laying out the tools and equipment, the methodology, the care and attention to detail, waiting for the pop to know that the experiment was a success-- it reminds me of the fun I had in chemistry class. I should have been wearing goggles and a lab coat. In fact I think I'm going to make an effort to acquire a lab coat for myself.

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