In the Magic Garden

When I was 5 years old, my Mother did something unexpected. She enrolled me in a private Kindergarten class. I say “unexpected” because back in those days (and in that place) Kindergarten was not required and no one had ever heard of the term “preschool”. Children simply entered first grade when they turned 6, hopefully graduated when they turned 18 and then went out and got a job. Life was much simpler then.

Now THIS is a dollhouse!

Close up of the interior

 

The thing I remember most about that Kindergarten class is the dollhouse that stood -taller than me- at the back of the room.  From the first moment I saw it, I coveted it!  I would stand for long periods looking inside those rooms- wishing I was small enough to live in that little house. But, of course, I didn’t know the magic words to make that happen.  (I knew about fairies and magic from stories my Mother read to us.)

Fairies can live anywhere!

I especially liked The Borrowers by Mary Norton, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham and The Dolls House by Rumer Godden.  I liked the idea that teeny people and tiny animals could be hiding amongst us (just living in cozy wee houses  and going about their business)  and we never knew!

Stalking

Oh, if only I could be small enough to sleep in a bed made out of a matchbox like Arrietty!



The Borrowers

Or, ride down the river in a little boat with a water rat and have a picnic like mole!

I shot secret glances at the dolls in the dollhouse to see if they moved (like Godden’s “Tottie”) when they thought we weren’t looking, but they never did.

I got a dollhouse that Christmas from Santa and although I was happy enough playing with it, it wasn’t  “REAL”. It was made out of tin with rugs and curtains painted on it and all the furniture was made out of pink plastic. I knew no small person or talking animal would ever really want to live in it.  It was a toy.

Not Real

To remedy this problem, I stayed busy over the next five years or so making secret outdoor houses out of twigs and leaves for any stray fairy or borrower who might need a home.  I got pretty good at it.  I made them in the woods where we went camping, next to steams, and always next to any tree with a hole at its base (after speaking into the hole first in case it was already occupied, of course!)

Is anyone home?

Noticing my obsession, my Aunt Eppie (who was patient and understood kids) showed me how to make tiny furniture from wooden spools, flat rocks and empty cocoa cans – and how to decorate with tin foil and bits of ribbon and cut-up magazine pages. From Peggy, a neighbor girl who babysat us, I learned how to make a doll out of twigs, leaves and flowers – which I would occasionally place inside of one of my houses as bait. Alas, the houses remained unoccupied and so eventually I grew up and abandoned the effort.



Twig dolls

Then a couple of weeks ago, I was in the garden behind our Children’s Department  watering the plants and I noticed something surprising !

We have fairies in our garden!

It only took me fifty years to stumble upon one in its natural state! There was no one home, however, and later I understood why. 

Alien Invaders

Maybe this is the reason they are so rare?

Less Mess

I didn't read this as a child.

My house is a mess. Every single room is filled with clutter. Every closet and drawer is full.  This didn’t happen overnight, of course. The detritus of the past 20 years has been steadily accumulating and has now reached the point where I feel it would be easier to just sell the house and start over than to clean!

I’m pretty sure though, that in order to sell my house, I’d have to clean it anyway – so that’s really not a solution.

Possible before women worked 40 hours a week

To make myself feel better, I went online and searched images for other examples of sloppy housekeeping.  I thought my place would look good by comparison, but I was wrong, wrong, wrong! I’m going to post a few pictures here and there, but I’m not going to tell which ones (if any) are actually from my house! I’m going to let you guess. I guarantee that no matter what your house looks like though, mine is worse.

Where's the TV remote?

Just take a clean shirt from the top of the pile.

 

I’d like to be able to blame the entire problem on my husband -and believe me, he is a major contributor. But sadly part of it is me too. He has collections. While I like to think that I am going to “do something with” stuff instead of just throwing it away.  Sometimes I do and it turns out good.  Sometimes I don’t.  Mostly, I start a project, but don’t finish.



An attempt at organization? LOL



When's the last time you ate in the dining room?

Repair - YES

Reuse - YES

  Recycle - YES

     Reduce - HUH?

I could blame it all on Pinterest. (www.Pinterest.com )  This is the most addictive website ever! With all its nifty diy craft projects, you almost feel guilty if you don't do something creative with every single used household item. It's impossible, isn't it?  Thank God Pinterest hasn't been around long enough to cause much damage.

Well, except damage like - A BUSTED SPLEEN - because you can't keep up with all the ideas that people are posting to the site.!"Suzy Homemakers" every one of them. Even Dudepins - a site for guys, can make you feel inadequate.

Manly men repurpose their old drum sets after Rock Stardom fails.

I’m going to have to tackle this problem room by room – and the room I’d like to start with is the garage.  A lot of people have problems with keeping their garage clean. It easily becomes a permanent home for household items that are seldom used or stuff that is “too good to throw away”. Really? If you are not using it, just how good is it? It’s just taking up space.

Keep the door closed so the neighbors won't know! 

I need the garage to be cleared in order to have a place to put the stuff I’m removing from the other rooms. (I’ll be emptying it just so I can fill it up again.) Depressing!

Though clutter is caused equally by both men and women, female clutter is generally prettier than male clutter,don't you think?  Which would you rather look at- a fabric stash or drill bits?

Male

Female

Before I began the cleanup, I'll need to see what Clutter Level I'm at.



I think I'm a solid 2, borderline 3. 



Maybe there is hope.  After all, the scale goes up to a 9.  YIKES!!!

Poems Heard in the Children's Garden

Garden Instructions

Plant seeds early in the spring

When the ground is warm.

Two inches deep in well-tilled soil

Where they’ll be safe from harm.

Let the sun and rain pour down.

Be careful where you hoe.

A miracle is taking place:

Seeds split and start to grow.

Snap Beans

Snap your fingers, jazzy beans,

Tap your toes,

Click your heels, strut your stuff in tight green jeans.

Go ahead and belt a tune.

Make it loud.

Wow the crowd.

Your time is short. It's way past June.

Zucchini

I have all of these zucchini!
What am I supposed to do?
I could fry them, make bread
or cook them in a stew.

I have all of these zucchini!
Can you help me with them, please?
Make some cookies or a cake
broil them with some cheese.

I have all of these zucchini!
Would you give some to your friends?
Just make sure you wash them first
then peel and cut both ends.

I have all these zucchini!
Minestrone sure sounds nice.
Throw in some beans and garlic
And a little bit of rice.  

May you all enjoy zucchini!

It's an easyplant to grow.
Just make sure you count how many
Seeds you've planted in a row.

Tomatoes

Tomato blossom, fruit so red,

All the world’s a garden bed!

Dill

Dainty Doily Dill Weed

dances in the breeze,

waving tiny blossoms,

calling to the peas!

Carrots

What does a carrot know,

Smothered in dirt below?

 Songs of worms,

Tap-tapping rains,

The smell of earth,

And growing pains.

What else does a carrot know,

Alone in the dark, below?

 Sound of boots,

Thud of hoe,

A gentle tug-

It’s time to go.

Go Fish or Cut Bait

“If you want to go fishing, you have to bait your own hook.” This is what my Daddy told me when I was 7 years old.  I didn’t particularly like fishing, but I wanted to be with him.  Oh, it was always fun at first - the ride in the boat with the high-pitch buzz of the motor and the sight of the water parting and spraying along the sides as we traveled forward. There was the excitement (and fear) of pinning the wiggly cricket on your hook and casting the line. 

But then, I had to sit still and be quiet. I had to be quiet forever. After awhile, the sun would beat down on my head and my pole would get heavy. And I’d be sooo hungry that I’d eat my little can of Vienna sausages and most of the wax packet of saltine crackers about an hour after we left the dock.

I never caught much because I didn’t keep my line in the water long enough. I liked casting the line and then reeling it in. And talking. A little chatterbox is guaranteed a captive audience for all her questions and declarations while on a boat! I was just drowning crickets mostly.

I realize now, that my Father not only had incredible patience, but that he must have really loved me a lot. He enjoyed fishing, hunting, camping, horses, and motorcyles. And though he may not have been aware of it, by including me (a little girl) on these adventures, he showed me that I was strong and that I could be brave. And that what I said and thought mattered.

He not only created good memories, he was “building” a future adult. My love of nature is one part of me that was made by him.

When we love something we are motivated to protect it. That’s true for people and that’s true for places. Love is connected to nature just as nature is connected to us. Earth gives us air, food, water and shelter. Earth gives us beauty and happiness. What do we give the Earth in return?

Like an indulgent parent, the Earth has let us (her children) get by with bad behavior and selfish actions.  She has overlooked our mistakes because we were young and still learning.  But now, we have reached the point where we can no longer claim innocence as our defense. We know better. Now, we have to DO better.

Brigham City, Utah

We can correct our mistakes . Back in 1903 when settlers moved into the Bear River valley in Northern Utah and Southern Idaho they diverted water from the river to their towns and farms causing the marshes to dry out. Eventually, less than four thousand acres of the original forty-five thousand were left. The loss of these wetlands caused a massive number of birds to die. The public was shocked and took action by making the Bear River delta a National Wildlife Refuge in 1928.

Dead birds - Bear River 1928

Dikes and water control structures were built, laws were passed and the habitat recovered and began supporting millions of birds. Of course this didn’t happen overnight, there were many set-backs and lots of volunteers and supporters were needed. Today the area is flourishing as it celebrates its 84th birthday!

What this shows us is that humanity can destroy nature in an instant – and that it takes decades of persistent effort to recover from such destruction. But, it can be done.  If we are going to fish, we have to be able and willing to bait our own hook.  Our Daddy is not going to do it for us.

 Bitter Lake

But for all its gesture
to the wild, nothing
comes more human

than this: “refuge,”
an oblong of mercy sliced
from the map.

Where hosts and dominions
of snow geese
billow and gleam

by water’s edge,
I think of Lear, dead
Cordelia in his arms.

- William Wenthe

Books on this subject - available at Chesapeake Public Library System

The World According to Pimm by Stuart Pimm

Thought to Exist in the Wild by Derrick Jensen

Rewilding the World by Caroline Fraser

The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World by David Abram

Wilderness Survival Handbook ebook

A Sand County Almanac: With Other Essays on Conservation by Aldo Leopold

Finding & Buying Your Place in the Country by Les Scher

 

 

 

 

 

The Garden Song

Inch by inch, row by row,

someone bless these seeds I sow.

Someone warm them from below

till the rain comes tumblin’ down.

 

Pulling weeds and pickin’ stones,

we are made of dreams and bones.

Feel the need to grow my own

‘cause the time is close at hand.

Grain for grain, sun and rain,

find my way in nature’s chain.

Tune my body and my brain

to the music of the land.

Plant your rows straight and long,

temper them with prayer and song.

Mother Earth will make you strong

if you give her love and care.

Old crow watching hungrily

from his perch in yonder tree.

In my garden I’m as free

as that feathered thief up there.

Inch by inch, row by row,

gonna make this garden grow.

All it takes is a rake and a hoe

and a piece of fertile ground.

Inch by inch, row by row,

someone bless these seeds I sow.

Someone warm them from below

till the rain comes tumblin’ down.

The White House Food Initiative Vs. Central Library's Garden Project

Everyone has to eat. We've been doing it a long time. So, you would think that our philosophies about “Food” would be simple.  They are not. "Food"  (and the politics that govern it) is very complicated.  

Fears about food safety such as outbreaks of salmonella and E. Coli have led Congress to consider passing a bill which will allow federal agencies the authority to recall tainted products if a manufacturer refuses. I don’t understand why this is controversial? It seems like common sense to me.  Currently, there are 15 federal agencies that oversee food and drug inspections.

---

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service - Protects the health and value of U.S. agricultural resources (e.g., animals and plants).

Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration - Establishes quality standards, inspection procedures and marketing of grain and other related products.

Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) - Establishes quality and condition standards for dairy, fruit, vegetable, livestock, meat, poultry, and egg products. (Has no statutory authority.)

Agricultural Research Service - Conducts food safety research.

Economic Research Service - Provides analyses of the economic issues affecting the safety of the U.S. food supply.

National Agricultural Statistics Service - Provides statistical data, including agricultural chemical usage data, related to the safety of the food supply.

Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service - Supports food safety research, education, and extension programs in the land-grant university system and other partner organizations.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - Inspects all domestic and imported food products except meat, poultry, or processed egg products.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - Protects the nation's public health, including foodborne illness surveillance.

National Marine Fisheries Service - Provides voluntary, fee-for-service examinations of seafood for safety and quality.

Environmental Protection Agency - Regulates the use of pesticides and maximum allowable residue levels on food commodities and animal feed.

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau - Enforces laws covering the production, use, and distribution of alcoholic beverages.

Department of Homeland Security - Coordinates agencies’ food security activities.

Federal Trade Commission - Prohibits false advertisements for food.

We can spend lots of money to teach people about the importance of a healthy diet, but we can’t tell them what to eat or where to buy it.  These are personal decisions guided (often as not) by availability and cost more than by our personal preferences. If you are poor, it is harder to get access to good food at an affordable price.

Michelle Obama wants to change our national food policies to help with this.  She has appeared at soup kitchens and community centers to talk about the importance of a healthy diet. She has visited schools seeking to improve their lunch menus.  And, to increase people’s access to fresh fruits and vegetables, she has promoted the local-food movement. 

Here at Chesapeake Central Library we are trying in our own way to foster some of the same ideas. We have partnered with Plant-A-Row and the Chesapeake Agriculture Department  to start a small garden behind our Children’s Department .  Library programs teaching children about seeds, gardens and food are being organized.  So far, we have made pots for our plants out of recycled newspapers and planted beans. 

This summer, school children came to the First Lady’s Garden to help plant (and later harvest) food.  The intent was to show children the step-by-step process of how food gets to the table.  This is something that many children who live in the city don’t know.  Don’t vegetables come in cans?

Even some children who live outside urban areas may not know much about how food is grown.  I remember years ago we bought our little nephew a bag of hot roasted peanuts at a sporting event and after a few minutes he broke a shell open and exclaimed excitedly, “ Hey! There’s peanuts in here!”  He was so surprised. (The only peanuts he had ever seen were already shelled, salted and in a cellophane wrapper.)

Here at Central Library, we have taken some wooden pallets from our loading dock and repurposed  them to create “raised planting beds” outside our Children’s area.  We’ve stapled landscaping cloth to the bottom and sides and filled the top with potting soil and then laid them horizontal on the patio. Ta Da! A place to grow food when you can't dig!  Apartment dwellers with small balconies or outdoor space could do the same.

We are in the process of planting these flats with beans, peas, onions, lettuce and radishes. We have tomatoes in ceramic pots, sunflowers planted against the brick wall and a selection of herbs and flowers to be planted in two vertical pallets.

If our Garden Project takes off here -as we hope it will-we envision a meandering walkway around the building with pockets of edible plants scattered among the bushes and flowers. In fact, plans have already been drawn up.  (As always with new ideas, however, it is the practical matter of funding that will or will not ensure it's success.) Wish us luck.

Because having great food isn’t much use if you don’t know how to cook it, part of the White House plan is to also inspire families to cook.  By working with Brainfood, a non-profit organization that helps young people build life skills and promotes healthy living,  they are using food as a teaching tool to show people how to grow and cook food.

While I can’t say I really “enjoy” cooking all the time, I am old enough to have grown up during a time and place when there wasn’t any other option.  If you wanted to eat, you had to cook it yourself.  So, I learned early and have just considered it to be part of life.  Apparently, there are a lot of people who don’t cook at all!  (And I thought it was only my husband.)

I am hoping that the food gathered from our garden will not only feed people, but will also spawn some library programs for teens on how to cook, for adults on how to can produce,  for everyone how to eat healthy and promote the idea of food sovereignty for everyone.

Perhaps we can also form some new partnerships with people and organizations who are interested in reforming the way agriculture is subsidized, changing regulations to improve the environment, raising nutritional standards in public schools or better food labeling in the markets.  It's amazing the ideas that can be grown in a garden, isn't it?

Did you know that just learning how to cook food caused a big jump in human intellect 150,000 years ago?   Cooking breaks down fibers in foods and sends nutrients to the brain faster because less energy is required to digest it. This freed up calories to feed our brains.

If we all started growing some of our own food, and/or eating healthy locally-grown products, just think of the increase to our brain power and all the things we could accomplish! Maybe "Food" isn't supposed to be as complicated as we have made it after all?

 WHEN THE TIME'S TOXINS

by Christian Wiman

When the time's toxins

have seeped into every cell

and like a salted plot

from which all rain, all green are gone

I and life are leached

of meaning

somehow a seed

of belief

sprouts the instant

I acknowledge it.

Little weedy hardy would-be

greeness

tugged upward

by light

while deep within

roots like talons

are taking hold again

of this our only earth.