Good day friends. It's been a loooooooong time since I visited here and
sat and listened to all the conversations going on in this yard. I was
thinking some of you might think that ol' Maddy had given up, taken ill, or
was deeply involved in the daily drama that is part of her reality. Well, I
never give up. I have my sickly moments like anyone else, but I survive
them and move on g and yes, it is really that I have been deeply involved
in the daily drama that is part of mine and those connected's reality.

Ya'll know that I now work at my local Lowes in the Lawn and Garden centre,
and as no one there has "regular" hours, my schedule is chaotic, and despite
that I know what it is for two weeks in advance, the days I have off as of
late have
been carefully savored, used up, and when I turn around to see if I have
some precious time to just sit and write to my friends, it's gone. It's time
again to go to bed early (which is NOT like me at all, I tend to at least
stay up until 11 p.m.) because pounding the concrete all day long, running
back and forth (well, hobbling is a better description of my getting about
the nursery, greenhouse and part of the huge store), catering to and helping
all my customers, doing the things my bosses expect me to do in between all
the customer servicing, I am totally whipped and desperately need sleep to
partially heal my feet. I go to bed so early now that it scares
Squire.......

Yeah, feet. One good thing I have noticed thru the sands of time that has
turned now into weeks since starting there, I can now squat again to my
lowest position near the ground and instead of having to drop to my knees to
relieve pressure on those 50 year old knees, I can actually rise up almost
normally. I also find my stamina is better, and even though I can't see it,
a regular customer who likes me alot and always makes a point of calling me
by name (alot of them do that, and slowly I will eventually remember all
their names.......it takes time) and has hugged me on several occaison's
because good people recognize each other and I always help my customers as
much as I possibly can, called out to me yesterday in the madness of the
Saturday afternoon when the sun broke out, and told me "Marilyn, you've lost
ten
pounds since I last saw you!!"

This startled me, and as I gave her my huge ol' shit eating smile that I
give almost everyone, I told her I didn't feel like I'd lost ten pounds, but
she looked me up and down and told me that in her serious opinion, it really
looked like I had indeed lost at least ten pounds since she last saw me, and
it was an inspiration to her to try and drop a few pounds herself.

Now this neatly dressed lady was sincere in her remarks, and I stopped near
her in my on-going quest for whatever it was I was doing at the time, and
told her "you know, if you pounded this concrete all day like I do, or
followed me around, you'd probably lose weight too, although I really don't
know if I have or not"..and she laughed towards me and leaned against the
chain link fence and said that she wouldn't be able to keep up with me if
she ran behind me, that she sometimes sat in the parking lot before getting
out and coming in to the garden center, and she was amazed at how much I
flitted about. She said I resembled a remarkable bee, hovering here and
there, visiting the customers like they were precious flowers, staying just
long enough to make sure it seemed that they were happy when I left to hover
again somewhere else.

She said one pleasant day she just sat in her car and watched me and
couldn't stop smiling. She just hoped that I was being paid decently for my
tearing about..

I told her I was doing alright, and besides, I was part time and I enjoyed
what I was doing. And on top of that, I got first pick of alot of the
shrubs and perennials that came in on the many trucks...G That got a
response from her that it was more than obvious that I enjoyed what I was
doing and where I was working and it gave her encouragement to get on about
her day and we needed to one day make a pact, beings as I had told her once
when I first met her that I really needed to
lose 50 pounds to feel better about myself, or at least get below the 180 I
had held on my small frame since 1986. She surprised me that she remembered
a conversation weeks ago we'd had in passing and connecting over flowers and
such. I have a bad habit of making friends with some of my customers.

What stands out in my mind now, though, is that there are some customers who
come to the store and nursery with their husbands or wives or just
themselves and they are comfortable enough with me to "fool" with me. I
think this is a Southern expression, but I mean that they're in a jovial
mood, they're prone to tease or pick on their friends or family and they
recognize that they can do the same with me and I take it good naturedly and
sometimes tease back. I had a man to bend my water hose, cutting off the
water the other day and I had to remember there are stinkers
everywhere.........so I turned around to see if someone had done this and
sure enough, there was this tall, white haired, older man with a huge smile
on his face looming
from behind the foliage in the last aisle, and his blue eyes lit up and he
remarked "yer good girl! You caught that one pretty fast! You musta known I
was here to tease you today!" When I told him I should hug him to death for
that, and that he was a little stinker, he dropped the hose, came over and
demanded his hug........and I heard a woman behind the rhodendrums say-"now
you've done it, you'd better hug him now or he'll torment and tease you
until we leave.......and yes, I'm his funny little wife, been married to
this lunatic now for 49 years, go ahead and give him the hug you threatened
him with" and this neat little lady stepped from around the end of the
section with a pot under each arm.

I have never worked so hard, been so stretched thin with so much to do and
enjoyed what I was doing in a long time.

Now, on to garden things and flower updates. I have horribly neglected
ya'll and there is so much to share with you.......

The pots that stick to me at work to follow me across the parking lot has
begun to pile up at home, waiting patiently for me to plop them into their
own spot somewhere to be tended lovingly by me and my benevolent fairies.

And now Squire has begun to take an interest in the outside, which was
originally my domain. In the past, he's been happy in the sidelines to just
enjoy the fruits of my crazed labors. He has tried in vain to make me plant
things symetrical, or with a plan in mind, and it has obviously stressed him
enough to at least attempt this from me. He has also enjoyed my chaotic
gardens, because when he's home, he goes outside with his cup of coffee and
looks around to "see who is blooming today". He has done this on and off
since I actually started my gardening madness, but since being home now
since August of last year, he has awakened to more of my labors and efforts.
And being an artistic person who has an incredible ability to see in his
mind how things will come out or come together, he has seen a little reason
in my madness.

But being the Gemini and left handed man he is, and loving to DO things, he
has started to take an interest into some things in my realm. He has begun
to meddle with my fairies and me. It's nothing bad, in fact, I have to
admit that he DOES have insight and a good eye for these things.

Where I'm going with this multi-parted ramble is that Squire has begun a
project outside involving my last new flower bed I made last year, the
broken BBQ pit.

Originally he was surprised that there WAS a bed around the broken pit when
he came home from a run. But then he started making sounds, like "honey,
I'd like to take the chimney off the BBQ pit, because it's blocking my view"
And I told him then that what I really wanted to do was fill it up with soil
and plant clematis to climb it and some ground hugging perennials. But he
was adamant about it. He even enlisted in Zhanataya's opinion's about this
when she came up for the weekend in February. And she agreed with
him.........that it WOULD be nice to take the brick chimney out to open up
the view to the pasture.....

Then I came home with a reduced goddess fountain thingy and a reduced pot
with no holes and he thought it'd be neat to make a small fountain inside
the pit and fill around it with soil. Ok that was partially what I wanted
to do with it.......I'm listening.....g

Then he decided what he really wanted to do was make a kind of trickling
water fall that led to a small pond to circulate the water from. He thought
about this idea until he figured most of it out and one weekend a few weeks
ago, had me and oldest son to go to Lowes for mortar, wall mortar, some
bricko blocks, 6 mil plastic, four bags of 50# sand, 5 bags of 40# top soil
and 10 foot of tubing for the goddess. I decided to buy 28 retaining wall
blocks and it started there.

NOW he's decided he needs a larger pump to run not the goddess fountain
piece, but large enough to do a water bubble................and he kinda
likes the little fairy water piece we have at work and I might get a
perching fairy instead of the little goddess if I keep quiet about all the
RED CLAY and RUBBLE in the small side porch where the swing and BBQ pit is.
This project keeps growing..................

I will say that he loves the retaining blocks, and had me get 8 more to
raise the bed up another level, but now I have had to lift alot of the
perennials before they got too far along, because they're sitting below the
rocks now instead of level. And he now thinks it would be nice if we
rounded every raised bed with them over time. And did I tell you he figured
out an idea to use stepping stones to edge my raised beds from a garden
supply magazine I got last week?? OY VEY!!

I will fill you in on the sticky pots in the next posting. I think you see
where we're going here. Thanks for letting me share the first part of this
madness. I fear I have infected Squire with my garden insanity now. He even
wanted me to BUY perennials for HIS fountain bed!! (maybe the fairies
switched him in the night)

I will fill you in on the plants and what the fairies have been up to
tomorrow morning. And there's also the little day lily lady from last year
who has decided to mow her irises and lilies to the ground this year and
wants me to come over to dig them up.........
more later, I promise.

madgardener up on the ridge, back in fairy holler, overlooking a lush, green
English Mountain, a full to brimming Douglas Lake at the base in Eastern
Tennessee zone 6b, Sunset zone 36

Boy, I thought I worked hard today planting my vegetable garden!!!! You
take the cake, Marilyn! (Just writing that email was quite a project. But
I bet you're a fast typist.)

Glad your husband is enjoying himself and creating.

Keep at it all, Marilyn! But be good to your feet too! And it's so good to
hear from you again.

Bobbie

"madgardener" wrote in message
...
Good day friends. It's been a loooooooong time since I