Mysterious Garden: What Does This Have to do with Resistance?

 Hello my fans and trolls and interested seekers...We have had a bit of a snow and ice event here in Virginia, so work on the garden has taken a break. I thought I would take a moment to explain why I would blog about this particular garden on my Resistance blog. 

One, as I said earlier I do gain inspiration from being in the outdoors and have been told that readers enjoy learning bits about an author's passions and other interests besides writing. However, the reason it is on the Resistance page is because I and others are working in boldness in opposition to my hometown of Strasburg which has been harassing a friend of mine for a very long time. A few people in the town do not like my friend and complain regularly about his property. Usually, we have simply gone in and cut down everything except the trees, leaving a lifeless unhappy place. And honestly, what creative person wants to go into a dead zone?

A bit of background on the property. About 10 years ago there was a suspicious fire in the building, E. Pearls, and it had to be gutted and rebuilt. Being that it is/was an historic building the owner, my friend, took the time to rebuild the interior as historically accurate as possible. Obviously, this took over two years, in which time the garden became overgrown and filled with objects removed from the home. During this time, my friend lost his mother and had to take care of his ailing dad which meant months away from the property.

The town passed an tall grass ordinance in 2013 and that's when the actionable complaints began. Once the town got involved, my friend began the process of removing "junk" from his yard and we had the first clear cutting of the back. I cried, as it seemed so wasteful to me. My friend used his grapevines (which had to be torn down), cane grass, flowers, "weeds", and more in arrangements for his business. But that did not matter and we destroyed it all. A few years later, when it had grown back more complaints, and another clear cutting was done. I'd like to make the point that no other properties around my friend were complained about. Tall grasses, literal junk, and other "nuisances" (which the town will not define) dot the landscape of my little town and very close to him, in fact a shared property line was allowed to grow unmanaged with no complaints.

Then covid hit. And not much could be done or moved because of covid fear. Finally, last year we had come up with a plan to stop the complaints and fix the garden. The clean up began in August and the complaint came in September. However, this time the town wanted to make an example of my friend. The threat of having the town come in and clear cut the garden for him and then charge him was too much...after all, if he had the money to get it done all at once it would be done. I decided it was time to follow the process and make an appeal to the town council and ask for time (6 months basically) for us to get the property in a condition that the unmanaged growth would not occur again. BIG MISTAKE.

A majority of the council had already made up their minds about my friend's property. They had a friendship with the complainant, a neighbor, and chose to not give us an appropriate time. They chose to give us 45 days starting January 1st, to abate the "nuisance" which they would not define. Thankfully the new town manager has been working with us, coming to the garden to see it, and see the progress we have already made. Sad thing is, we got snow on January 3rd and by the time it melted we got hit with a snow/ice event that has been on the ground for a week already and will be for at least another week. meaning we have already lost an entire month. However, I believe the "nuisance" of tall grass has been abated. I'm hoping that it will be signed off on and we can get to the actual work of making a beautiful, mysterious garden come back to life.

So, here we are. a small group of people determined to bring an overgrown garden back to life, against a town council that would have us clear cut it again...The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. My friend, finally decided to take action to do something different with the yard. To hard scape it with weed barriers and with people willing to help with the garden besides one day of coming in and chopping it all down. We are resisting the status quo of "attack the weak person that you don't like to make an example" and are fighting to restore this secret treasure that was once open to the public, but will no longer be. Very sad, that a few malevolent people have tried so hard to destroy something that could have, and at one time did, bring people to the town; and Strasburg is a very nice town with mostly kind people. Something to bring green space and pollution fighting, oxygen providing plants to an otherwise asphalted jungle of historic buildings.

So, in conclusion, we are working to bring this mysterious garden to life. And once the snow is gone and we can get back to work, I will continue the saga of creating, or better, renewing something precious. 

Mysterious Garden: The concept

 Hi again! Welcome back to our journey through creating a mysterious garden. Whether it's a "mysterious" or other garden the beginning is always an idea. Thankfully there is no wrong idea. While some folks like a garden that is all lawn and a few shrubs around the house, and some folks like a few beds scattered here and there, others prefer a nice fenced in vegetable garden, or a mess of wildflowers growing wild; a garden is what makes YOU happy.

So we start with an idea. When I first envisioned my yard (light woods and a seeded lawn that was mostly swampy or rocky) my poor husband could not see the vision I tried desperately to describe to him...however, as we dug and planted shrubs and laid paths and small oval gardens, he began to see what could be. Sadly he passed away this July, but not before having visions of his own: a pond where dragon flies could visit, and maybe a frog or turtle and a wildflower, meadow type garden in the front. Those are plans that I intend to

finish for his memory, but he went from a "lawn guy" to willingly having messy wildflowers because he took the time to SEE beyond the average. We always enjoyed watching the birds and critters that came to our garden. 😍

Back to the Mysterious Garden of my friend...His concept came over 20 years ago, when his now overgrown garden was a parking lot of stones. He envisioned berms filled with daylilies and irises interspersed with daffodils, tulips and other spring bulbs, giving way to peonies and roses in the summer. Rooms separated by English boxwoods and vines of wisteria. A koi pond sits on a wooden platform surrounded by an in-ground pond with pond plants, frogs and turtles.

Large rocks and small boulders created the bones for beds of succulents and small trees woven together in special patterns. So many things to see and do; tables for having dinners and teas or just enjoying a quiet moment listening to the birds that nest in the vines and trees lay open and hidden throughout. A large and two small greenhouses also sit nestled amid the oasis...Magical indeed.

His concept was brought to life for many years, before a fire destroyed the interior of his house and began a 7 year battle of unintended neglect, complaints, and mandated destruction. A vicious cycle that is in the process of being put to right as we bring this overgrown "nuisance" back to life. 

We've been given 45 days (from when we receive our towns desire for abatement) to abate the undefined nuisance by our local town council...and we will do everything in our power to fix whatever the town deems necessary. But with the first 8 days of the year, so far, being halted by snow, and another

larger snow storm set to hit in 3 days the work will have to wait...more time for conceptualizing the revamping of the strong structure waiting for us...I hope you'll come back to watch as we take the over-gown chaos that existed at the time of the complaint and transform it into a green, living, life offering oasis in the midst of our asphalt jungle of a town. 💖

Mysterious Garden

 

Hi friends (and trolls), I thought I would begin a new blog series about the wonders and trials of creating and keeping a garden...not a vegetable garden or simple flower bed, although those can be mysterious too, but a pleasure garden to bring joy, imagination, and creativity to life!

People without imagination see the garden on the top as a 'nuisance', a mess, needing to be cut down and destroyed. However, people with vision and imagination let their mind walk to the middle picture: a clearing, a path. Where does it go? What lays beyond? After three hours of work the path is opened into a place that can be filled; but filled with what? Stone or cast tables and chairs could grace a corner. Perhaps a garden bed filled with flowers or leafy plants could cascade in the middle or edges. I could see a bird bath and feeders setting among the grasses...so many things to see, if you just take a moment and breathe, and look at the possibility rather than the problem: magical, mysterious, and fanciful things can happen.

Magic is all around us. Remember, just because you cannot see the beauty in something does not mean it is not there. Perhaps, if the uncreative and unimaginative among us would be content with their empty lawns of grass and tiny, neat, little gardens around the border of their houses and allow the out of the box thinkers have their wild and rangy gardens life could be a bit sweeter. This episode in the series is just a taste...as it goes on we'll dive into the joys that gardens bring. One person's garden is not like another's. I hope you'll keep following the journey as I work on my friend's garden and show those who would and have made it cut down to the ground see how taking time to uncover the secrets and mysteries in the earth is how you encourage a garden to stay lovely. Taking away all the structure makes it an unhappy place to be. We will be bringing the structures to life. I hope you enjoy!!!

New Year's Day 2022

 

Ah, here it is, another new year, which is just a continuation of the old year. How am I supposed to look forward to a new year without my Ryan? A new adventure perhaps but not something I'm particularly looking forward to. The thing I miss most about Ryan is having his presence in the house: Knowing that if I need a hug or someone to share thoughts with I could just go to him and get a cuddle or his unique way of seeing things. The loss will not be gone just because the calendar turns a year.

Thankfully, I have my faith, family, and true friends around to encourage and inspire me. I have a few book ideas rattling around in my head, and even some ideas for a business. Of course there is the ridiculous 45 day schedule the town council imposed on my friends/family to get their garden up to some kind of unknown and unwritten standard, which I intend to help them accomplish. So I can say the first month and a half of 2022 will be exactly like 2021...arrogant people forcing their opinions on others. The last ten and a half months will hopefully be something new, but knowing the complainers in this town, I'm sure we'll be dealing with complaints and whining ad infinitum. 

My hope for 2022 is that the hate filled issues of the past decade will be done away with for my friend/family, David and Sara and the new opportunities for them will come to fruition. I hope to publish at least another novel and at least one children's book as well as find an opportunity to make my self employment ideas come to fruition. I truly hope the orphans I help in Uganda will be able to move forward with their self sufficiency plans and thrive to be able to help others. For my country, I just hope the current administration will be stopped at every turn from their agenda of making America last. My state has a new governor and renewed house, but it remains to be seen if they keep their word to fix the past two years of liberal destruction. 

Thankfully, I know that my God is in control and whatever comes to be, will be as it should. So, I will continue to fight against the forces of evil with prayer and standing up for what is right. I will keep on living to the best of my ability and pray that in 2022 something spectacular comes to pass for all those who are working so hard to stay afloat and get ahead. There is always hope, even when we cannot see it. On this first day of 2022 may God bless all of our journeys in this new year.

...and if you're so inclined check out my books, the Resistance series.