• Tag Archives coleus
  • That Old Achievement Bugaboo

    Beltane                                                                Waxing Last Frost Moon

    Deciding to take a gamble on the weather, with the aid of the forecasters, Kate planted some frost sensitive plants today:  coleus, especially.  She also planted artemisia, Jacob’s Ladder, alyssum and purple wave petunias.  Mark weeded.  Meanwhile I was in St. Paul doing my next to last session with Leslie.

    Tonight was Tai Chi.  When I arrived, there was no one else there except the first teacher I encountered and an advanced student.  Nobody else showed up, presumably due to mother’s day.  That meant I had a personal class with two teachers.  It was a revelation.  This teacher, the one I met the first night of class, has a style that connects with me.

    She spoke about learning Chinese, listening to the words at night before she went to bed and in the morning before class and recommended, again, since she had done the same thing at the one class she taught, that I practice morning and night.  Just immerse yourself, she said.  We come to these things with such an achievement orientation and we have to jettison it, let go of mistakes, think of them as occurrences, concentrate on the process.

    Tai Chi has 13 different moves, a vocabulary of movement, a style of movement rooted in another culture.  I’ve learned 5 of them so far.  Well, sort of learned them.

    It was a good class. What I needed at this point.


  • How Will The Garden Grow?

    Spring                                            Full Flower Moon

    A bit of rain last night and a bit now.  Some is better than none.  Kate and I spent the morning at Mickman’s Nursery  picking out additions to our 2010 garden.  I bought some mustard greens and ten more bags of composted manure while Kate bought a number of herbs, pansies, coleus and something called mountain white.  I also picked up packets of bush beans, nasturtium seeds, butternut squash and sugar peas.  These will go in the ground over the weekend.  I hope to have the vegetable garden largely planted by Sunday evening.  Of course, I’ve also got that bee colony division to do as well.

    We ate lunch at Tanners, then came home.  Kate works tonight but not over the weekend.  I’m looking forward to having her around full time after next January.  With our various limitations and our mutual strengths this place is just better with both of us here.  A good thing we’re married to each other.