Here it is a week before Thanksgiving 2007. Today was the most magnificent day. High 50's and beautiful crisp air and SUN! B and I took a ride to Indianola to view some paintings by I, T's girlfriend. Such a splurge for me I rationalized it as a birthday present. I'll try and post a photo of the painting we bought. With our new acquisition in tow and reluctant to go back indoors, we then took a hike through the Grand Forest here on Bainbridge. B took some photos you can view here. How lucky indeed to have this place so close to home. I'm thinking about the differences between forests and gardens. This forest, so raw and unkempt but amazingly beautiful as only untouched nature can be. The leaves falling where they may and decomposing in place. The mushrooms growing willy nilly and ferns popping out of moss covered tree trunks every which way.
The forest smells are amazing. I don't think our garden has any smell, except when there happens to be a fragrant bloom in summer or when we stick our heads in the composter. The forest air seems more oxygen laden and the street noises are absent. Hard to lose other people though. We met several people out with dogs or friends reminding us this was not our private reserve. The forest's lesson for me is that nature thrives if left alone. A benign neglect works best. The garden is the place where we try to control our universe. Fussing and fidgeting with nature's elements attempting to "create" something out of the expanse of lawn that we discovered on moving in 17 years ago. How many years ago was it that our place was a forest? Our friend P has gardened longer than anyone I know here. She now has so many "volunteer" plants that turn up year after year that she no longer "gardens" in the traditional sense of cultivating and planting. She just moves around the garden pulling weeds here and there and clearing spaces for plants that just pop up every year, seemingly hellbent on reproducing themselves. She does not pore over seed catalogues looking for the latest variety but has given in to the nature that has taken over and helps give the plants that emerge a fighting chance. She has evolved into nature's steward. A park ranger in her own garden!
