Le Jardin et Le Chat

Que Sera Serrano - the first fruits of my gardening labors!

Close-up of Molly - the cause of my recent bloodshed

Billie belongs to a neighbor, protects the property, keeps me company as I garden/water/read/nap and has gone fearlessly to battle against wasps that were menacing me for a couple days last week. Even now he goes over and checks out that area to make sure it's safe for me to water. He's more than a cat, I'm convinced.

Until next time... Miss Absinthe

At Least It All Matches... part 1

Repeat after me... Always wear shoes when gardening! Always wear shoes when gardening!

I haven't written in so long, merci for being patient!!! In the interest of catching up I will be semi-brief:

1. The second week of July, I totally lost my mojo. No photos taken, no new gardening, no writing, no blogging, no inspiration, dealing with noisy douchebag neighbor... you get the idea. According to certain esoteric traditions, the time of Leo (mid-July/mid-August) has some of the most negative energy of the year, and honestly I have found this to be true year after year after year. Most of my life's most negative events have taken place during this part of summer.
2. One glorious exception (to be blogged soon) to all this ennui were three transcendent dinners at Ludobites. Oh Mon Dieu.
3. 18 days ago (still in Leo) I was having a perfect day... Sweetie-pie took a day off and we were preparing to spend an overnight in Ojai, had a great lunch at Baby Blues BBQ, then shopping at Crossroads Trader (found gorgeous Donald Pliner cork wedges with the softest black leather upper and a cute Marimekko top that I'll nip/tuck), followed by hour-long $25 reflexology at JB Natural and then frozen yogurt right down the street (Robertson) at Toppings. Pretty nice day I must say.
4. We also picked up some gardening supplies (dirt/organic fertilizer/shovel) for some late afternoon gardening needing to be done before the trip. I had seedlings and plants that needed repotting and some general tidying up that I had put off. The sun was going down, my ipod was playing Rise by Herb Alpert, I was almost finished, moving a new plant (named Molly cause she's pink and pretty) to the plant stand in the corner of the yard and when I went to put the pot down... I missed and dropped/shattered the pot, causing a large shard to drop and pierce the top of my bare foot. Good thing for me, I don't panic and I grab my foot tightly, already bleeding more than a small cut and oddly leaving two identical marks on the pavement that won't wash away, forever leaving my mark (see kids, pain can be artful!) and here's the funny part (yeah real funny), the color of the pot matched my toenail color and matches the color of the bloodstain (see kids, pain can be stylish!). I then raised my foot above my heart to lower the pressure and called (between swearing up a storm) up to SP to bring down something to stop the bleeding (and I was a bit woozy by now, the initial adrenaline wearing off).

In the next installment, I will regale you with how I didn't go to the hospital/doctor and healed this on my own (no infection whatsoever) with nothing more than Tumeric, Lavender Oil, Apple Cider Vinegar, Honey, lots of cut-up socks and patience.

So my mojo has returned and we've entered Virgo, sigh of relief.

Until next time... Miss Absinthe

Squirrel on the Move

The backyard wall is sort of a highway for squirrels, possums, and raccoons. Whenever there's a rustle in the trees, I usually jump up to see who's traveling where. Can't help it, I'm a geek for nature, especially when it comes to wild creatures in my trees!

Until next time... Miss Absinthe

Dirtlife Diptych

Items found in the backyard dirt + dead tree + rusty iron grate = art meets archeology.

Until next time... Miss Absinthe

Grilled Cheese From Nowhere

My dreams of living a life worthy of being a heroine in a Tom Robbins novel are coming true...

I recently decided to stop whining about my lousy backyard (cause I rent and my landlord doesn't care) and just do something about it, so last week I embarked on my great backyard beautification project by dislodging and removing a ton of impacted dirt (which yielded some great finds and pics are coming) and re-arranging the odd bits of semi-furniture (which I plan to sand and paint). It's already an improvement and so nice to have that stale energy gone (I'm very sensitive that way).

So there I am, minding my own business, doing some watering with the new eco-friendly hose I bought, facing south, looking around to see what I want to photograph and how, such as the vines on the back of my neighbor's garage that forms part of our yard...

or how two bikes, that have been chained for years to my neighbor's window, are slowly becoming part of the scenery as the grasses and weeds grow and intertwine the wheels and frames, becoming a new organic sculpture...

I turn around, facing north... and there's a grilled cheese sandwich in the middle of the walkway, between my apt building and the apt building north of ours. That was NOT there 2 minutes prior... and I was quite dumbfounded at the discovery.

Then I remembered the Tom Robbins novel, Skinny Legs and All... where amongst a lot of other groovy, mystical, political, historical plotlines (can you tell he's my FAVORITE author), there's a group of "inanimate" objects (a sock, a beancan, a conch shell and a stick) trekking across America to get to the middle east to save the world.

I wonder where the sandwich is going...

Until next time... Miss Absinthe