For two years straight, I tried to grow sunflowers, only to fail both times. Deer ate my first attempt, before they could even flower. Poor planning and environmental conditions undermined last year's effort. For this year, I was determined to succeed. And, I did it. Now I have a beautiful barrel of blooming sunflowers. (There is an updated photo at the end of this post.)
A lot went down these past two weeks. One presidential hopeful survived an assassination attempt; the other stepped out of the race. And since it is the United States, there are only ever two viable candidates for that spot. So, it is a big deal. Also, the Olympics had their opening ceremony, and it offended people, including a Catholic bishop. He called on Christians to speak against this kind of evil. For some reason when I read his response to drag queens reenacting the Last Supper, my last blog post came to mind. I do not expect to read it, though. In addition, one of this summer's many projects includes clearing out the shed, garage, and basement. To make it cheaper and easier for me, I decided to put some stuff on Facebook Marketplace, for free. It has worked, but at a price. Unfortunately, I had to download Facebook to my phone, triggering my doomscrolling addiction. Before, I was logging onto Facebook perhaps a total of an hour for the whole week. Now, I am checking the damn app ten times a day. At least.
Yet, not all is gloom and doom for me. According to my latest fortune cookie, "July's adventures will awaken your spirit". In some ways, it has. I have had to step out of my comfort zone many times, and face parts of my past I thought were buried. By embracing the Adventure Time mantra "Sucking at Something is the First Step to Being Sorta Good at Something", I have managed to begin projects that have been languishing for months on my to do list. I am hoping these accomplishments will ignite a positive feedback loop, inspiring me to start and finish more goals.
Also, my garden is thriving. The fence has held up. While I have seen several young rabbits hopping about my yard, and a groundhog scurrying across it, none have breached my fortress of wooden posts and chicken wire. My summer squashes have provided a lot of fruit, and have avoided the dreaded squash bug infestations of the past (planting later in the season has helped). I am hoping my second planting will succeed, too. After all, homegrown summer squash stuffed with grilled eggplant, caramelized onions, and sauteed cherry tomatoes, sprinkled with fresh basil and cheese, has been a favorite addition to our menu. Those ugly trellises have made picking the cucumbers easier (though I should have cut back my planting in half--something to remember for next year). And what a harvest! I have already filled 12 one-quart jars with pickles (half sour dill, half bread and butter). There are still more to arrive, so I will have plenty to share with friends and neighbors.
There have been setbacks. Some of the dill and basil have shown up, though not in abundance. But the other herbs have failed. Not sure why. In addition, one of my bush bean plants gave me some tasty pods. The pole bean plant, however, has taken over its supports, but has not produced any flowers. Also, something is eating my eggplants, one of my favorite of the nightshade family. Not enough damage to them, so far. Speaking of nightshades, this year I did not bother to grow the tomatoes from seedlings. Instead, I directly sowed them in early June. Big mistake. The few that popped out of the ground looked sickly, so I plucked them. Yet, my compost has intervened, providing quite a few transplants, and some strong growing plants of its own. I may have a harvest of tomatoes after all! Lesson learned.
Now, I am hoping that the successes from my gardening adventure will spill over into my woodworking projects. The fencing and trellises were not well designed, but just good enough. Letting go of perfection, and getting them done when I did, has allowed my garden to thrive. While my approach to planting was mostly arbitrary, what little planning I did do has born more fruit. An incentive to design my layouts better. As I am clearing out the garage, there is an opportunity to use the old wood that has been sitting around for decades, and make furniture for the house. For too long, I have been harboring in my mind ideas for night stands, benches, and tables. But ideas are worthless without execution. And these initial ideas are going to suck. However, I will not learn anything if I do not bother to even make the crappy versions. These pieces that are collecting dust and taking up space would love to be made into a half-assed nightstand. Well, that is what I am telling myself.
And so, all this talk of sucking at things in order to be good at them, leads us to heart of this post, indeed the overall purpose of my blogging. I want to write beautiful, insightful stories. to compose impactful, coherent essays; to put the best of me out into the world. That requires me to embrace my poor writing for now, and focus on just getting it done daily.
After all, my gardening has been far from perfect, yet it has produced some beautiful and delicious results.
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