Depicting mood = Sorrow, in the garden

I like the round rocks. And the brug. Not sure how it makes me feel - at first I laughed, thinking it might be a halloween display.

Ghosts of Tombstone....strange little vignette there.

good lord, I hope it's for halloween lol!

I guess that's not worded right. Yes, I assume it was for halloween, that's why the only thing I could do was laugh.

haha....the cactus add to the deserted look...a few tumbleweeds would top it off.

And here come the covered wagons.....was that a coyote I heard?

looks like the aftermath of the OK Corral

Yee gads! I knew I'd been away to long again...especially when I saw the last post I'd read some time ago- and realized -I"ve yet to order the Gorse Seeds!! Anyway, between Lynnie 6868 (or something like that - can't keep scrolling back) and, Oh, it's you again, the last post NOve 12th Lynnie 6868 - I don't know whether to laugh, cry , or remain aghast....alas, I shall explain all. First my absence- my life IS CHAOS (think Get Smart - that ole spy T.V. show - the bad guys were known as "chaos" - the good guys as "control" - a spoof on both the CIA/KGB I guess....) in any case _ i'm afraid "chaos" rains chez moi! Remember I reluctantly admitted I do have an artistic streak- well, since the move - haven't done anything- and I've a good friend (age 87) who frequently tells me we tend to get "off balance" if we don't make art (those of us who feel the "pull' to draw/paint etc).....well, I live and never learn. That's my motto. I"ve been spinning my wheels - everysince we got here- never picked up a crayoloa crayon mind you- but found plenty of time to delve into plants, and plants, and more plants. So, that today;s venture after church- just ended in an explosive exchange - with some very colorful 4 letter words -from my spouse! He accused me of being "obsessed with plants" to the detriment of the house....well, .....duh........HOW LONG HAS HE BEEN MARRIED TO ME?? sigh....I suppose it didn't help that I decided we should dig humungous holes for our sequoia tress (yes, I did say sequoia) but when the spouse heard that - he exclaimed, "YOU"RE not SERIOUS! These aren't sequoia trees are they?". Well, what could I say, I was already in trouble for having to many plants - dare I admit - in a fit of experimentation - I'd ordered 2 sequoias? So, I told a little white lie- something to the effect - of, "er, um, no, they just sort of remind me of sequoias?". I figured, at this rate, 2 DEAD sequoias (which is how I fear they may end up - after the abuse they took, when my husband shook a fist at me - sequoias in hand- me crinching with each fist pump - not for my own safety- but over the knowledge that the roots of sequoia are so delicate - they've been known not to transplant well - if shipped "bare root". They did arrive "bare root" - but the website I checked out mentioned nothing about what would happen to said sequoias if an angry spouse waved them about in the crisp new mexico air.....Needless to say, they didn't get planted today (I quickly plunged them back into a bucket of water) but not until AFTER my husband rammed (accidentally) the wheel barrow into a large swath of bird netting....What can I say? At least no golf clubs or SUV's were involved???At anyrate back to the point - the only way my sequoias will add melancholy is if they end up dead - sortof planted "morticia" style (from the Adams family) in the back yard next week....I do hope the neighbors will understand......Ah,,,cahn't and shall - coming from Massachusettes can only mean one thing- a Boston Brahmin?? LOL. A winding path disappearing into obscurity- yes, that would add mystery. Great idea - thank you- had forgotten about that one....Hat on the chair - too spooky! Sounds like something from the Twilight zone- or something they'd do over in Roswell- I'm more on the west side of the state - and, besides the only UFO"s I"ve seen lately- were my nearly airborne sequoia this afternoon......Oh, yes, I must stop obsessing about marital spats- the old man is snoring - quite literally now- how else do you thing I could come back out here and vent....
Who over asked , "do you think we've scared everyone away?" - Can't speak for the others but Gorse is of course always bound to come back - speaking of bound- pot bound that is- I sometimes gently try to unwind the roots of a plant like that before repotting or placing it in the ground (only if it is terribly pot bound- roots in a tight circle, etc) because otherwise alls one ends up doing is damaging kinky roots....better off leaving them alone in that case. Have NO idea why people insist on planting smack against the house- maybe it's to "hide' the foundation?? For the writer who said she planted hers "close to her" - oh, dear, it does sound like a trip to the horticultural psychologist is in order....I wonder if there IS such a thing?? LOL. Serious, intelligent? Gee I hope we weren't supposed to be aiming for that - I"m supposed to be in the "gifted" range- but so far in life (nearly 50!) I can't seem to get anything quite right in life- so I'm not so sure about the value of sounding intelligent or even beiing "intelligent'. It hasn't worked for me.....OH, the lady with the deceased mother - and the lovely african violet - african violets' really are "grandma" flowers aren't they. I found myself picking up two just last month - after I swore I wouldn't attempt to grow them again out west - they do fine on windowsills back east - ...but Arizona was a death sentence to every one I tried...happy to say the two recent purchases from NM are doing fine....but, oh, that' ladies memories (and others of their mums) - luckily I"ve still got my mum- and she was/isn't ever an african violet afficionado- but the memories of "ole Mrs. Wagner" a lady I deemed "ancient" when I was 13 (therefore, most likely passed away by now) had the tidiest, organized house, you could imagine- and the most spectacular african violet collection- taking up every window sill, bay window etc - each with a lace doily placed beneath- and my motherinlaw - (ripe ole age of 88 and still going strong) always had them over her kitchen sink (where I"ve put mine- funny, the husband hasn't complained about those.....yet!). Anyway, yes, african violets DO seem to be wrapped up in nostalgia etc- my fave are the mini-mini- which I've rarely seen for sale- I once saw a mini robes something with an almost gentian blue flower - beautiful - in a catalog- never was able to find it again - let alone purchase one.....Anyway, the loss of loved ones WOULD be a nice thing to include in my melancholy garden (I know that wasn't really a suggestion- more just others comments about loved ones they've lost and the flowers that remind them of those people) - yes, I think including flowers for people we've lost would be a lovely tribute to the loved ones, would certainly add a "personal" melancholy- a private melancholy, if you will- without really needing to make it public - that in itself would be a bit of a secret - i.e the friend or visitor who admires your african violet but doesn't know the story behind it - (your love for mom)- and then the decision- of whether to share that memory with the visitor or not- if you keep it to yourself - you would experience I think a lovely sadness ( happy memories, private, but sadness, equally private, for the one you lost) or will you chose to share the story with certain friends or visitors- I"ve done that with some momentos in my house- and often the friend or visitor is REALLY touched at being "privvy" to the story behind the item. And, in turn, I have felt "less sad" about the loved one I've lost - because I feel as if their memory has been made that much more "eternal" by sharing it with a complete stranger! BIt of a pedantic side note- I know- a rambling one a t that - but those of you who have lost your mom's and shared the gardening/flower parts with me and others here- have touched my heart. A part of me feels I "know" your mum's - the african violet loving mum- the mum who shared "the gift of gardening' - how nice to know our mom's (with us, or not) are here today, in this column!
Uh, oh - I just bought a prairie fire crab tree ( everyone describes me as "emotionally intense" but I hadn't thought I might be "lost") AND, I bought a weeping willow (that's at least in line with melancholia) - I'm not sure how gentle my soul is , though LOL!
Hmmm... the geranium rocker and the clematis umbrella spokes freaked me out- I don't think I could handle this....did anyone else find this concept a bit "creepy" - or am I overreacting??? Ok , the whole thread following the photo of the rocks, boots (which, I might add- I can not see! Can't see or spot the boots in the photo - but am secretely glad - as they too,might have freaked me out)ANyway, the whole thread - including photo - was just too much for me - here's why. I just moved from AZ. Lived there 13 years. My husband was a miner (boots??? get it!!), as were my grandfather and great grandfather before him .....Both died in mining - my grandfather died a slow painful death of Black Lung (coal miner's disease), my greatgrandfather was decapitated in an underground mine collapse (leaving a widow and 10? children behind- one of those children was my grandmother). The "rocks" in the photo look decidely like "copper " rocks- ie. turqoise, chrysacolla (spelling?), malachite, lapis - etc - mostly they just look like the typical bluish/green rocks one would find in a copper mine. I just Spent the past 13 years living on THE largest (remote) copper mine in north america...yes, the land surrounding it is Apache, BLM land, primitive designated areas, and ranching land - complete with skulls like the one in the photo - the beer bottle- where there are miners - there are beer bottles! Tombstone- "fake" - but not far from where I lived- the life depicted in that photo WAS my life for 15 years in Nevada & Arizona- very remote areas- the mines operate 24/7 - men (and women) STILL die in them- and my husband was gone all but 2 days each month for the first two years of my marriage......The photo flooded me with a 1000 authentic memories - but NOT the kind I"d like in my garden!! LOL. Cactus might be funny to some of you- but I planted (must have been 100?) cactus pads earlier this year - every single one has been decimated to the ground by hares, rabbits, javelinas- this is NO laughing matter for us.....Coyotes howling? We have them roaming in packs around the property - sometimes 25 in one go- my husband has noticed they howl (an awful lot) when I GO OUT. (go figure!) They howl -hautingly so - at dusk - that ferral sheep, I mentioned some time ago? Turns out it had been attacked by coyotes- don't know if it made it - may have needed to be euthanized- and though, large, this sheep really WAS a gentle soul....so sad....Hmmmm. the after math of the ok corral- well, i found an ole branding iron on the property about a month ago.....but the only loud noises I hear (not gun shots) are "sonic" booms - if one lives in Az in remote territory- the military WILL run arial war games up above you consistently - sometimes resulting in sonic booms...alas, in the country - far from any mines- in another state- I thought I 'd be free of the blasts from the mine(enough to scare the living daylights out of one the first few times...), or any war games soaring above the open sky- NOT. There must be a nearby gunnery range (military) and it has this double wide reverberating off & on - all week long-now if only it served to intimidate, or keep at bay the rest of the wild critters....alas, it doesn't. ON a brigher note (well, a nostalgic note- my pansies- a collection of store bought 6 pack varieties in deep velvety maroons, purple-blacks, and dark lavender-purples- are creating JUST the mood i want in a small corner of the garden right now.....there may be hope after all.....In the meantime - all you folks who discussed the informal/formal look- a sortof mixture of the two- were chaos is kept at bay, and balanced nicely with a certain formality-....jeessh! Who ever admitted to being in "control" - pleeeeeeeeeaaaseee come to my house! And, garden! I'm afraid "chaos" rein here - and I really could do with some of that "discipline", control, etc...please share! But don't blame me if some of my "I love Lucy" episodes (only mine are in real life- stray sheep, husband flinging giant sequoia, etc etc) wear off on you. I'd gladly "trade" - just to have some balance chez moi! IF only one could trade (nicely) personality glitches as easily as we share seeds.....sigh......I think getting back to my melancholia garden theme will at least spare me from getting into any more trouble - I have the sneaky susupicion that somehow a small weeping shrub would have caused far less marital discord than a giant sequoia- and, horror, of horrors, whatever shall (that was for you 6868) I do if the sequoia really starts to take off and the husband realizes we indeed have a bit of Californian in our back yard.......That's all for now. Gorse2 of course!!

Sounds like it has been a long introspective 6 weeks in Arizona, with a DH who has a dread of AZ becoming CA, even if only by the addition of a CA native tree and Coyotes, the tricksters of the animal world, reminding that they are more than meets the eye. Good to see you Gorse2

Gorse2, I fear you have missed your calling. You may have never picked up a crayola crayon, but you sure know what to do with a keyboard.

she just called me crazy, did you guys catch that?