The Balance of Things...

Mmm hmm...

It's moist and slightly overcast outside, a blessed treat in this arid high mountain town. The air smells of earth and blossoms. A meadowsweet shot up right outside my door and its powdery white blossoms a transcendent bliss of ephemeral cloudlike blooms. Heavenly...

Only here since November, I didn't know quite what to expect. At first I thought, "oh, I probably won't do any gardening." That's like a whale saying it might not swim for the year - hahaha!

So poco a poco little plants and seeds have found their way to the ground, clearing away just enough space for them to shine amidst the wild cacophony of weeds and meadow.

The grape arbor sheltering the front of my house is so abundantly overflowing it feels as if it wants to reach out and fill the whole sky with its fullness. Green green and green! I pick and pickle its leaves for quinoa dolmas and have a garden party so I may sit back and enjoy for a few moments with friends, then sing to strains of angel harp and tabla into the eve...

Slender little tomatillo plants drape their fledgling fruits like delicate japanese lanterns, while nasturtiums still yield deep red flowers though the plants themselves look like windblown trees aching up through desolate mountainscapes - the garden bed itself is rather loamy - next year I'll amend that!!!

Amaya, my 8 year old neighbor, and I stung ourselves intentionally on stinging nettles the other day (it took about 20 tries each with the newly planted starts!). I planted them in pots because given my gypsy heritage, I never know how long I'll stay in one place - and wouldn't want to leave a surprise legacy of wild stinging plants for the next unsuspecting tenant...

Sigh. How I long, one day, for a plot of land I can fully dig my roots. Though I know I am ultimately just a fleeting dream and will pass away as any wild seed gives itself to the wind...

Still, I care for the land wherever I may be, tending to the balance of things...