Month: April 2023

A Garden for the Birds, Bees & Me for Earth Day 2023

The Creative Process, Uncategorized

The past two months of March and April have been busy ones for me.  After a year of mulling around ideas, phase 2 of my native plant garden has manifested complete with a little gazebo for a writer’s nook.

Last year was phase one, largely a DIY project with a little help from friends.  This year I signed on some professionals to get the effect I wanted.  My vision is to provide (when the garden matures in a few years), a habitat for birds, invertebrates, pollinators, and myself to hang out in.  This is akin to bringing nature to my front door.  Later this summer a rock water feature will be added.

I was fortunate to find Marc & Josh of Amaranth Organic Gardening in Oregon City who were very enthusiastic about my vision and ready to go as soon as the gazebo was installed

I wanted a primitive look for the gazebo. My husband and I cut down alder poles which I debarked with a draw knife just like in the old days building a log cabin.  The next step- not an easy one, was to find a carpenter willing to build with these primitive materials and a sense of adventure. I found Richard, just the man, on Craigslist.

After Richard finished, Marc and Josh got busy, and voila my garden!  Now the fun starts watching the plants grow, a very slow process in this cold, wet spring we have been having in W. Oregon.  In the meantime, I have been having fun furnishing the writer’s nook with primitive furniture, and placing bits of artwork around the garden.

As a garden is an ever-manifesting being I’m curous to see what is in store for me.  I will be sharing as it unfolds from my writer’s nook.

Happy Earth Day!

Dream Guy

Poetry, Uncategorized
Photo courtesy lighthousewriters.org

Over lunch some weeks back, fellow writer friend, Becky shared a couple of sweet little poems that were inspired by her “ Dream Delivery Service. “  Your WHAT?  Yes, she explained to me, she subscribes to a dream delivery service that sends out written dreams to her in pink envelopes. If he happens to be in your town he will deliver them before sunrise on his bicycle.

Yup.  The guy is for real.  His name is Mathias Svalina, a poet who started writing dreams for people from his imagination by subscription.  He also offers various prompts on his Instagram account but he is known more for his Dream Delivery Service.  Who knows how one can find such a niche?  Obviously, someone with a vivid imagination and sense of adventure.

I’ve always been fascinated by dreams.  Where do they come from?  Where do they go come morning?  Ask the dream catcher….

Dream Catcher

Someone’s got to do it
pickup all those shards of
forgotten dreams
dangling from tree branches
and blowing about like tumbleweeds
across a desert highway

He gathers up odd bits of psychic litter
metaphors, & scrambled images then
repackages them into new dreams 
for delivery in dainty pink envelopes 
onto the porches of subscribers
by bicycle in the wee hours before dawn

Then back he goes pedaling furiously
to his dream workshop
to create a new batch of untamed fantasies 
and to get a bit of dreaming in himself
to add to the brew

As the sun sets
he wakes and prepares
for a new tangle of subliminal
flotsam and jetsom to gleen
When the REM alarm sounds
the dream catcher mounts his bike
and rides swiftly off into the night
 
a mug of black coffee
balanced on his handlebars
From Becky, a friend & Dream Delivery Service subscriber

Poem & drawing by the author

Check out my blog on sustainable living at onesweetearth.blog!