TheBanyanTree: Gone with the Wind

[Margaret R. Kramer]

I took advantage of a sunny, cool, and windless Tuesday evening and weeded
out my big garden bed.  I then added fresh dirt and compost into the behind
the garage garden bed and tilled it in with the old soil.  Then I
transplanted three hostas from the along the fence garden, which I’m going
to obliterate, because the lawn keeps claiming it, and I give up after three
years of trying to tame it, into the behind the garage garden.  

I need to remove the edging from the along the fence garden and let it go
back to lawn.  Then I just have to add soil and compost to my along the side
of the garage garden, and my beds will be ready.

But today, in spite of my brightest hopes and dreams, was too crappy to
spend outside.  It’s not a cool day, but it’s so darn windy, I can barely
stand it.  We’re caught between low pressure systems and the atmosphere is
in a squeeze play, and a wind advisory is the result of it.

So I didn’t cut the grass, I didn’t get my gardens ready, but I did go to
the Farmers’ Market with my grandsons.  I bought tomato plants, onions, and
pepper plants, plus a few flowers.

I gave the boys each $20, yes I’m a generous grandma, and let them buy what
they wanted to.  The older one bought egg rolls and the younger bought some
sort of chocolate thing.  He said it was like a s’more.  He also bought his
mother a yellow dahlia and an orange dahlia for himself.  We’ll plant his
dahlia in the garden along with mine.

I remember making May Day baskets in kindergarten.  Then I’d leave them on
neighbors’ doors, ring the doorbell, and hide.  I also remember May poles
with streamers.  Each of us would hold a streamer while dancing around the
May pole.  What happened to those customs?

One of my neighbors was having a garage sale, so after we got back from the
Farmers’ Market, we walked down and checked it out.  She had one three years
ago, and I bought a few great pictures.  One was a photo of Amish quilts
hanging on a line in the middle of winter.  Another was a print of flowers.
And I bought some framed pressed flowers.

This time I bought a large watercolor of a Caribbean-like scene to hang in
my bedroom and a small framed photograph of a man and his very LONG shadow.
I hung that in the upstairs hall.

I also bought a ceramic teapot.

I’ve stopped hanging photos of my family all over the place.  When I was
younger, my family was slapped all over the walls of my home.  I got tired
of looking at them.  So when Ray and I re-decorated our old home, down went
the family, and up went more artistic endeavors found at garage sales.  Now
I’ll leave a wall bare until I find the right picture to hang there.

My home’s current photos are:  I have a framed Christmas card and an article
from the Milwaukee Journal that contains a photo of Ray in the hospital in
the downstairs hallway.  Ray had been Santa Claus in stores and homes in
Milwaukee for many years.  He had fallen off a ladder, got hurt, and was in
the hospital.  Somehow the Journal did a story about him.  Ray must have
brought the article into work and showed his co-workers and customers.  A
co-worker here in Minnesota framed the article along with a Christmas card.
I love the montage; it captures the essence of Ray.

I also have a photo of Ray on the piano in the living room.  It’s his
funeral photo.  He has a big smile and there’s a button he made that’s
pinned to his shirt:  15 year cancer survivor.  If he flipped the button
over, it said, Old Fart.  So Ray.

On the wall above my desk is a photo of my grandma as a young woman.

On my desk’s shelf is the Christmas card I had made with a silly photo of
Ray.  It was the card I sent out the first Christmas without him.  Auld lang
syne, Sweetheart.

And behind my back on the top shelf of my bookshelf are a gathering of
photos in plastic frames, easily swapped out for new photos.  I have a
couple of Ray and me, and there’s one of Joe and me, lots of scenery photos,
and a couple of Asher when he was a kid.  

Right now, my grandchildren are no one where to be found on the walls.
Probably because they live here, I don’t need to have their images taking up
spare space on my walls.

I’m happy with my new pictures and they seem to be happy on my walls.

And the wind, it’s supposed to die down this evening, and maybe tomorrow
I’ll feel more inspired to work in the yard.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net
margaret.kramer at polarispublications.com
www.polarispublications.com
www.linkedin.com/in/margaretkramer

The body is your temple.  Keep it pure and clean for the soul to reside
in.  
-B.K.S. Iyengar, Yoga: The Path To Holistic Health