Solstice to Solstice
It's been awhile. Checking my post, it was December and close to the shortest day of the year that I was last here. Now, it is just after the longest day of the year. Six month hiatus, for which I apologize, but it was pretty much unavoidable.
As you know, I have been writing now and again about the nature of time and aging. Well, another chapter was written for me over the last six months. This time the reality of disease and death have hit home. Not long after the holidays, Susie's mother came to our home to spend her last days. We just couldn't see her spending her last conscious moments staring at the walls at some bleak convalescent hospital. It wasn't easy for us, but with the help of Hospice, I think we made her last days as comfortable and as meaningful as we could. I can't say enough for about the helpfulnes and compassion of the Hospice folks. They are heroes. She passed at the end of February, but there was another month of transition and settling affairs that kept us pretty busy.
Just as we were starting to feel we were getting back to our normal hermit lives, my mother feel seriously ill, and once again I was facing the reality of possible loss of a loved one. Fortunately she recovered and still has a few more good years left in her.
In addition to these burdens was the usual rush of spring, the hundreds of jobs that can't possible all get done. All my helpers crapped out on me this year, so I pretty much had to go it alone. In addition to the regular work, I also took on the mammoth goal of actually finishing the nursery this year. Seeing the health and strength of parents decline really brought home how fragile and short life can be. So, I am realizing that I have to get these jobs done while the body is still capable of doing them. Instead of my usual one extra project each spring, this year it was three. The most exciting is a new display area for the finished and near finished bonsai. The shade structure is finished and the benches should be done in a few weeks. I built it to last a lifetime, or at least mine.
The second project is the completion of the shade area. This doubles our shade house for one gallon size plants to six thousand square feet. When all the shade areas are completed, we will have ten thousand square feet of shaded plants. The third project is the completion of the juniper and pine area that is in full sun but sits on ground cloth and has a wide spacing of plants and drip irrigation. This area has worked marvelously for bonsai. The rows are six feet apart and the rows are only one tree wide giving them the maximum amount of light and making each tree accessible for pruning without moving them. Bob and I just roll along in chairs or scooters during our annual pruning dragging a trash can for debris.Each tree is also staked to prevent blowover. I need to double the size of this space too. It may not get that large this year, but it will be close. That will put another five hundred or so tree under active cultivation.
Needless to say, I have been busy. In fact, I can't remember the last time I worked this hard or this long to get something done. So far the body is holding out, and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel has kept me focused despite the enormity of the task. Once all this is finished, the place will be nearly on a maintenance only basis for a few years, until major replacement of infrastructure may have to happen. Then we can start working on the house!
Posts for awhile hopefully we become more frequent, but probably shorter, and often only to point you to forums where I have contributed significantly to a discussion, or have copied my replies here to keep them from getting lost in black hole of forum posts that are more than a week old. Any significant essays will probably have to wait until winter, but I look forward to taking pictures and documenting the resurrection of some of my long neglected plants in the 'jungle'. The ones that have survived have taken on some really interesting characteristics. I am calling it nursery yamadori.
Thanks for being patient.
Brent
