Monthly Archives: August 2015

Taking Dust Out Of the House

Cleaning, Kitchen

My friend came back from her trip, told me she unpacked, and that she had hired somebody to, “Take the dust out” of her house.  I always liked that concept.  It focuses me on a more limited, approachable task at hand.  For example, sweeping the kitchen floor becomes just taking the dust off of the kitchen floor.

DSC07547 But then, the dust on the island open shelving became more evident, and so I emptied it and cleaned everything on it.DSC07549 Put back, it looks better with no dust!

I like the idea of taking dust out of the house, even if the idea grows!

 

A Compost Corner for Branches

Garden, Sustainability, , , ,

DSC07392 There is a little nook in the fence where we planted a crepe myrtle, overgrown here.  It conceals the nook.

DSC07445I had stored shrub trimmings from several months ago  in this little nook, and the leaves fell off.  I put most of the bare sticks on the other side of the fence, where I am saving them to chip into mulch for other plants.   DSC07428  I trimmed up the crepe myrtle and  other walk-side vegetation.  Before I could save it into this compost corner, for another round of composting, and mulch making,  the city hauled it away as brush pick-up a week and a half later.

DSC07444 Some sticksare left to toss to the other side.

DSC07527 Done, you can see a residue of the thick leaf compost or mulch, which fell off the branches.

DSC07526 The soil is actually getting thicker from this process.  As we read and write, more greenery and shrubs continue to grow.  Dead leaves and branches continue to decay back into the soil, releasing their life-giving  nutrients.

This mulched crepe myrtle has grown better than its sibling crepe myrtle planted at the same time.  It may be because of this mulch,  or due to that fact that the roots of a tree that had lived here, are decaying and releasing their nutrients as well, or both that this crepe myrtle grew faster than its sibling.  The smaller crepe myrtle is also growing well.  (No photo vantage point permits this comparison.)

Nearly two weeks after the city picked up  most of the brush, most of the leaves were dry on any remaining freshly cut sticks, and, after pulling off the dried leaves,  I carried those sticks to the back yard, along with the aged sticks from my pile, where I will chip them up to use elsewhere as vegetation sustaining mulch.

I learned three things here:

  1. Leaves make a compost mulch
  2. Branches can be reserved for chipping
  3. Mulch and compost make vegetation grow well
  4. The leaves dry and fall off the branches in about one month, so the branches do not have to be stored for  many months before chipping

The Joy Of Welcoming a New Born Infant Into the World

Feeling, Newborn, Parent, ,

Newborn, miami-newborn-infant-baby-photographer-photography  This infant, just a few days old and so peacefully sleeping,  was skillfully captured by the photographer.  The mother and father are happily providing a home.  They are making many adjustments to meet this infants’ needs, including having this photograph taken.  And no doubt they are also comforting this child who cries to be fed, or changed.  Maybe the infant  just  wants his parents to hold him over a shoulder, and pat him (her) steadily, firmly, and calmly to help release a burp or to move a  bubble along in her (his) intestines.  The baby feels better, and calms down, and the parent feels wonderful in reassuring the young one that he or she is there, “willing to accept each tear” that he (she) will weep.  This is joy!  The baby’s parents are assuring him that in holding all of his present present tears, they are holding all of his future tears as well

.  This is deeply bonded joy!

The following poem from the Death section of Poems, by Regena Larrabee Seehausen (1964), gives the flip side after a still birth:

After the Baby Died

There is a comfort in the darkness now, the only thing found willing to accept each tear he might have wept.

It is a heavy vigil sorrow keeps .  My longing arms must cradle the whole night wherein he sleeps.

And my mind sifts the darkness all alone seeking that part that is my own.