Farmgirl

I am always happily surprised by what I find online – crafting led me to knitting. Knitting led me to blogs. Blogs led me to podcasts, particularly LimeNViolet. (Seriously, when Betsy and I get together, it’s like a LnV episode. Seriously.) These things have taken over my life, in a good way. Dan can even speak some of the lingo associated with all of this. More recently, I’ve been sucked into the Plurk world. It’s great fun! The next “thing” has arrived. Plurk has led me to “the plurkette hencircle” – a brilliant idea, and so very cool, and not just because MissViolet herself is behind it.

Project #1 Introduce Yourself.
Well, currently I’m a stay at home mom. My background and interests are quite focused around environmental things. I remember back when I was in 8th grade reading alot about pollution and leaky faucets and garbage and animal rights and knowing, just knowing that’s what I wanted to do when I “grew up”. I was hooked then, but I am certain that my dad was the ultimate cause behind it all. My dad is a gardner. We had gro-lights in the basement and he would let us help planting seeds and transplanting them when the time was right. He would let me look through the seed catalogues and pick out things I wanted to grow. Of course, after I made my selections we had to go through and see what would actually grow in our part of New Engalnd, but he was game to try things – we tried to grow peanuts, but that didn’t work. We grew all kinds of veggies, plants (regular and tropical – we had a banana plant that grew up to the ceiling! Water lilies, Figs, Palms, orchids). The man has a green thumb. I love the smell of earthy potting soil, sun-warmed soil that gets under your fingernails – it’s almost as good as some food smells! I do consider myself to have a green thumb. I’ve been fairly successful in my own little garden, bunnies aside. They have already gotten to my sunflowers (maybe they’ll recover, they were about 2.5 feet tall), peas and beans. And the “butterfly garden assortment” has taken over the beans and broccoli. I don’t feel like bothering with a fence, and I’m trying to avoid chemicals as much as possible. It’s give and take with mother nature and I’m okay with that.

I wonder too, how much of this has to do with the fact that I was not a girly-girl when I was a kid. That didn’t happen until just before I married, thanks to a friend’s mom! I had girl friends and liked girly things, but I can’t remember spending much time with Barbies or Princesses or tea sets. I’m certain my time was spent on My Little Pony, Cabbage Patch Kids, making bracelets out of embroidery floss, sitting in the garden drawing the flowers and reading. Betsy and I were talking about this – what did you read as a kid (middle school age?) – it kind of defines you – one friend was big into “Little Women”, Betsy was big into “Anne of Green Gables”, my favorites were “Little House on the Prairie” and those books and their characters totally make sense if you know us now. Must re-read those books. Anyway, back to farmgirl stuff.)

When I grew up and married and moved into a house, my mom and dad gifted us daffodil bulbs. It was a lot of work to plant them, but it’s nice to see them come up each spring! Having Lorelai around makes me more aware of the environmental impact of things – I want my kid to enjoy the outside, eat fresh foods (not food products – I’ve been reading Michael Pollan’s “In Defense of Food”, interesting!), to know where food comes from, to appreciate nature. I truly believe that by letting me help out in the garden, pick out plants, and grow a few of my own, gave me such a wonderful gift. There is something so satisfying about weeding. Or eating a tomato that YOU GREW. It’s nice to know that I don’t have to rely solely on the supermarket all the time.

Gardening, cooking, photography, crafting… they all appeal to me stubborn attitude of “I could do that!” And many people say that, but not many people actually follow through on it. I do. And that’s why I’m excited about adding one more “thing” to my list of things I do.