Ode to the Avo

Life is cycles, and the quiet one in which I currently find myself, makes words seem superfluous. Yet, here are the Archives awaiting letters on a screen.

So I ponder avocados.

Learn that first evidence of this “alligator pear” was found in a Mexican cave around 10,000 B.C.

Recall that Pearl Jam’s 2006 release was known as “The Avocado Album.”

Discover that Avocado, California is an ‘unincorporated community’ located very near my own hometown.

Give thanks to the tree just down the hill, which provides our family about one fallen avocado a day, as long as we get there before the chickens.

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More Than Greens

The Good Neighbors wander over to our place with harvest from their garden. They offer up homegrown wonders, infused with deep, rich color. I am enchanted. Transfixed.

If green is the garden equivalent to black and white, then this must be technicolor.

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The Art of Using What You Have

2014-04-02_bench distantThis isn’t poetry or fine photography. But it’s art all the same, though it’s not mine.

This did start with pencil and paper. The Bohemian and I by lamp light, sketching out our garden plot. I was thinking of a resting place by our would-be vegetables. Somewhere to take a load off. And then I remembered that we were yet to figure out what to do with the downed Ironwood tree.

We’d taken all of the branches that could easily be cut with a chainsaw, and chopped them up into firewood. But the largest part of the trunk was huge, and too big to be put in a chipper for mulch.

Any chance we could use it to make a bench?

Inspired, chainsaw in hand, the Bohemian went to work, slicing the trunk in half and creating these beautiful, solid benches.

I don’t know exactly why, but simply gazing upon them makes me happy. Sitting on them is just plain dreamy.

I love functional art!

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