Perennial Plant Association, Baltimore & Books
It’s 6 a.m. pouring rain and I’m headed out to unload a truck of perennials and palms from Florida. I can’t wait. This is what I want to do — all the things involved in making gardening. From the soaking wet minutes and for the rest of the week, I get to think about how these plants will go together next week and next month and beyond.
I just spent a week talking about gardening. I ended up at a Perennial Plant Association sponsored event in Baltimore, lecturing to a crowd in a place that was simply too cold for anyone to get out and do it. The fun discoveries of the trip north-ish were books and museums.
If you’ve been following the Monsanto case in the Supreme Court and like me, are unsure what to think of GMO crops and rights, check out Seeds, Science and Struggle; The Global Politics of Transgenic Crops. I picked it up a few days ago and struggle as it’s dense and serious but mostly a friendly, eye opening discussion.
I’ve started using the library to download books to my smartphone and listen as I drive. (You can do this through Overdrive & your library card.) And one book, captivated me. I cried a little but I also had a full body reaction, I thought I’d have to pull over, to parts of The Riverswimmer by Jim Harrison. It’s a succinctly told stories of two men, unrelated, unassociated. One young dreamer who plans to swim into all the great cities of the world. But, he loves the little farm he’s grown up on too much. He’s likable, I knew him. I think I was him one time; gardening being my swimming. The other and older guy, a successful art critic who had always wanted to be an artist. He’s not so likable. I think I know him too. This might be a men’s book but it sure can’t be limited that way.
Otherwise, the great cities of the world lured me in with The Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, time with my old lover and his family in Washington and carmel cake, a welcoming farm family, and a friend who grows 45 different crinum in the high hills of Virginia. Plants and talking about plants, two things I just do, rain, shine, cold or hot.