Sun Amnesia, A Deck Garden at Last, Nifty Stuff Promos
As the settling progresses in the new apartment, with each day that passes it seems that we find a new area that requires a visit to Amazon for some remediating product or another to address a glaring lack—lack of light in the closets, lack of art for the huge wall in the bedroom, and so on. The latest area of lack is the deck. After years of living with a dingy, cracked and basically non-functional deck, we now have a welcoming, sturdy and reasonably large deck that is just crying out for a flower and herb garden. (Plus we live in Seattle so having herbs pots on one’s deck is like, the law.) After much investigation and measuring and back-and-forth, we finally selected a nice collection of hanging pots we can fasten to the railing, and a really cool herb pot stand. We just needed the flowers and herbs, so we traipsed blithely off on foot to our local big-box gardening center yesterday and loaded up a cart, after which I ran some other errands that required being outdoors, while somehow completely forgetting that, one, I am a redhead, and two, it’s summer now and not only that, it’s July and temps are going to be in the 90’s for the foreseeable future. With all of May and June being completely subsumed in the whirl and blur of moving, my sense of the seasons shut off, and the arrival of summer took me by surprise. Although I’m usually scrupulous about sunscreen, it was the last thing on my mind, and later that afternoon I was dismayed to find a deep red, searing sunburn necklace all around my chest and upper back, complete with a small blister or two. That thing hurts, folks. I’m treating it with an aloe vera salve and staying indoors today, but that was stark reminder that I cannot go blundering around outside this time of year sans sun protection.
Sunburn aside, I’m very excited to have some pots on the deck. I know that technically it’s late in the season to be starting this endeavor, but I think it will be okay. I tried to select some hardy flowers that seemed hard to kill, and I’m going to brush up on how transplanting works since it’s been a while. I’m in love with the idea of opening my deck to a wild pop of color, and picking fresh herbs to season the evening repast. I had a really good book on deck gardening at one time and all kinds of plans, but the timing and the space was never right. Now it finally is, and I can at last be that lady with all of the flower pots on her deck.
In addition to becoming a pro deck gardener, I have a long list of other endeavors I have mentally filed as “post move” for more months than I care to admit, which I hope to make headway on soon. In the meantime, I’m going to use this space to promote some other folk’s endeavors, which I have been meaning to do for some time, but—move. Check out these links for some cool art, lit, and pods:
My brilliant artist friend Quata has expanded her repertoire into beautiful and truly original journals. You can find her amazing work at Hey Babydoll Designs on Amazon:
You can find her oil paintings here:
Towards the end of last year, I was honored to have several of my poems published in a fantastic anthology about cats call Purr and Yowl, edited by the illustrious David D. Horowitz of Rose Alley Press. If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, it’s not too late!
Speaking of fine poetry, please check out the gem that is Via Negativa, the home of Dave Bonta’s poetry and writings:
A shout-out wouldn’t be a shout-out without including my dear friend, mentor, and fellow writer Patrick Stafford’s work. Without Patrick, I never would have started writing poetry, and I am eternally grateful to him for his undying support of my work. His brilliance and intense energy can be found at the following links:
Last but certainly not least, my latest podcast/YouTube obsession is “Jimmy Aiken’s Mysterious World.” Jimmy is a brilliant philosopher and a dogged researcher, and his Mysterious World show covers a wide rage of fascinating subjects with a unique viewpoint, generously slathered in Jimmy’s Southern charm. He covers everything from the possibe existence of unicorns, to aliens, to the paranormal and beyond. The link below goes to his Starquest Media site, but you can find his show on YouTube or in podcast format on the platform of your choosing:
Jimmy Aiken’s Mysterious World
Happy perusing!
—Kristen McHenry
Oh hey, thanks for the link!
Herbs are generally pretty hard to kill, which is what I like about them. Also, there's no substitute for fresh thyme, dill, or basil - the dried versions don't cut it.