As I wander through the garden, twinkles tip-toe through my imagination. Tales to tell, when the time is right. Visitors whispering secrets, of winged delight. And I can't help but wonder, if it is the visitors who frolic at night, that leave me garden treats that pull me in. Into realms of other worlds within…
What would tickle her, they ask one another? Oh, ask Pumpkin Vine if he can wind up the tree, and then dangle a baby pumpkin, or two or three.
Yes yes, one says to the other.
That should get her attention.
And, it does.
Oh, it does…
The tender twinkle of their tunes, pours through my windows. Of sprites and creatures, of elfin babes, and…
Who will she put on paper first, asks one to the other?
Did she see us, did she? they ask the night sky.
Of course I have.
I catch glimpses here and there, as I cut abundant basil, from locations in the garden, 3.
The creatures tug on my skirt. When will you put us on paper, on canvas or in clay??
I say, don't fret my dears, the time is on its way…
They peer through my windows, impatient as can be, as I make pesto, mmmmm, it's really yummy…
I used the recipe at this link. I doubled it, and did not use salt or pepper, as the parm adds enough salt (I think). I also added the juice of one lemon. I used freshly grated Parmesan cheese. And, I also used extra light olive oil. I think that made a HUGE difference, as extra virgin can be too heavy sometimes.
I lightly toasted my pine nuts in a cast iron skillet, and cooled them while I picked the leaves off of my basil cuttings. That, plus the lemon, made my pesto delicious and fresh and not bitter at all. Oh and, my basil is sweet basil…
Deliciousness galore…
As we nibbled, and grilled salmon, to aid in my creativity (good excuse for nibbling, don't you think?)…
(How we grill salmon: Spice it (garlic salt w/parsley & lemon pepper), pat some olive oil on it, cook on med-hi grill for 8 minutes per side, skin side first, & voila.)
I wandered round, nibbling, swaying to music, when…
I felt a slight tug at my skirt. I swear, in the blink of an eye I saw a creature flutter by, and hide behind one of my pumpkin patches…
Then I saw, what it was trying to get me to see 😉
To the right of the pagoda, can you see it?
Birdhouse gourds.
They made it.
Oh oh oh, goodness!
They grew overnight, it seemed…
Winding through cactus and up mesquite trees.
This is stuff out of dreams.
(to me at least, whose been trying to grow things here for years, but I realize now, I started too late all the other years).
So, it's safe to say, the garden creatures have my attention.
I better go see, what else it is they want me to see, if you get what I mean ;).
Off I go…
See you very soooon, with tales.
Or tails, if I happen to meet up with a witch and she's in a mood…
🖤,V
3 random things.
Click below if you'd like to read on (warning, #2 is sad)…
1) I never want to leave my house, I want to hide and garden, and dream, and not see any cars or busy shops, or mean people. This is the opposite of the life I used to lead. I was on the road everyday, going from shop to shop, to my office, to client appointments, to cocktail parties and dinners, and mingling – 9 a.m. to midnight, on the go. Don't know how I did it really.
2) We have a nice new couple in our neighborhood, across the way and down the street. They moved here to have more space for their beautiful furry children.
And then…….. Someone shot their dog Chevy on Saturday after midnight, with a pellet gun. WHAT? Why, oh why?? She didn't like to bark, and kept to herself. And plus, they have lived here about a week. So who could have done this, and why?
I have lived here 10 years, and mister 12 years before that, and nothing as such has ever happened.
We never have such things happen on our street, and we all know eachother….
I almost fainted when I heard it yesterday. I got pulverizing chills. I was hiding in the bushes as they told Mister, as I was in pajamas. I cried. Who on earth would do such a thing?
Chevy didn't make it.
I sent our new neighbors from across the way, a huge sunflower whose seeds were ready to be planted, and a card with Baby's face – I can't imagine how they feel. I hope they don't feel leery about our precious little street. I'll say it again, I can't imagine how they feel. I can't tell you what that makes me feel, someone shooting a furry child. Like King Kong really, thinking that someone did that……..
3) My furry boy is snoring as I type. Must cuddle. On the Double.
Vanessa…
Such a lovely post, filled with creature goodness and pesto. But sad, oh so sad, that someone would shoot a furry child. Why? I try to be positive most times, but sometimes people are just mean….crazy mean. I am so sorry for your neighbors.
Kim
Gerushia’s New World
tendrils of growing enchantment 😀
Oh Vanessa, my heart is breaking for your new neighbors…
What kind of monster would hurt a defenseless creature??! Dogs are so good, so pure, so trusting, and live only to love us…That someone would deliberately shoot such a loving creature makes my blood boil, and don’t even get me started on the laws in most states reducing such a crime to one of property damage! I hope they find the monster that did this, and I hope the sentence is severe, although that’s probably unlikely.
A person who would do something like that needs to be removed from society for a VERY long time. They just don’t belong walking around out here with the rest of us. 🙁
Please offer your neighbors my condolences on their loss…
🖤 Carolee
Mmmm, the pesto looks de-lish V! And I can’t believe it either, about someone shooting the furry baby…so sad. I feel the same way you do about not wanting to leave the house (but of course I can’t avoid it with these rugrats, tee hee 😉 Now, I know why they say ‘Mom taxi,’ hahaha.
Jamie 🙂
I find it very sad that with all of the lovely little things that there are to enjoy in life, that some people choose be so ugly and harmful. Canines are loving and special creatures. They wish only to be petted, scratched and kissed. They enjoy fresh cool water, some yummy food and the chance to run and play and love. Such simple wishes to be granted. Quite human actually. Their emotions are quite human as well. My heart continues to be with you, Matty and Mister Lovee and now with your neighbors also. I’m glad that you are there to share your magic and your miracles with these new neighbors, perhaps they were meant to know you. Much love, Melanie P.s someone asked my husband and I if we had children and I said “furry children” he laughed and laughed and said that was soooooooo cute.
So sad for your neighbors, how heartbreaking!
oh such beautiful pics… your gypsy wagon with pumpkins! and birdhouse gourds! I meant to plant some old seeds that were my grandpa’s but haven’t done it yet.
Pesto! yumm! your pictures alone are feeding me 🙂
I wish I hadn’t read #2. who could hurt such innocent souls?
that sounds scary if you like to be outside at night with your fur baby…..how lucky they have you as a neighbor…..
your basil looks like it has been growing by the Mediterranean Sea ! so lush
gypsy wagons call to my soul (so do Airstreams -but I’d have to artsy it up)
You know what I think Miss Jill? I think it was kids or someone as
such,playing with a pellet gun, on the opposite side that borders their
house, and not ours….. I could be wrong… but.. maybe? I dont
know… Mister lived here for 10+ years before me, and I have been here 10 – and
nothing like this has ever happened, so it feels quite yucky…. sigh…..
My neighbors are across the street and in a corner, bordering empty spaces
on three sides that I dont border……
And since we know everyone around us, I feel a tad less afraid…
But, still, one never knows… sigh…..
Well here i am peeping in from home-which of course you know is where i wanna be!
I was thinking, as i read about the magic happening in your garden that i loved the haunting music but it was a bit sad for such happiness, and then of course i read #2 random, and jeez oh petes what is WRONG with people? Whywhywhy? I will never understand in a million years why anyone could be mean to babies, kids, furry loves, and well, people, with souls, and good days and bad days, and well, ok. I wont be solving it here. :p
So back to goodness-GOODNESS! Lookit that pumpkin vine! Ridiculously awesome, that’s what i say. They’ll be spouting wings, I’ll warrant, and flying to the moon to bring you some cheese to go in your pesto-or is that where the parm came from? 😉 you can tell me!
ok, i’m gonna random back at ya:
#1 i rarely paint my fingernails or toenails..i kinda just like to see ’em au naturel..But when i do paint em it’s either pink or some crazy off the wall color, like grape or green or turquoise blue-because i can. 🙂
#2 i think, do hold me to this, but i think i can do needlepoint. there’s a trunk somewhere…i used to like making ladybugs ?!?!
#3 i have forgotten how to french braid. but youtube will teach you anything you need to know! so they say. 🙂
XOXOVIIXOXOX
I’m so sorry to hear about your neighbors, I wonder if they have any idea who did it.
It was very sweet and thoughtful of you to bring them a little something to comfort them.
The pesto looks delish. I’ve never made my own pesto, it may be time to try.
I think your neighbours will feel your love! They are lucky to have you there and I hope nothing else weird / awful will happen.
It’s a horrible thing to happen, but since I am a vegetarian I am often confused about the way people treat animals. Please don’t get me wrong – I absolutely do not think people should shoot dogs and I know that furry friends are real friends. I’m just confused sometimes that people pick one animal to be a friend and then will eat others. Ham for breakfast – but killing a kitten would be awful. Some animals get to be the chosen ones while the rest are treated, well… like animals. In factories. I just don’t get it. I suppose it’s because people don’t want to think about what they are eating and they manage to block it from their minds. I used to work with a woman who would say “I am SUCH a friend of animals!” whilst munching on one of them. I simply don’t get it.
i love how your plants are climbing up everything they can find. so magical! i completely understand about not wanting to leave your home. i never want to leave except to go see a friend and her children…or to the garden store or the farmers market…i would be so content to just stay here, playing in the garden, learning new crafts, knitting and making all kinds of magic…
i’m so saddened to hear about your neighbors poor doggie…whoever did it will get what’s coming to them…but i know the pain must be horrible for them…my best wishes to them…
love to you and maddy
blessings
~*~
Won’t e-mail you back since I have a nasty computer virus! Hopefully I can get some help tomorrow since I can’t get rid of it.
I don’t eat fish either but if I HAD to eat an animal it would probably be a fish. Since they’re more… impersonal, somehow. I don’t know. I tried fish a few times when I was little but then I couldn’t anymore and didn’t like it either.
Oh – I know – if I had to eat an animal it would be FISH STICKS since they contain about 1% fish!
That is utterly horrible. How would those horrible people like to be shot with a pellet gun!? I hope something really nasty happens to them, and I’m not one to wish harm on others, but that was such an awful thing that they did. Bleurgh horrible people!
Cuddle Matty that should make you feel better 🙂
x
I am crying for Chevy’s passing. I pray for your neighbors to be comforted through this horrible, shocking ordeal. It breaks my heart…
This is a lovely post. Love the music…It sings to me of faeries and little things. I am looking for them but think they are hiding now. I will look for them later or maybe they will come to my window tonight.
Such horrible things that people do…They will be punished some how, sometime, some day..
You are a very wonderful neighbor.
I so love your posts – they are magical and witchy and wonderful and bursting with goodness, visually beautiful and, in terms of the pesto, appealing to the palate.
It was so saddening to read of what happened to Chevy. Hard to understand.I know you watch Matty well but you must be rather scared.
Your vines are the heaven of all nature spirits:)
thank you for this recipe. I have recently been loving bread with a dip or spread of some kind, and that’s a whole meal! never made pesto.
i’m going to go read more, but i’m afraid of #2…
Skipped quickly by #2, but I got a hint.
As for #1, it’s amazing how resilient we are, really. The disappointments and injuries we suffer at the hands of other people can make us want to stop feeling. Then, there’s the absolute surprise and joy and thankfulness they can evoke, and then we don’t want to stop feeling. I guess I’m just saying, I understand wanting to live peacefully, and often that means being alone. Aloneness can be great therapy and power. Sometimes I even long to go somewhere secret. I don’t find it a bad thing.
#3, I sometimes hug my Scoutiegirl for so long she looks at me like I’m crazy. Then I just rub her belly and she’s okay. I don’t know if dogs understand hugs, but they understand love. I love her.
Thanks for a sweet post. You rock.
I remember when I first started reading your blog, how much I liked the way you had magic in your everyday life-as it is there and you only have to look to see it. Your post today reminded me of that feeling!
I am so sad to read about your neighbours though. How awful for that to happen. I can’t imagine who would do that or why, it is just tragic.
x
What a terrible terrible thing for your new neighbors. My heart goes out to them. I cannot understand such cruelty to a poor sweet animal who means no harm. Hug your sweet Matty tight and keep him safe. I injured my knee last week when I saw a rather large stray dog about to enter the yard…I just about dragged my eldest into the house and SLAMMED the door right into my knee. I don’t know where the dog went to, but I had to protect my baby at all cost.
That music was most enchanting…thank you for posting it. It is definitely magical garden walking – and for happening up wondrous little birdhouse gourds. 😉
xoxo Theresa
PS My random goody – I am kind of klutzy! LOL
So very sad that people have to be so cruel. Love your little pumpkins climbing oh so high.
It makes me so sad that people can be so cruel (or if it was an accident, so irresponsible!) I can’t imagine ever wanting to shoot a lovely furry of any kind. I am the kind of person that gets teary when they see road kill and cries during movies more because of things that happen to animals than to people. I can’t help it, I love all animals so much! On a happier note, your garden pictures are so inspiring. I just want to live in that gypsy wagon jungle! I got my camera in the mail today and I can’t wait to start taking real pictures again. Enough of this silly phone camera business.
I love pumpkin trees! One of my dearest friends, Shelley, has a pumpkin farm and she always ends up with one! I am soo enjoying how alike our pumpkin and gourds and basil look even though I am in rain drenched Wisconsin! It is magic. I send you star wishes and delight. Blessings.
Sunrise colors of flowers,
Sunsets are dawning too,
Watering moments filling root shoes.
Pumpkins celebrating on the vine,
Mingling with trees, how divine.
Sparkling and dancing the fairies fly,
Spreading their dust into our lives.
A journey rightly sneaking with our feet,
Quickly, quietly catcus gourdes, plump and sweet. Pumpkin family all about, cucumber squash and melon how about.
This is my summer wear in the green,
White lavendars and green in between.
Pink and rose and basil scent,
Pixies, nixies, elfs all heaven sent.
In the meadow on the vine,
Playing in a way that is divine.
In the garden of silence
Stands the magic tree,
When the wind stands still,
Also silent is she, Ms. V.V.
But at the touch of the wind she’ll
Sway towards the ground,
And born from the quiet
The seeds did sound.
Happy Birthday Mamasita – flowers, pumpkins all around.
‘Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing, onward the sailors cry!’
I’m waking up yawning and all about the mountains wake up and the morn does rise.
Well, your pesto looks scrumptious and I hear that basil is really good for the body.
I love the bird house gourd…my oldest brother used to make them into bird houses (obviously) when he was in Cub Scouts years ago.
That is so very sad about your new neighbors dog…that is unforgivable. Just mean, mean, mean. I have stories to tell of my family members loosing their dog and a cat to ‘mean’ people. But I won’t go into the details. Someone said, you can tell how someone will treat people by the way they treat animals. That is a scary statement.
To have that happen in your neighborhood is unsettling, to say the least. I hope you find out who did it. Don’t let Matty out of your sight!
Take care,
hugs all around to your sweet family
~ Miss Teresa ~
Oh, that salmon, bread, and pesto look sooo yummy! Love the dangling pumpkin and birdhouse gourds, too! That makes me so sad, and yes, angry, that someone would shoot your neighbor’s innocent fur baby. So senseless and horrible. You were beyond sweet and compassionate to send them a sunflower gift with a card bearing a picture of Baby. I bet that means a lot to them.
Hugs to you.
**squeals** Girl, girl, girl, you have delighted me immensely today, and today of all days is Hair Day, one of my favorite days of all! Now I shall be uncontainable all day long. Pumpkins in trees, if you please. Oh, yes please please please. Only you, My JoY.
**blows kisses** Deb
I know what you mean about not wanting to leave your house and yard. I feel the same way. When we go up to our little cabin in the mountains I never want to come back to the noisy, hectic city.
Your food pictures made me hungry, sooooo yummy looking!
Toodles,
Tracy M.
Vanessa, that is my favorite meal, Salmon, crusty toasted bread and homemade basil pesto. In fact, it isn’t summer around here until I’ve made a fresh batch of basil pesto from my garden. It’s great on practically everything especially pasta. Yum! jennifer
Oh, my goodness, it’s hard for my mind to comprehend sometimes, the joys and sorrows of life…so much beauty, in your garden, and all the charming stories, and the pictures that I could look at a thousand times.. makes me sigh with bliss.. but sadness, too, and confusion at why anyone would hurt a creature for no reason. My hubby and I had a little Basset named Beau, and due to a fire in our house we and my 2 children and Beau and 3 kittys were staying in the country at my inlaws. One morning a few days after we lost our home, our little Beau was out by the road, with my inlaws big lab mix, and somone drove off the road and hit them both… the neighbors saw it happen.. I guess it was because they were sniffing my in laws’ trash.. both doggies were killed.. we were broken hearted. So I can so sympathize with your neighbors… senseless acts that have no excuse. I pray for healing and a brighter time for the ones who have lost their beloved furry family members… Hugs and Comfort and Blessings..