La Belle's Hobby Farm: Solar-Powered Fountains

Three coins in the fountain, which one will the fountain bless?
~ Sammy Cahn, Three Coins in the Fountain

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 ater is life.  We can’t live without it.  The average human body is 57 - 60% water and we can live longer without food than we can without water.  We drink it.  We wash with it.  We cook with it.  We cool off in it. We are calmed by it.

Perhaps that is part of its beauty: it is precious, it is life-giving.  And no one knew this better than the Romans.  Their elaborate system of aqueducts was an amazing marriage of form and function, some of which still operate today.

Last week, when I thought of putting in a fountain that would be off the grid, and talked with the resident guru at the garden center, I thought of the Romans.  

Me: “I want to have a fountain that isn’t on the grid.”

Guru: “Well, there are solar-powered pumps.  But…they don’t work at night, of course. The technology hasn’t gotten there yet where they can store the energy.”

Wow.  But I have lights that store the energy and light up the walk way at night…?  Maybe a submersible pump just needs more.

Me: “What about wind-powered?”

Guru: “Yeah, but what about when there’s no wind?”

Me: Stumped. “Battery operated?” I know that’s not really green, but it’s better than being on the grid!

Guru: “Nope – batteries can’t get wet.”

Me: Thinking hard.  “But the Romans didn’t have electricity.  How did they do it?!”

Guru: Stumped. “Well. . .uhhhh. . . I don’t know!”

Guru status: lost.

So, I did some digging (haha) on my own.  And I found out that the famous aqueducts, plus gravity and underground springs are the secrets to the success of such breathtaking beauties like Trevi Fountain. 



Imagine a garden built around that!



For me, there are no underground springs (or if there are, we don’t know about them).  There is a whole lot of standing water around the orchard, but it’s flat there, so gravity can’t help (although I’ve been told a French drain can).

I was ready to give up and then I decided to look up solar-powered pumps.  The way the guru was talking, I expected to find one or two and that’s it.  Imagine my surprise when I typed “solar-powered pumps” in Google.  A bunch of sites, from 1000Fountains.com, to Target and the omnipresent Amazon have solar pumps.   Huzzah!

I still want to tool around the different sites and find feedback on the options, but I’m leaning towards trying out the Sunjet Solar 150.  The price is low enough that if my dream of a garden fountain comes crashing down around my trowel, I won’t feel quite so bad.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

In other garden news, the tomato plants are looking hale and hearty, but still no fruit:

And the basil has grown mammoth.  I pick from the top and the sides to keep the plants producing.  Don’t they look beautiful and yummy? 

 

Since I don’t have tomatoes yet, I stopped by the farmers market and picked up some heirloom beauties and ate them with the fresh-picked basil, a little sea salt and a dash of olive oil.  Heavenly.

Maybe next year I’ll be eating them next to my solar-powered fountain.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

Do you have a fountain in your garden?  Share your pictures!

Clutter vs. Chaos: Finding the "Write" Balance, Part I

Without atmosphere a painting is nothing.

~ Rembrandt

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he same can be said for writers.  Or at least for this writer.   Oh, I’ve written, scribbled, jotted, agonized over many a dangling participle on trains, in planes, park benches, grassy knolls, empty rooms, and trash-filled dorms.

With ball points, fountain pens, pencils, even markers.  Scrap paper, napkins, restaurant receipts, backs of envelopes, ruled notebooks, leather journals, and thick parchment style paper. I have even been known to use a computer once in a while.

But I simply cannot write, I mean, physically write, while surrounded by chaos.



Now where did I put that piece of paper?



Chaos is different from clutter.  A space can be cluttered yet orderly.  The desk in my home office is cluttered with crystal glasses filled with pens ~ one for each colour, as well as jars for scissors, exacto knives, letter openers and the like.  There is a decorative box filled with fountain pens, and another one with stamps and return address labels.  Not to mention the keyboard, mouse, and monitor for my desktop (I know, how archaic!), and a stack of letters waiting to be stamped “Answered On_____” and then filed away.  And to top it all off, a little fan (no air conditioning unit in there.  Whew.)

That is clutter.  It is not pristine, sleek, empty.  But it works.  It is still ordered.

The rest of my home office, however, is. . . well, let’s just say it looks like a derecho whipped through it.  Stacks of 12x12 paper, sheets of stickers, and books of card stock (I make cards for friends) rest precariously on the floor next to my desk and on top of the bed, boxes and bags of books sit next leaning towers of books.  Because as with most home offices, mine serves three functions: home office, guest room, and library.  And as with most writers, that last is an ever hungry monster.  I always buy more books before I’ve even finished reading the ones I just bought two weeks ago.

Can I write in such an atmosphere? 

Of course.

Do I want to write in such an atmosphere?

No.

You are shocked ~ I can sense your vibe from here. (I told you last week I was iNtuitive!)  Ah yes, creatives are stereotyped as being clutterbugs who either love their mess or don’t even notice it.  (ok, fine ~ that last is actually true most of the time.  I am as far from OCD as one can possibly get without calling a health inspector.)

I’m also very dramatic and am always exaggerating.

Most creatives live the majority of their life in their imagaination.  That's where all the real work begins, after all.  BUt if it's going to change anyone's life or touch their heart, it has to live Nevernever land and come to roost on the printed page.  And when one can't find just the right sticker, or that specific piece of scrapbook paper, or mysteriously disappearing tape runners, or the notebook filed with handwritten story ideas and quotes, well, there comes a point in every creative life when something must be done.  And I, dear readers, have reached that point. 

Either I go, or the couch goes.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

Tune in next week to find out more!  Meanwhile, what about you?  Does atmosphere help or hurt your creativity?  What does your creative space look like?  Post links to your pics in the comments!

Top Five Friday: On the Road!

Try to relax and enjoy the crisis.

~ Ashleigh Brilliant


On the road and out of pocket today.  Get off your computer and come outside with me!!  There is a world of creativity out there!  Let's get drunk on it!

See y'all next week!

Oremus pro invicem,
~ Mikaela

La Belle's Hobby Farm: The Case of the Barren Tomato Plant

Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there. 
~ Thomas Fuller

D

o you remember that Smith Barney commercial with the stately old guy who looks at the camera, leans in, and says:

“We make money the old fashioned way.  We earn it!”

Last weekend, I felt like that guy.  Only instead of earning money, I earned a tan, some burned calories, and even a buried treasure!

With Independence Day being in the middle of the week, I had decided to take some time off to relax.  Apparently, my idea of relaxation is to work in the garden, drive up and down the I-495 beltway, and help one of my best girlfriends move ~ all on one of the hottest weekends on record in the Old Dominion.

So much for relaxation!

The driving up and down and moving part of the weekend happened Friday afternoon through Saturday night.  So all day Thursday and Friday morning I was free to work in the garden. And digging in the garden is relaxing to a point, I must say.  There is something satisfying about pushing a shovel into the soft earth, pulling up weeds, and talking to the plants and any butterflies or dragonflies that may wander by.

But it’s not all cooing and sighing over green growing things.

Some of those green things are monsters that suck all the nutrients away from my precious tommy toes, basil, and rosemary plants.  Green monsters like this guy:



I don't know what your name is, but you need to leave this patch NOW!



And the bane of my gardening existence:



Hell thou name art crabgrass!!

Once I got to digging, pulling and pitching, there was no stopping me. I loaded up the wheelbarrow and started another pile just over the border of the garden.  I even accidently dug up some Paperwhite bulbs.  And then I saw it.

Buried treasure!



Didn't George Washington make bricks?  I bet he made these!

There used to be a brick fire pit in the area next to the garden.  And the base is still there ~  handmade Virginia brick from who knows how long ago.  What a perfect place to build up a little bench and water feature!  One itty bitty problem: I’m trying to be sustainable, eco-friendly, and as off the grid as I can be without sacrificing style or comfort.

So off to the garden center I went to find out more about how to build a water feature without electricity.  And what is the first thing I see? 

A magnificent fountain? 

Well, yes.  But run with electricity.  And no, that’s not what I mean.  I saw . . . .

Tomato plants.

In flats.

With tomatoes on them!

With my mouth hanging open, I pointed at the plants and said to the resident garden guru:

Me: “ You have tomatoes on those plants!”

Guru raised her eyebrows. This customer must be a city slicker. “Yes?”

Me: “I transplanted my tomato plants about 4-5 weeks ago – no tomatoes!”

Guru’s face shows relief (She's not a crazy!) and curiosity: “Did you fertilize them?”

Me: “Yes”

Guru: “Are they planted in full sun?”

Me: “Yep.  Cheerful pause. And I water them faithfully every day – sometimes soaking them for 4-5 hours.”

Light dawns in Guru’s face, as well as, what is that….pity?

“Ahhh.  They’re drowning.  Most people kill their plants with overwatering than not watering enough. 

Me: Crestfallen face.

Guru: “No worries. Just let them dry out for a couple of days.  And then only water them once or twice a week.”

So on the hottest weekend on record, I neglected my garden.  On purpose.  I felt wretched.  What kind of gardener turns her back on her plants when it’s 105 degrees!?  This must be how parents feel when they have to discipline their kids.  It’s for their own good.  But man, does it feel counterintuitive!

When I returned late Sunday morning, I raced to the garden to see how it had fared without me and water for two days.  And what do you know?

It worked!

My tomato plants had been healthy, but still kind of scrawny.  Now most of them were robust, stretching up, up towards the sun, and at least 3 of the bigger ones had tiny yellow flowers all over.  And you know that that means ~ the tomatoes are coming!

After this latest learning adventure, I will definitely be able to say that I got these tomatoes the old fashioned way.  I earned them!

By the way, my friend got moved back down to Virginia with nary a mishap and lots o’ sweat. 

Oh, and the fountain idea?  The garden guru had some interesting things to say about it.  More on that next week!

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

Have you ever killed a plant by watering TOO much?

Creatively Bored: or "No, I'm Not Distracted, I'm Thinking!"

Don't give up before the miracle happens.

~ Fannie Flagg

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or the iNtuitive Feeler, brilliant ideas are to be had at will: they are as numerous as the stars, and more often than not, just as untouchable.  And yet, the moon was once thought unreachable.

The problem is not that one dreams the impossible, it is that one fails to make the dream a reality.  NF’s are exciting, creative, and are often gifted in many different areas.  However, they are sometimes easily bored, discouraged or distracted, which leads to the failure of many of their varied projects. 

This is especially true of the ENFP (Extroverted iNutitive Feeling Perceiving). 

For a long time, I described myself as an introvert.  But no one believed me.  I found joy in most of life and laugh quite a lot.  And as you know, I like to entertain and throw parties, and I love people.  Such goings on would frighten make an introvert run for the hills!

But an ENFP needs to have alone time to center and meditate.  Otherwise, the water runs out and boredom, despair and discouragement fill in the cracks and crevices left behind.  This is the pattern of my life.  Sometimes I forget to center.  More often, I just can’t find the time to be alone. Or to set the proper boundaries so I am left alone.

Those are dark days.



Where an NF wants to be sometimes...



But recently, I discovered something.  That on those dreadful days when I’m running low on dream fuel and am bored to pieces over simply everything, ideas are born.  And that I’m not alone in this strange place of creative boredom.  That creating something new and beautiful when I should be doing something entirely uncreative and boring is kind of normal.

Whoa.

That’s what Austin Kleon says.  And he’s an artist and a writer.  So it must be true! At the least, it is true for a good many creative people, of which NFs are one group.  In his book, Steal Like an Artist, Kleon says

Take time to be bored. . . .Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing. . . .Take time to mess around. Get lost. Wander. You never know where it’s going to lead you.

Or in other words, take something negative (boredom) and make something positive out of it (creativity).  We’ve all heard that it's good to step away from a project in order to gain a new perspective on it.  And often, that leads to fresh ideas, editing, or a complete re-write.  Well, that’s what NFs do; only we step back by fiddling with another project.  And being alone with our creative thoughts now and then.  



So show some love to the NFs ~ give them lots of encouragement and some space.  You may think we’re abandoning you, but we are as loyal and affectionate as puppies ~ we’ll be back and more creative then ever.



I feel so much more affectionate  after my alone time!
Romeo & Juliet, Sir Frank Dicksee

NFs ~ love yourself enough to set aside alone time.  You’ll actually have more creativity to give if you do.  And dream big, impossible dreams.

Just remember to continue dreaming once you wake up.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

When is the last time you scheduled alone time? Did you think you were being selfish for doing so?  What do you do to get out of a discouraged mindset?

Top Five Friday: Readers in the Storm

A good book on your shelf is a friend that turns its back on you and remains a friend. 
~ Author Unknown

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 ednesday’s post made me think of my favorite books to read while the wind is howling and the rain is pounding and the thunder is snarling and the lightening is stabbing.

I love storms, can’t you tell?

Well, at least ones that don’t uproot trees and kill people.  I like excitement with a hint of danger, not a full blown massacre!  So here are the books that show up on my bedside table on a dark and stormy night.

Endless Night – Agatha Christie

A man, a house, the woman he loves, and a curse. I just read this one during this last storm.  What a gifted writer!  And the ending!  Well, I won’t give it away ~ I hate spoilers. If you like mysteries, you’ll love this one.

And of course, anything that Dame Christie wrote.  A remarkable storyteller.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes – A. C. Doyle

Really, is there any greater detective than Mr. Holmes?  No matter how many times I’ve read them, the stories are always fresh, the mystery always thrilling.

Eight Cousins – Louisa M. Alcott

None of Alcott’s stories ever grow old.  And talk about reading about life off the grid!  It certainly had its moments of romance!  And what can I say, I still harbor a liking for granny boots. 

The one book many don’t know about ~ for what reason I don’t know ~ is A Rose in Bloom which is the sequel to Eight Cousins.  Ahh, the romance of bygone era.

Anything by Emilie Loring

No, that’s not the name of the book.  I mean, literally any book that Emilie Loring has written.  They’re light, very old-fashioned romances, written mostly in the 1930s and 1940s.  Her heroes patriotic, manly, and usually from New England.  Her heroines are patriotic, loyal, and usually from New England.

I’m noticing a pattern here.  Well, they do say write what you know.  So I’m going to say that Loring was a New Englander.  With a fondness for light and fluffy rolls.  Her characters are always eating them!

Anything by Jane Austen

Confess.  This last doesn’t surprise you, does it?  Ovation was just replaying the A&E version of P&P.  Even though I own it, plus the soundtrack, plus the sheet music, I watched it anyway.  And like Alcott’s writing, I never tire of reading her.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

What do books do you read by candlelight on a stormy night?  Take one off your shelf and share it with us!

La Belle's Hobby Farm: Savoring the Silence After a Storm

Despite the gardener's best intentions, Nature will improvise. 
~ Michael P. Garafalo

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iving off the grid is a tough choice to make.  We have been seduced into thinking we can control our lives with technology and can’t live without it, and have literally become addicted to it ~ myself included!

But those who were in the path of last weekend’s derecho know that it is foolish to put your trust in technology and that despite its best efforts, there is at least one thing over which we have no control: Mother Nature.



photo, June 2012, M. D'Eigh



Millions lost power as soon as the 80 mile winds roared into town, tearing up everything not nailed down, and several things that were.  Roads were impassable, cars crushed under trees and power lines.  Even cell service was disrupted, so besides being unable to contact loved ones, there was no tweeting on the smarty-pants phone either.  Friends who texted me on Saturday didn’t reach me until Monday.

One could almost hear the caged-animal-like wails as wild-eyed people moaned, “But what will I do without the internet or my laptop!?”

Savor the silence?

The underlying hum of electricity is like a drug; once it’s taken away, you panic and go through withdrawal.  You fancy you can feel the silence.  The air hangs heavy and your thoughts run around like frightened mice.  Ever drop of rain sounds like a waterfall and every cricket’s chirp is deafening. You must tweet or text or go mad.

But once you’ve been off the electricity drug for awhile, your crazed neurons settle down again.  You welcome the silence.  And the freedom that comes from living at a slower pace.  You may even begin to appreciate the people around you.  Although to be brutally honest: most of us use technology to hide from relational problems and pain.  So once it’s taken away, your options are to either confront the issue head on, or leave town!

Another way to enjoy life without electricity ~ pick up one of those eco-friendly, non-fossil fuel powered versions of the e-reader: the book!  I had electricity and still managed to devour at least five. 

Or you can learn new things to do outside.  I added sawing tree limbs to my repertoire.  Without a chainsaw.  Oh. Yeah.   And I found out that a truck and a really big heavy chain make a great substitute for Paul Bunyan when you need to clear a fallen tree out of the driveway. 

Now if only I could figure out how to chop the trunk and mulch the limbs off the grid. 

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

My condolences to all those who lost loved ones to the storm.  My thoughts and prayers are with you.

The Muse Has a Migraine!

I thought so hard I got a headache.

 ~ J.D. Cobb

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ast week I touched on how learning who you are can open a whole new world of possibilities and ideas.  And I promised that we would take a look at an iNtuitive’s weaknesses. 

 

However, one weakness this particular NF has is to stay up late until the last chapter is read, or the last scene played out.  Or to awake at 2 a.m. with the sound of the world crashing around your ears and the certainty that this is indeed the end of you and all you hold dear.

The power, however, remained on and only half of one maple tree came down over the driveway.

But the seeds of a migraine had been sown, alas!  And so, dear readers, I must ask your patience as I burrow into a dark cocoon of fresh linens and sleep away this monstrosity.  In the meantime, enjoy learning and reading about the sixteen personality types.  And we’ll take up this conversation again next Monday.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

Did you take the test yet?  Come on!  It’s fun ~ and you’ll so much about yourself and those annoying people around you!