A new year and I blew it.

I mistakenly posted on this blog what was supposed to go on my personal blog. So if you were confused... it's not you it's me. Hooboy. What a way to start the new year.

It's been wet, raining off and on and cold since New Years Eve, this is good but it keeps me from going to the garden regularly. At this point I'm merely making trips out there when the scraps container gets full. Which got full in two days due to having mashed potatoes, salad and all that stuff. I have no pictures at all since the last post because I haven't been outside.

I forgot my phone when I dumped the scraps today so no pictures. Everything is wet and it's cloudy so not much to really report from that corner.

Let's talk about virtual gardening! Not a really important topic but since I'm playing a game called Lily's Garden it keeps my brain in flower/planting mode. It's not a real intensive game, matching puzzles that give you stars to advance the story. Very good storylines up until now. (Don't believe the ads that show up anywhere, obviously if it involves cheating boyfriend, a baby and all that, never happens).

Not an advertisement.

Previous stories had Lily renovating her aunt's property, many side plots and subplots abound. The most unrealistic aspect is building a wall and full on gardens in a day. Makes the 'Surprise Renovation' shows look like snails in comparison. They've been to a fictional country called Montarino, there's a 'national' park near the estate where things started. You get to choose what style they are going to work in, paving, flowers, walls, all that. Along the way her mother, friends and all that eventually show up and either help or cause issues. So it's engaging my creative side but right now they are suddenly working at the White House fixing up the gardens there.

That's where I draw the line. All the other gardens made sense that they were in poor shape and full of weeds. There is a head landscaper they are working with and the fictional side is there is a female president and male vice president but still. The first location they worked on was the famous Rose Garden which looked like it had never been worked in for years. Please... the Rose Garden that is used at least weekly for various functions not in good repair? Oh and of course Lily's new husband and stepdaughter show up as well as others that somehow arrive. The original location for the game is in Northern California and there was always a plausible connection to the next location. Up until now, they were supposed to have this job without telling everyone and of course someone does.

So one of the things that bugs me is a 'kitchen garden' that have choices of plants with very little in the way of actual vegetables. Just a small thing but it's really hard getting through this particular chapter and have to really suspend my disbelief now and disconnect from actual locations. It's an 'alternate' reality and will stick with that. So that's what I do instead of actual gardening. No money involved, a little creativity and fills my time.

Another type of virtual gardening is in Second Life where it's more hands on creatively, better able to create actual landscapes that aren't cartoonish and look so realistic sometimes it's as if I'm actually there.

Being virtual it can be spring, summer whatever season you want all the time. There are creators that are actual botanical type people and name the plants correctly. The only thing that they don't have a lot of is growth cycles but they do have branches or grass that sway in a breeze. 

All of this is to say that people will have gardens if they are that kind of people. One way or another we find a way to involve ourselves in creating green spaces and keeping our connection with the soil, growing and nurturing. Those city people who say they need concrete and steel around them even admit that walking on a gravel path beneath shady trees is nice and relaxing. 

Our roots as humans is a connection to the earth and growing things. Our hunter/gatherer ancestors still live in us in some small way no matter where you are born and raised. Everything is connected to the Earth and it's our job to take care of it as much as we can.