Shower Meme from draco_kc

[treeskin]

Given unlimited money and time, what type of garden or landscape would you most like to create?


I'd really love to do a landscape that incorporated all I know about the prairie landscape, and weave into that the medicinal and culinary herbs that are adapted (or native) to this area.

I'd also like to weave in my beliefs, in the form of a dedicated ritual/meditative space in the garden. That's actually on the books for this property, someday, at the east end of the iris beds. So far, my favorite sketches have used rugosa and wild roses to form the boundary between "public" garden and ritual/meditative space, which is itself surrounded and screend by hazelnuts and apple trees. And elderberries. I have two absolutely-must-plant items: wild chokecherries and elderberries.

Another of our "someday goals" for this property is to replace the front and back lawns with perennial herbs and flowers that will withstand light traffic--strawberries, yarrows, hardy geraniums, maybe some sweetgrass and thymes and shorter mints. Underplant the whole thing with bulbs--crocus and dwarf daffs in the sunny spots, ixiolirion and muscaris in the shade. The no-mow theory of turf management. I've seen some fairly large spaces, and some very small intimate spaces, treated this way, and I just love it.

I'd kill for enough space to start a collection of oaks. There are dozens of fascinating oak species that will grow here, but most are too big to do that and have all the other things I want on this 2.75 acres. If they keep giving me money to spend on random new trees at work, I'll indulge this urge there. My boss would know a native tree if it bit him.



Looking into the crystal ball, ten years from now, where do you see yourself?


Probably teaching some community-ed hort classes at JCCC. Maybe even working full time in the greenhouse with Donna; she's been lobbying for a full-time assistant, and if that happens while she's there, the position would be mine.

Much more involved with the planning and organizing for Heartland and Camp Gaea. I enjoyed teaching out there in May, and Ashe (among others) are trying to talk me into doing more. And we're beginning to get involved with the property itself, maintenance-wise.

I would love to do an art show of my needlework when I'm 40. It's been floating in my head to do one for about a year, and at the pace I'm working now, it'll take that long to build up enough inventory to get the effect I want. Imagine 5000 temari (at least) festooning the upstairs gallery space at the Pearl.....



You have been given the chance to "step into" the world of one (and only one) fictional work. What book do you select, why, and what would you want to experience/explore?


The Forigner series by C. J. Cherryh. I am completely fascinated by the idea of a group of people--anything that can say "excuse me" is a person in my book--that thinks so differently. Ummm, if I have to pick one book, it's be the last one, Inheritor (I think), where everything is balanced on the edge of discovery.

My answer may also be skewed right now because we're trying to talk some friends through an emotional crisis brought on, IMHO, by inadequate communication. The way these books focus on communication, on adapting to another person's mental furniture appeals to me. I feel inadequately trained that way, trying to help our friends.

I'm also fascinated by the concepts of hospitality and politeness in atevi society. So much so, By & I have batted around some of the more formal, symbollic thigns (like the scroll cylinders), as possibilities for art pieces.



Describe one plant whose qualities or attributes best reflects your personality.


Another good question.

Burdock, Arctium lappa. Nothing exotic, a bit prickly in spots, but surprisingly useful once you get to know it.



Out of the old "Espresso Club," who would you most like to see again? Is there anything you'd like to ask them? What do you think they'd be most surprised by, with regards to yourself?


Oooo, good question. Present company excluded, I will assume.

I think they'd all be surprised by my current employment. You don't expect someone who attended KSU Honors to have a job with her name--and lots of mud--on her shirt. Or to be happy about the fact.

I think I'd like to see Ted again someday. I think I could do that now, without having nightmares afterward. You know, he never thought he'd done anything wrong, those two nights. Or so he told me, 12 years ago, when I spoke to him last. But I'd like to ask him if he ever thought about how his actions affected me.

You know, his parents live about 2 miles west of me on Hwy 24. I think about every time we go that way.



And to carry the great meme on, the rules:
1. Leave a comment saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I'll reply and give you five questions to answer.
3. You'll update your LJ with the five questions answered.
4. You'll include this explanation.
5. You ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed. And it just keeps going, and going, and going....

Comments

[treeskin.livejournal.com]

Wil do, darling. Give me a bit to think up good questions.