The Happy Gardener

New England winters New England has two winters : one is a thing of heart aching beauty - of soft white snow on every tree and branch and fence and post, of warm lights, of bright mornings of blue sky when you can almost touch the crispness in the air, of quiet evenings and empty roads when you can hear the muffled snowfall outside, of warm cider and thick wool coats and bright scarves and hats. Of fields of golden bulrushes and stately evergreens.  Of skiing and snow tubing and perfect Christmas settings. The other is a study of misery. Of dirty black snow and wintry slush. Of late afternoon twilight and biting cold. Of endless snow cleanup and layers of clothes. Of empty trees and not enough sun. Of salt everywhere - on the roads, on your soles, on your floor. And the long long wait for warm outdoors. The Moment I had one of those moments today. It happened at a stop sign close to home as I got in the car and drove to the bus station.  The part of my brain that is al...

Where did the carefree days go? Now, if I spend an evening just watching TV and reading, I feel like like I'm forgetting something or just plain guilty. Anyways, here I am. You'll be happy to know that even though I haven't been working out as much as I'd hoped or writing as much,  I am making reasonable progress on the other items on the year's bucket list.  C & I have the basic planning for the India trip done and I finally re-started Slaughterhouse Five ( I started this a loong time ago, read about 10 pages and then got distracted). Aaaand, I actually made a couple of new recipes this year - a veggie pasta (with much help from C) and a white-radish-and-fenugreek-leaves recipe, all by my self.  I think I am taking after my Mom in making random recipes up based on what veggies we have at home. Of course, I have a secret power she didn't - Google! I should tell you about the very nice day I had last week. I had a bad cold and sore throat and decided to ...

And so it begins. I was reading an article a few days ago which talked about some studies on happiness. These psychologists found that happiness depends on three basic needs being met - autonomy, competence and relatedness. (We clearly don't see eye to eye , me and the psychologists, 'cause I think the basic needs are 70 degree weather, dark chocolate and high speed internet). So I spent some time ruminating on this. I don't think I would have picked such a mundane set of words but it actually makes a lot of sense. At least, when I think of it in the context of work. You see, I've been spending a lot of time wondering what it is that I want out of my work life/career - mostly because I need to be in unending meetings with excruciating people who's only agenda seems to be to get me to snap. And now that I think about it, these precisely are the characteristics I'd look for in any endeavor that I need to spend 8 hours of my day on : - Autonomy : I want to have...

Untitled It's just at that time -   a little before dawn, before the day breaks in  full of thoughts and plans. As my mind begins to wake and remember its worries - things to do, things to accomplish all in a hurry. That's when I see you  out of that corner where the blanket meets the pillow - out of that window. I hear you breathe in the still of the room. Deep and reassuring, steady and soothing. So I let the moment linger close my eyes for a little longer and dwell on the wonder, the perfection, of being here.              finis It is the penultimate night of the year and I have come to this conclusion : that life needs to be lived feverishly, eagerly - without postponements and maybes and laters. Does not mean you should be chasing sunrise every night or killing yourself with tons of activities and plans but you should just be very involved with every moment - nothing dispassionate or perfunctory about ...

We are no great epic, you and I. We're the short story everyone knows - with little twists and a reasonably happy ever after. We are not a great poem - more a simple octet with a predictable rhyme and meter. The lake, not the ocean. The neighborhood woods, not the deep forest. But isn't there a beauty and comfort in all these - familiar and yet something new in every light and every season?

You may have heard of housemaid's knee. And tennis elbow and tailor's seat. Well, I have a needy-cat's lap. Ever since C went off on his work trip to the other side of the globe, every time my rear hits a flat surface, there's little F is my lap. In fact, she is on my lap right now purring up a storm. At this point, I believe she's doing it just to spite me. It's been a good weekend again - I didn't rake any more leaves, though. If you want to know why, I should tell you about The Tragedy. Harden your heart before you proceed. Last weekend was lovely. Both Saturday and Sunday mornings turned out be fine, sunny, crisp Fall mornings with just the right temperature to wear a light jacket or a full sleeved shirt and work in the yard. Brimming with enthusiasm and pleasant thoughts, I spent 2-2.5 hours each day raking in the leaves in the front and side yards, loading up the wheel barrow and making several trips to the woods behind the house to dump the raked ...

So to celebrate being done with regimented-weekends-dedicated-to-wedding-planning-and-seeing-everything-in-terms-of-to-do lists, I decided to indulge in that hobby on mine : spending a lot of time and effort in doing something a wee bit craftsy, even if there  no immediate need for/benefit from it, just because I decided it was a good idea and have some time. C has had these two behemoth candles for a while. They are of a Lime Mojito flavor which I am not particularly partial to. I've lit these whenever I got a chance since I've known him and they just will not be done. Every time I light 'em for a while and get encouraged by the sight of all that molten wax, they just solidify back up without any significant reduction in the quantity. You see, these candles are housed in big glass jars. So, a while ago I devised a scheme to rid us of them without making me feel guilty for throwing away a perfectly good thing. I decided I would throw away the wax ( so a little bit of gui...