Our stories
Lovely to hear from you @Sophia1 as always.
Oh @Krishna your tiredness makes sense. I deal with a lot of habitual rebuff, in close family relationships. It is very wearying. I can also understand why you may have been a bit short on the phone call. Glad to see you posting and still here.
On gardening. Yesterday I dug up a
divided it up and planted half dozen smaller bits in my guerilla garden, interspersed with wild lilies.
The ground is heavy clay, but not as hard as it can be when baked dry. My feet are a little sore so I know I worked yesterday.
They are very tough so i hope survive even though I tell myself not to do this in summer. We have another bout of rain and storms so I am hoping the wet weather will help.
I just had to do something physical last night. I have the big spade bought 2nd hand over 30 years ago by my ex. I took it in marriage settlement cos he liked making me do heavy yard work, now I decide when I do it.
I was also triggered cos my lovely black support wkr had a friendly caring phone call from Africa from her uncle on Monday. If only my uncles had been friendly and supportive. I now realise their avoidance was not so much about my siblings or I being difficult, but more to do with their relations with my father before he died. My uncle who told me "not to dig" was a head honcho in BHP, and did not want me to dig into the family history to discover some of the issues.
I began the guerilla gardens at beginning of covid. As the world was going into panic, I set off to make a garden at a local cross road with cleared land. It gave me purpose and kept me active. My latest additions are a gainst the fence of a power station which had been barren, but now has my plants. My lovely new female support wkr said the plants looked happy.
Today I am going to show my older spt wkr the growth. I had put an agave in, given away "free" last week. My rule for guerilla gardens is plants have to be free. My labour is also free, but that much is a free choice ... or is it driven and shaped by experiences of the past .... hhmmm.
I need extra support this time of year cos of the anniversaries, and finally I have someone to talk about life ... just anything. It was simply not available to me dues to family feuds when I was young.
Sophia I am very glad of our friendship. I usually feel rejected and judged by nice white people. I have tried again and again, and been rebuffed, so often I am beginning to feel I have to cross the colour barriers, cos the new migrants from Africa actually do know hardship and some are not hardened.
The plants I use are not delicate but very hardy. They have to be tough to survive here, and especially out on a busy intersection. Sometimes I get a cheery hello when I am working there. It is Australia and not an easy country, despite some new migrants mocking me about how easy we have it, presuming I have Job seeker and jok keeper packages etc etc ...
I did not have a garden growing up ... .. thinking I get a long with plants better than people.
