ME MYSELF I - The pros & cons of the solo life

What sort of tree Msolga?


It is a real loss, when something one has planted and nurtured goes, isn't it?

A big bottle brush, Deb.
Perhaps more a big, big bush?
I had to find something really hardy to cope with the N/W aspect of my backyard. So natives seemed the best way to go. It was a tiny little thing when I planted it. It was doing really well. <sigh>

Oh well, back to the drawing board! <sigh>

That was some wind, yesterday!

See what I mean?:

Strong cold front brings wind, rain and damage
September 25, 2006/the AGE

WILD winds of more than 90 km/h brought down trees and power lines in Melbourne as a strong cold front crossed southern Victoria yesterday afternoon. ... <cont>

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/cold-front-brings-wind-rain-and-damage/2006/09/24/1159036415320.html

Great stories from everyone, msolga. Well, honey. I cannot find your check out thread, so I've resolved not to be by myself in this big old house, so I'm going to Orlando with my daughter.

Later, all.

After my kids took off on their own, I lived by myself for about 7 years. Then last year I had this incredible idea. "Why not get a roommate to share the expenses?" Someone should have locked me in a cell until I returned to sanity. For the past 10 months I have been "sharing" my house with someone else and for the past month I have been "sharing" my house with someone else and that someone else's 2 dogs. My roommate and the dogs are departing for greener pastures in a week and I am counting the days. Although a nightmare at times, this has proven to be a learning experience. I realize that my "authentic self" is not selfish. It is just old. It is entrenched in old rituals like a clean kitchen, enough hot water for a bath and walking around the house in my underwear when I want. My real life gets to eat all the cookies while watching football and not some stupid sitcom of days gone by. My real, authentic self is going to be much happier in 7 short days and if I ever contemplate a roommate again, I will check myself into the nearest puff unit asap.

A short trip to Orlando, dear Letty?

Or does this mean you are moving?

Yay MsOlga! Which new tree will you plant? I wish I could pop over and give you a hand chopping up that tree (I love to chop up trees as much as I hate when they fall).

Get that axe & your clippers ready, k!
I expect your help here at any minute! :wink:

Yes, Letty, are you considering moving?

Ah well, we live & learn, hey, kgrace? :wink:
Once was enough, perhaps?
Oh, I understand where you're coming from!

Welcome to A2K.
Nice to meet you!

Nice to meet all of you. I have a very good friend who is a horticulturist. Maybe she could give some advice as to what kind of tree has a good wind resistant root system. There are 2 tall pines in my front yard that look like they may tumble if we get a really bad storm this winter. I'm contemplating a big cut soon. Letty, I love Florida. We have a family reunion thing every year at Ft Myers Beach. There's nothing like the gulf in January. For a whole week I can walk on the beach in pj's and nobody gives a damn. We rent a huge house right on the beach and I just listen to the waves. It's incredible. I have great passion for my job, but sometimes I wish I could just move down there and work in a grocery store or something. Anyway...I think I learned a big life lesson from this roommate thing. I need to make more friends and do more socializing. I live and breathe my art and my job. That's not healthy. I thought a roommate would bring me more connection, but I was mistaken. I love my home and I don't need to share it just to have someone to talk to, especially if they're not around much and leave 2 sad dogs home alone all of the time. Yes you're right. Live and learn.

kgrace

Thank you kindly for the offer of your friend's advice regarding suitable trees ... but you see, I live in Australia, so I'll have replace my previous tree with another Oz native. .... And I thought my previous choice was perfect!

I've read your last post with interest.
I can relate to what you say about changes you might make in your life.
Yes, that particular room-mate didn't work out, but perhaps another one (on more detached basis!) might. You never now!
Tell us more about your work, your art. You're lucky, you know to have work that you are so passionately involved in!

Another experience that convinces me that solo is good! Men really are strange sometimes!

Olga - I don't think anything can stop winds like that blowing over a tree - it just happens. Just plant another - and don't let it get too high - cut the top out to make it bushy - Poppy will love that!

Thanks for the advice, margo.

Maybe I show give my tallest bottle brush a crew cut? It's even taller than the one that blew over.

Had an out-doorsy day cutting it up today ( mowing the lawn, etc, etc ..). Got a fair bit of it into the green barbage bin, but I think this could take a few collections.

Nearly gave myself a nasty hernia episode :wink: trying to extract the roots from the garden bed! Tough work! A bit at a time, methinks!

Heres a good nursery for Natives MsOga. I've bought there several times when I wanted specialist stuff. E/brunswick, not too far from your area I think.

http://www.ceres.org.au/index1024x768.htm

Calistemons (Bottle brush) need regular pruning to keep them nice. Cut off the flower heads after flowering, thats all they need.

There are many specially selected and bred for gardens calistemons now you can basically choose the height and colour you want and go buy it.

Ah, Ceres, dadapad!

Haven't visited for a while. Used to live very, very close to there! a 5 minute walk away. Not all that much further away now, actually.

I'm thinking at the moment of a no-nonsense, fast growing "screening" small tree - for a NW aspect & it gets very hot (& windy!) out there in high summer. Perhaps a Pittosporum (sp?). (I know some folk have "objections" to them, but I've not had problems with growing them in hard to fill spots before.)

Right now there's there's a wacking great gap where missing bottle brush was. (& I had pruned it and everything! )

Better do something this weekend, hey?

Hakea maybe msolga we have one in our front yard that has a northerly aspect Its a 4 m tree now (say 12 feet)
I'll do a photo later for you. I cant remember what type ours is but most hakeas are west aust so should stand the exposed aspect.

Lots and lots of flower/foliage combos available too, but ceres is not the place if you want the pretty combos.

possibly a pincushion hakea

Hakea. 10 or 15 years old I guess it would have takn 5-8 years to get to that sort of size
The space next to it was left by an ovens wattle that blew down in the storm (same one) and a potatoe vine on the fence that had to go




shows multi stems


clse up of leaf and seed

I really love Hakeas, dadpad, but sadly I suspect it's a little to grand in scale for my humble yard. (which is longish & "thinnish". I live in a single fronted (joined to the house next door) Victorian terrace. So when it comes to trees (& I mean small trees) I have to think more vertical & less horizontal, if you read my meaning! Looks like you've got a big yard there, though! Oh, & you lost a wattle in the very same storm! A black day in the state of Victoria, that day!

Two episodes, both yesterday.

If you have the time & inclination, your feedback would be appreciated, dear reader:

* Episode # 1:

Leaving the my job yesterday ... I've been at this workplace for two years & today is the last day of my contract. My friend, E, escorts me to my car & tells me how much she'll miss me. Then she says: " .... and msolga, I hope that very soon you'll meet a nice man & be very happy."
ME: "But E, I'm not looking for a nice man."
E <looking very knowing>: "Ah, but msolga, it's when we're not looking that these things happen!"

Later, that same afternoon, I'm having lunch with my good friend, D. I tell her of this conversation, repeating: "But I'm not looking."

To my astonishment, D then looks at me all knowing, too! .. and says: "It's when we're not looking that these things happen!" Big smile from D.

Question: Dear reader, how can these 2 good women, who know me very well, assume that meeting another man will make things in my life wonderful? Does one size fit all, perhaps? Am I assumed to be waiting for my prince to come, despite everything I've said to them over time?


Episode # 2:

I arrive home from lunch with D, feeling quite relaxed & pleased that the school year (a hard one) is now over. In my letterbox, along with some Christmas cards, I find a small, flat package. Inside I find a copy of a boppy Nigerian album that I used to have on LP, but wasn't able to find on CD. I loved it! And here it is, with no note, no message, no nothing .... There is only one person who knows how much I liked this music & would have sent this, dear reader. My Ex. Who hasn't contacted me since he got married, very early in the year. (He hasn't told me about this yet, BTW)
I wish he hadn't sent that to me. It made me feel crumby for a while.

Question # 2: Now why the hell would he want to remind me of his existence at Christmas, Hmmmm? He hasn't bought me Christmas presents for years, since we split up. To be nice? (Ha!) Guilt? Or something contrary, like to remind me of him, just in case I might have forgotten? Hoping that I'm pining away, perhaps?