Hunkering Down in the Heat

Dreaming the Future

Boozhoo - Can you tell that I am having fun in this oppressive heat wave? We only have 1 window air conditioner upstairs in the bedroom but our little bear’s den of a house stays fairly cool with ceiling fans and dim light. All bets are off though if you choose to go outside although the outdoor shower is a great transition to coming back inside.

Part of the fun I am having is a course from Pretty Purple Door on how to create a garden mood board. It has been so helpful for me and I think I can apply the lessons to all areas of my life. I have been overwhelmed by the idea of my garden. When we first built it the idea was to grow as much food as I could and then to preserve it by canning, dehydrating, etc. Over time I have kept adding in flowers but not with any plan. I just bought what I liked and then watched to see who would win the battle against Wingstem, Quickweed and other pushy plants. I hate to call anything a weed because Lambsquarters which like to take over make good greens when you and Purslane is delicious. Violets are delightful and the rogue Dandelion is a medicine cabinet in a plant. But, my garden is a mess especially when the weather gets hot and I retreat indoors. My bandaid technique for the chaos was to throw out a lot of Zinnia seeds so that at least there were bursts of color among all disarray. However, I recently decided that I wanted to restructure the space and create some order, discipline and structure but also allow some messiness as a balance. I want the garden of my dreams.

I felt complete overwhelm when considering this task. Taking the course helped me to break things down step by step and be able to play while I was doing this. I know that I want a few small 4x4 beds that will be for veggies and herbs with arbors that connect some of them to create space for runner beans, cukes, squashes, etc. I absolutely love cottage gardens with their mix of plants - think Hollyhocks, Foxgloves, Echinaceas, Salvias, etc. I want a climbing rose for petals and rosehips. There is an absolute need to build an arbor that our vintage glider can sit under. A water feature would be lovely. The list goes on. So how am I going to bring this to life as an INFJ and not totally lose my energy by getting too right-brained and sucking all the creativity out of the project. The answer is the mood board. I get to focus on how I want it to feel and dream it with images. These images don’t have to match what the future will look like but they do evoke the feelings that I want to have. I have found that this exercise has brought me a lot of clarity about what I truly want by dreaming a big picture to act as a touchstone to keep the creativity flowing.

I think that this method of creating a mood board will work in a lot of the other areas in my life that I am building back up from the ground up. I need to decide how I want to feel and then find images to support that and find the language that lays out the structure that I can then begin to create in. At this point in my life my work should be play because I am doing it for myself. Well, time for another shower to cool off.

Giigawaabaamin miinawaa.