Relationships by KCB

KCB is a professional gardener and friend who does wonderful work in the Greater Portland area. KCB is also an accredited Master Gardener by the Cooperative Extension Service and we are honored to have KCB as part of our Skillin's Garden Log family.

Greetings. It has been a while since I have written. In all honesty, it has been a while since I have sat in front of my pc without the total feeling of dread. You see, I have purchased a new laptop.

My old desktop was the senior year of 5 years-almost. It was purchased June of 2003 and left my life May 1st of this year. We shared many good times, some great, others, well, as in any relationship we had our moments of one half of the couple not performing up to potential or expectations. We’d reboot when the situation warranted, clean files to refresh and simply shut down for a while in order to take a break from the world. PCs are not unlike a beloved pet. The last year of my former Golden Retriever’s life he slowed down as well, began to need more attention and special care. He could not be over-loaded and needed to take many breaks. As long as Molson, my Golden, was able to get-up, have tail in pendulum mode and display that perma-grin, he’d be fine. When it was time, Molson did let me know. My pc did the same. For each I made the choice. The pc choice was easy and I looked forward to the Carefree life of wireless. Features more technically advanced with a fast pace that would even exhaust me. I have been known to dream, yet the first experience with my laptop was a nightmare.

The night ‘lappy’ came home with me I was much too exhausted to take him out of his secure box. With all my preseason stretching, my body still bore the pains of my gardening day’s efforts. Early to bed, early to rise for this woman.

Stomach Butterflies stirred before I could. It felt like Christmas. I had a new toy and I was going to play all day. Being a Saturday, a rainy one at that, I would not feel guilt as to not work on gardening that day. Just tea, my pc. Oh, Kayla, and me my rescued Golden one no doubt would need attention from time to time. Strange, as I relay this experience it comes to mind that Kayla and my new laptop are similar in the fact that they both have taken some getting use to. Each relationship is a work in progress with the hope in my heart all will be worth the effort. Kayla’s story will unfold in time.

From 6 AM to 2:45 PM I ‘played’. So often I wanted to give up, throw lappy away, or stomp on him as a much needed stress reliever. I pined for my slow Jurassic desktop. I started answering one client’s e-mail approximately 7:15 and 12 hours later, I finally hit send. The problem? The touch window that functions as a poor excuse for a mouse. I even missed the little red button the laptop of my corporate days offered. Had I made a monumental mistake? Was I too quick to give-up on a desktop that offered no spark yet a comfortable touch?

What does any of this have to do with Gardening? Don’t deny you have been asking yourself this question. Surely, by now you must realize as a gardener, everything has to do with gardening and as a writer, it is all material. On to the gardening part of the story.

By now the rain pelted with a wind that moved the still naked limbs of the trees visible through my office window. Escape. That was it. But where? My imagination wanted warm and tropical, would even settle for warm and local. Tropical on my budget was out of the question. I pre-spent my economic stimulus check and any potential offering that may be offered 4 times over our promised tax rebate. Local would not offer warmth of weather on this day.

Not all warmth is dependant on the weather. I will go to where everyone, well almost everyone, knows my name. A favorite family-owned Nursery. Rte 88 in Falmouth is just a little over 5 minutes away. The perennial shelves were filling daily; a friend of mine was to be working. Besides, it would not seem like the beginning of the Gardening Season without shopping at this gardening center in the pouring rain.

Customers were braving the elements when I arrived. The smiles of the workers were hidden by waterproof hoods. The activity warmed me. I did not visit the garden center for assistance with my problems but to be surrounded with passionate plant people.

Always with a story to tell, I began to unload my burdens of the day. Complete with hand motions I relayed my relent at typing and suddenly finding my words imbedded elsewhere on the page and so not on the line they were originally meant for. Would this relationship ever work, I lamented? When toiling on my knees I feel empowered. Working the weather of this day would be a welcome diversion over my struggles with lappy. What was I to do?

Answers and solutions are often found quite unexpectedly. DK, second day on the job grinning between the raindrops simply said ‘wireless mouse’. The rest is history.

Yes, lappy and I are still getting to know one another. Any relationship takes time. As far as established relationships, friends, clients, pets and that of a certain nursery and garden center are all to be cherished…………………….

KCB for Skillin's Greenhouses
May 12, 2008