Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the ninth day of the month is "Location."
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I regularly go to our local garden center to buy birdseed. We have two feeders in our yard and I like to keep them stocked year round, which I think surprises some people, but here's the deal. If I want birds to come in the winter, I have to let them know that even in the summer, they can come get the good stuff. We do get a wide variety of birds and I love it.
But I don't think I've ever bought anything else from the garden center. I just like to look around.
I'm super amused by the "EDIBLES" sign above the vegetables. I mean, it's true, but it's not exactly the first thing that springs to mind when you hear the word in 2023.
I actually ran into one of the ladies from my book club, but I didn't recognize her because she had on a giant sun hat and sunglasses and when she said "hi NGS," I nearly jumped out of my skin because I am a middle-aged, slightly overweight lady who is essentially invisible in the world and to be acknowledged is actually kind of frightening, you know?
What's the state of the bird feeders in your yard? Have you been the garden center recently?
I can totally relate to your edibles comment! I was walking down the street in San Francisco yesterday and I passed a huge Edibles sign and I stopped to see what it was and it was those edible arrangements of fruit bouquets! I would not have guessed that! It made me giggle though, especially since there are so many dispensaries in the Bay Area, although I don't think they actually put the word "edible" in their displays...
ReplyDeleteI keep running into an old coworker when I am running at the lake! Luckily he has a very noticeable stride because the first time I saw him he was across the street and I pegged him right away so we waved from afar. However, in the last few weeks I have seen him twice more! It is so funny to see people when they are out of their element (and kind of "embarrassing" for him to be seeing me in my short shorts!)
I would DIE if someone I knew saw me in my workout clothes. Argh! It's as if you wrote out my worst nightmare.
DeleteI once ran into my kid's senior kindergarten teacher at the gym, but she was way more embarrassed than I was. I mean, it's a gym, what's a tiny bit more humiliation?
DeleteHah! Yeah, actually me with workout clothes really is much more normal than me with work clothes, so most of my non-work friends see me in short shorts all the time!! However, this guy is very tall and sophisticated and he is Senegalese and he has a slight accent and he walks at the lake in his slacks! So I was a little intimidated!
DeleteOther than mowing the lawn, we've really neglected our yard lately. I used to make frequent trips to the garden center, when I was really trying. We're having some visitors this summer so maybe that will spur me on to spruce things up.
ReplyDeleteI HATE it when I'm out and about and clients recognize me. Noooooo! I don't want to see them outside of work. Just like you, I'm always a little startled by it. I look different at work and away from work (at work I wear a uniform and my hair is up) so I'm surprised when people actually recognize me. Sigh.
Our yard is a nightmare. It's so overplanted and things are coming in and it's already out of control and plants just started growing. We haven't mowed yet and our neighbors have already mowed three times. I think you know what kind of yard we have based on this!
DeleteThis reflection was inspiring to me. I went to the garden center (local) about two years ago then fell off the wagon with my garden (was post-partum). The started giving money to a giant (Home Depot) but want to turn my practices around to support a small business. Bird feeders... Have a dilapidated one, destroyed by squirrels and deer.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's easy for me to spend money at our garden center because it is local and it's very close, so it's just a quick three-minute drive. I don't have to debate about Home Depot v. Mendrd's v. Fleet Farm.
DeleteWe had a good squirrel-proof feeder system going for a year or two, but the last week or so I've noticed that every time I go outside, there's a squirrel on the sunflower feeder. *sigh* Back to the drawing board.
I just mentioned going to the garden nursery today in my post. It is the thing to do now, isn't it? No bird feeders in our yard, the raccoons and squirrels won't leave them alone.
ReplyDeleteWe have a bit of a squirrel problem with our sunflower feeder. *sigh* They're just too smart!
DeleteYour birds are so lucky! If our yard were bigger, I might feed the birds too... but they tend to leave their mark all over our porch as it is, so I don't want to encourage them.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me that I need to go to the garden center and get some flowers for my yard. Everything looks so bare and sad. I find the garden center to be so stressful though because I never know what to buy and it always costs so much money and I always want All The Things.
Your reaction to being recognized is very relatable. I would react the same way. I don't expect to see people I know, as a rule, so it is quite startling.
Well, the birds are lucky, but so are we because we get to see such a wide variety. It's not entirely a selfless act!
DeleteI'm like you; I feed year round. Selfishly, though, it's purely for my (and my cats') entertainment. I love watching the birds in my yard. I even have two feeders that stick on my window in the living room so that we can watch them from indoors.
ReplyDeleteI always feel put on the spot when I see someone I know out and about. That's kind of an odd reaction, isn't it? Perhaps I've become antisocial in my old age.
Yes! We have a nyjer seed feeder just for goldfinches outside our living room window and sometimes we'll just stare out the window at them for extended periods of time. The dog loves it, too. But if we want the goldfinches to come in the cold, we have to give them something in the warm.
DeleteHee hee, "edibles" is good marketing. That alone makes me want to go to your garden center.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great place! I'm uncertain if the edibles sign is meant to be funny, though! Hard to say.
DeleteThe preschool downstairs from us at work has their lunches brought in by a company called "Heavenly Edibles." It makes me laugh every time I see the truck parked in front of the school.
ReplyDeleteI am decidedly not a garden person, but the Husband is, so I will venture to one periodically with him. He takes care of the bird feeders too. Including various attempts to deter squirrels who try to steal the bird food.
As another middle aged lady, I do like being invisible out in public. I feel like I'm supposed to resent middle-age lady invisibility, but I don't. Maybe it goes back to your Garfunkel musings from yesterday.
I do not resent middle-age invisibility. It feels like a power, to be honest. I'm always so upset when someone pierces my cloak of invisibility.
DeleteI am going to the garden centre today! Even though we are moving in a few months, I still want to put some flowers in my containers. Most of my gardens are perennial, but I have some containers that I like to fill with annuals. I am a bit sad because gardening season is going to be passing me by this year, because of the move, but I am going to plant some kale because I should be able to get a few good harvests out of it before we leave. Next year will be massive gardening as I plan my new beds, and also the season is much longer out there.
ReplyDeleteOh, I can see how the garden center might make you melancholy right now, but next year will be amazing!
DeleteOh and also, this will not surprise you, but I love seeing people out in the "wild." My son once said to me he wondered what it would be like to go somewhere with me without us running into someone I know. That used to happen all the time when I was teaching a ton of classes, and it still does quite often. This is why I never leave the house without mascara! Lol.
ReplyDeleteIt is so STRESSFUL when people see me and recognize me. BUT I AM AN INVISIBLE LADY. I should take your lead, though, and start wearing at least basic makeup when I leave the house.
DeleteGarden centers are my happy place and I plan to reward myself with so much gardening this year when I get back in a couple of weeks. The roof repair people trample-killed my garden space last year, so I'll have to practically start from scratch.
ReplyDeleteI wish someone would just destroy all the plant life in our garden and we could start all over. LOL. It's out of control and I don't know what to do with it, so I just ignore it. Maybe that's not the best approach.
DeleteMan, if they sold edibles at the garden center....🤣
ReplyDeleteI mean, I feel like it could be done easily enough! New business plan!
DeleteNew plan: take edibles and go to the garden center. My mom is an excellent gardener. My husband is a pretty good gardener. I.... tend to shove things in the ground on the blind faith approach and see how things go. I like a chaos of colour, so it's usually pretty good, although I weed haphazardly so it's a disaster and then I go out for six hours and look like a green, dirty maniac at the end.
ReplyDeleteMy parents have a lot of birds. We tried here but it never really took, and at this point I think Lucy would scare them all away. My dad would have hummingbirds come right up to his face in their old place.
The weeding is my undoing. It's fine to plant things, but then you have to stay on top of it. I am not organized enough for that.
DeleteI'm constantly surprised that our dog doesn't scare the birds, but I think it's because she's rarely off leash in the yard. It's not fenced in and she's not trusthworthy enough to not run off, so maybe the birds feel like she's safely restrained.
I had a lot of visits to the garden centre over summer but now that the garden is all planted that will probably settle down.
ReplyDeleteYes! The work is done and you can enjoy it!
DeleteAh yes! It’s just about garden centre time here too. We’ll get our usual annual bedding plants and be done for the year.
ReplyDeleteI'm always surprised at the number of people who do annuals. That just seems like so much work to me. Perennials for life!
DeleteI'm very familiar with my garden center(s). It's my happy place! I have three feeders at our house, but they're probably empty now because we are still away. My birds will not be happy with me.
ReplyDeleteThey don't seem to hold grudges, as far as I can tell. If you fill them up when you get home, they'll come right back.
DeleteI went today— LOVE IT SO MUCH.
ReplyDeleteA timely read for me! I am heading to the garden center tomorrow and I am planning to buy plants, edibles (lol) and a bird feeder/ bird food for the finches in our yard. Any recommendations?
ReplyDeleteI used to have a garden plot at a community garden at a church walking distance from my house and I would spend sooo much money at Bachmans (local garden center which you may remember from when you lived here). Phil wondered if I actuallly "made my money back" in terms of the value of produce we ate from my garden but that was never my goal. I LOVED having a garden and loved picking out lots of things to plant at the garden center. But it was too hard to get over there once we had Will so I gave up my plot a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteI would have had the same reaction to the edibles sign!!
We can not keep up with our yard. I can't imagine trying to grow a garden in a separate location!
DeleteYour yard sounds like a perfect place for bees and birds and squirrels to run rampant. It's still no-mow May. There, you're helping the environment. ;)
ReplyDeleteHa! My husband did give up and mow. It's still pretty shaggy, though.
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