Gone Gardening!

All pics copyright of Meady's Musings Production.


I've been talking about it for sometime and today I've finally Gone Gardening! It wasn't like how I all had it planned out. Yep! I got my seeds in courtesy Amazon...I was planting things originally from Italy and India right in my Trini backyard soil with my hands that were a genetic expression of genes cooked up somewhere in the North of India in the 19th century. To try to put it simpler I was planting the seeds of plants whose origin were from Italy and India and I myself am of India origin. And all these seeds like me are going to be grown up on Trini sunshine, water and soil so all are going to be Trini in the end just like me! However my plans didn't unfold exactly as I had planned. I figured my mum would help...



...but didn't realize I'd have this many helpers! Why it could have been called a community garden project in the end really! So I didn't get to plant exactly what I had planned or to even label where I put everything but I feel in the end it was best for the plants cause like with prayers it is always better when done together and more souls gather pouring their energies into these plants. And I will let the pictures tell the story but you will see I got more than just human help! :) So truly universal energy flowing in those plants you see! :) I also said the Gayatri Mantra just before I planted the first set of seeds and you know that's all about soaking in the Morning's Energy! And my plants were planted in a spot such that they will catch the morning sunrise full blast yet be able to catch the bask of the sunset too!

In the end I got to plant not all of my cadre of seeds so there are plenty more stock in my fridge to deal with after these lives unfold...but here is what I've planted so far again no real controls so these are approximate numbers:

I kicked things off by throwing in these 50 seeds or so of a variety of hot peppers at the bottom of my mum's already flourishing habanero pepper batch (a very hot pepper of South American origin)and it is then I said the Gayatri mantra so I figure these peppers will turn out extra hot!



-About 50 seeds of tomatoes- 25 gold currant cherry and 25 costoluto genovese (not sure if I got the Italian right by the way!)
-About 70 seeds of eggplant or baigan as we call it here in Trini- 35 seeds of (Italian)Aubergine Viserba and 35 seeds of an (Indian) Eggplant Ratna.
-30 seeds of CalWonder Bell Sweet Pepper (Heirloom)

They were all put into these little seedling pots my uncle showed up with! One of the helpers that showed up to make the project grander. Along with my nieces and nephew who wanted to each be part of planting the Ratna seeds! Everyone was so excited to do it my aunt's German Shepherd even sniffed a seed or two!Here the pics to prove it!:






Then I finished off mostly on my own planting two sets of herbs in a long tray pot 3 pots in all six variety of herbs last I counted and the last pack of herbs- coriander/cilantro I threw in with them hot peppers so I tell you one hot bed that is gonna be! But although I cannot tell you which pot has which I ended up planting these herbs:

-Basil (Genovese Italian)
-French Rosemary
-True Greek Oregano
-Common English Thyme
-Parsley (Italian Dark Green Flat)
-Sage (Garden Broadleaf)
-Cilantro/Coriander (Slow Bolting)

Hmmm....so some other Europeans jumping up in my Trini hot bed I see! :) I also planted those Sunflowers!-Titans, Mongolian, Earthwalkers and a blend set...

But what's in a name I say as I learnt from the teachings of J.Krishnamurti when I was about 14 when we humans name plants and trees and things we fail to see the beauty inherent in them! So what does it matter where the seeds come from...What my hope for my little ones are is that they will grow well and bear as best they can and nourish the bodies of those who grew them! I hope that they will also be a springboard for me to consider the road raw again! :)

So I hope all my readers on Blogger, Intent, Copperstrings and Maythil will all good tidings bring and my little kitchen garden will bear many a wondrous and nourishing thing!

And I say this mantra to my little seeds as published by DK Matai on the Intent community!

'This feeling is reflected in the Gayatri chant in Sanskrit from The Rig Veda, 1500 BCE:

Om bhur bhuvah suvah
Pronunciation: Om boor boo-vah-ha soo-vah-ha
Translation: Truth, earth, atmosphere, heaven

Tat savitur varenyam
Pronunciation: Tut sah-vee-toor vah-rain-yum
Translation: May we meditate on the radiant light

Bhargo devasya dhimahi
Pronunciation: Bar-go day-vass-yuh dee-ma-hee
Translation: Of that brilliant creator

Dhiyo yo nah pracodayat
Pronunciation: Dee-yo yo na-ha prah-cho-die-yot
Translation: Who may guide our thoughts

Called the Gayatri Mantra (gayatri comes from the root "sing"), it's considered among the most powerful of the yogic incantations. In the yogic tradition, light equals knowledge. This particular chant is about linking the sun with our thoughts and enlightening ourselves by means of higher knowledge.

First recorded in the Rig-Veda, the ancient Hindu scripture dating back more than 3,500 years.'
And here is a YouTube clip of the chant so that my seeds might hear it on the blogosphere in the Universal vibes that makes all things in this Universe one! :)

My Sunflowers Story!- Do Things Just Manifest When We Truly Follow Our Hearts?

By Bruce Fritz and thanks for the free non-commercial use.

I have not shared it so far on my blogs but late last year one of the Questions of the Day on Intent.com posed by Dave Traeger went like this:

What is you Dream Job?

and it really made me think so I'm glad Dave asked it. One of things I realised I wanted to do was gardening. Although when I was a bit younger I thought it was something only older, bored people do...but in recent years (dunno it could just be I am slowly but surely falling into that category!)I've felt like it must be the most loveliest of things to do...to feel your hands in the soil...to be at the center or what will eventually nourish you in the form of food. I've for about five years now really wanted to have an elaborate home garden set up at least for starters and who knows from there...At first my mum was interested in planting but she mostly liked to do the flowers and I kept urging her to do vegetables too or mostly instead cause they had pretty colours too and they were sustenance as well not just decorations! Of course you can have the one or two flowers here and there for good cheer too no doubt! Anyway my mum kinda listened on and off but just isnt strong enough to keep up with gardening full time at her age anyway. So...we've on and off had things...But then I started to think I can do it too! But never have...but here was my response to Dave's question:

What is you Dream Job?

'I also want to be a vegetable farmer of course it just means I can start my own garden cause where I currently live I do have the space for it...but I dont have the physical strength/stamina or where with all etc...I think I just like the idea of the finished product like picking fruit digging in the earth and pulling up your own food etc....but I'm not game for all the additional work it would take to be your own gardener from scratch...so perhaps what I need is to hire someone to assist me and then do the polished part of the gardening...hmm...there's a thought...but good help so hard to find...hmm I'm also thinking that if I start off slowly it could be good exercise and eventually I just might build the stamina too...'

So guess what a few weeks ago I decided I was going to do some organic farming and when I tried to find out about organic farming in the tropics I found this blog run by a Trinidadian woman - A Caribbean Garden it really inspired me further and she gave me all this good advice! She is quickly becoming The Oracle of Gardening for me! She gave me all this advice on 'to what in my garden grow!:)' and I decided on vegetables and herbs which I will let you know more about it subsequent blogs but I also got Sunflower seeds to have those around to cheer me up! :)

So this was my first time thinking about Sunflowers in a long time cause I really like them they are my favourite flowers and as we all know so useful too as a flower as it is not just decorative but can be used for its oils! But even if it were just decorative it would be my fav! So was my first thought about it in years! Although a few years ago I had bought some seeds and my mum had planted some of them for me but she didnt plant them deep enough or anchor them in any other way so the wind blew them down easily...a point I will have to note on this new planting expedition. But yep then shortly after I bought the seeds online which are yet to be shipped I go on to Elspeth Duncan's post on her blog and I see flowers! Immediately I think of Sunflowers cause she didnt plant sunflowers but she called her post Sunny side up. Here are my comments there:
'That's nice... I personally like sunflowers but once my mummy planted up some seeds I bought and they blew down when they grew up...I've gotten some more in the batch I bought two days ago so looking forward to getting the seeds and seeing them bloom soon...will need to find a way to keep them more grounded than how my mum did in the past...

I got the sunflowers to brighten up the whole planting fest but I'm really going to try the kitchen gardening kinda thing...tomato, sweet peppers, hot peppers, herbs and baigan. I've even found a trini blogger tropical organic farming guru! She is like the oracle of gardening! She is from Trini but now lives on another island her blog won the best gardening award for latin american or something.

You can check her out at
http://caribbeangarden.blogspot.com'

'oh I know these in the pic werent sunflowers just meant I like sunflowers as in these are flowers and they made me think of other flowers as in sunflowers and how much i like sunflowers...you know now that just made we realise that even one of my favourite perfumes are Sunflowers by Elizabeth Arden'

And then just around the time of that post in work someone smelt my perfume and commented on it! Sunflowers that is...I've been wearing it for at least ten years as one of the perfumes I wear and yes I've gotten comments before but this is the first time in a long while my scent has been discussed and the person went:

"You wearing Sunflowers?"

Then I go onto Intent and they are featuring a cover story since Fri about Happiness and they choose to use pics of Sunflowers!:) and to top it off last night I went to an event and they have minimal decorations but behind the speakers there are you guessed it Sunflowers! And you have to note that Sunflowers aren't a very common used flowers here in Trinidad especially not for something like that so...!Here is the pic of those sunflowers below kind droopy as they dont do well in the tropical heat. However a field of sunflowers in North America can sometimes be intimidating like if they plan to take over the world!:

And that's it my Sunflower Story perhaps totally meaningless and just me describing a chain of coincidences that happened to me over the last two weeks or so or it is true- 'Whatever me truly love and think about manifests itself in our lives literally! or If we go with the flow which is when we find our true passions it just naturally unfolds with little or no effort on our parts?!:)' You be the judge to be honest I don't know and would love to hear what you think about this! :) So please share your thoughts...

Early Close of My Advent Calendar...by My Definition at Least!

This is just a post to let all my readers know that I closed off my Advent Calendar earlier than planned...well by my definition of it at least...cause I had defined it as ending after the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' which would have been on Tue 6 Jan 09. However let's face it in the modern world when people hit New Year's day it's all bout the resolutions for many and really Christmas and Advent ends once people go fully back out to work. And like this year cause Mon is the first Monday in January and clearing New Year's day and the day after (usually a recovery day for some)everyone is going to hit the pavement hard stomping off to conquer the world supposedly? So for all intents and purposes I need to come to the reality that Christmas is through...but on Universal Collective Prayer I will continue to speak about the 'Three Wise Men' and trumpet them off on Tue 6 Jan 09 especially since Epiphany celebrations still today is a big event in many cultures and celebrated worldwide in Christianity.

Also I am ending it early cause on a personal level I was all tired out...and really on New Year's Day I was re-borned so was tough for me too to go back! :) However the Three Wise Men followed me into this life and so I will have a longer departure time with them and only say goodbye to them on the 6th of Jan! :)

Best Wishes and hope you all had a lovely Christmas/Advent season and look forward to celebrating it again with you next year and to other festivals and seasons as they come along in this 'Great Big Blue Marble' called Planet Earth!:)

And I leave you with a You Tube clip I've shared in the past that was the introduction to a children's TV show when I was growing up that was aimed at kid's understanding cultures globally. I remember it being on Saturdays here in Trinidad. It was an American TV show but showcased kids from all over the world. You can read more about the show on wikipedia at this link.And I share it in the hope that in this New Year, 2009, me and readers from all over the world will get closer...and perhaps I will even start to hear more from them on here too...comments welcomed! :)

Advent Calendar:HAPPY NEW YEAR! = Rebirth!-Morning Has Broken...

To me on this New Year's morning all I keep visualizing is like you know how in those docu-dramas they show you the re-birth of everything say after Nostradamus' prediction comes true and then the world starts afresh again and they show you all the flora and fauna blooming and they speed up the footage so it grows from start to maturity in a few secs? Well that is how I keep feeling this morning like I'm seeing before me white roses blooming in fast forward mode so I'm seeing them budding and then opening and mostly I'm seeing white roses with dew drops and then I'm hearing this song that was made popular by Cat Stevens before he became Yusuf when he was still into his roots I guess...because as part of my exploration into Universal Collective Prayer on my blog of that nature I've found out that song which I always associated with Cat Stevens is actually a Christian hymn of British origins...On the prayers I will talk more about that...But on this blog I want to let you know that I guess New Year's Day's first dawn does instill in all of us that feeling of freshly waking up to a new dawning to a new beginning like if it is symbolically our first day on earth! :)

And so I wish all of you this to live from now on like you were never hurt...you were never torn...you are rebirthed today and 'Morning has Broken like the first morning...'

Advent Calendar:6th Day of Christmas-The Gift of The New Year!

In the universal sense I figure time is irrelevant but we social humans like to count as I spoke about in my previous post on my Birthday which was also a time for counting...and I guess I can't be counted out of that too cause look at me I have polls up on my blogs! The Santa one I have on Universal Collective Prayer won't close till Christmas closes as in all the days of Christmas are done. And the angels one I will leave it up till the same time it started in 2008 i.e. 365 days. However some of the polls are more or less finished in a few hours...it seems as when I set them they were on Pacific Time or something but I'm at -4 GMT officially so the New Year will ring in here in about 4.5 hours. So I figured I'd summarize my polls now before I go off to spend some time with family...here are the summaries:

The Best Chocolate in the World?
I only got 4 votes...less face it my blog is struggling just today I realised Google has down its rank from 3 to 2 :( But hey this was always just my musings and I'm glad whatever fun and participation I get! :) So yep with a total of 4 votes it was tie between Valrhona and Green and Black both with two votes each...on this poll I allowed a person to choose one to all as favs so one person could have voted for one fav or for up to eleven! I voted for 4 favs as I couldn't decide chocoholic am I! :)

Tell me what is your favourite coffee in the whole wide world and why?
Well my Hong Wing Coffee group members on Facebook will be proud although it appeared as if some Blogger techie guy or form of artificial intelligence tried to tamper with that poll today...hmmm....!:)But yep Hong Wing came out on top with a total of four votes! :) This poll was set up where you could vote for one and only one fav. and the total number of votes on this was slightly more than on the choc one with a total of 10 votes! :)


Do you believe in reincarnation?
Although in 2008 I never got around to starting my Reincarnation series I'm quite proud of the participation in and the results of this poll! Voters were only allow to day yes or no on this poll no maybes and I got 9 people saying yes and 3 no. So YES IT IS! And yep I will do the series next year for sure! :)
Reincarnation

I'd also like to let you know that the Santa poll is doing fine so far with a total of 10 votes in the short space of time it ran as I only put it up in mid Dec ...will give you the official result when it closes on the Epiphany!

So not much more musings bout me personally on here though...I stopped making New Year's resolution many years ago and not sure if I was ever into them....I mean really polls aside just for fun what's in a number? So I live my life where I do as it may come! So I'm reinventing, redoing, restarting, rebirthing all kinda returning and thinging...all year through as we all are really! So what's the biggy with change of year other than a number?!

But I'm not for being a social outcast so I try to blend in and share the love as much as possible so...I do celebrate and mark the changes with the whole world too so...Here it is 2009!

And from myself and my family and all my three blogs I say to everyone a Bright and Reflective New Year filled with Love and its Pure, Clear Light! :)

I also love the Auld Lang Syne song but I also like this ABBA New Year song that was really sung back in the day in 1979 to ring in the new decade of 1980! :) Imagine all that has changed since then! :) But there are History blogs and sites that will chronicle that much better than I! So here is it HAPPY NEW YEAR 1980...ahmmm...I mean 2009! :) So will leave Auld Lang Syne for Universal Collective Prayer and throw the bash with ABBA here! :)

Advent Calendar:5th Day of Christmas-Do You Believe in Angels?

On today the 5th day of Christmas I'm asking Do You Believe in Angels? and then talking about them in some way or the other on all three of my blogs. On this blog I ask you if you believe and tell you what my belief is.On Universal Collective Prayer I talk about Guardian Angels and my relationship with them or the Ishq Devatas of Hinduism and on the Books and Films Corner I could have and perhaps some might say should have spoken about a film about Angels and while there are good ones and yes I know it is not a TV blog but I just had to...so I talk about two of my favourite TV shows from a time before that featured Angels! :)

So yep I figured from all this enthusiasm you'd get the answer to my question already... yep I do believe in Angels I do! :) So I've voted on my poll and you feel free to do the same too! :) And I feel they are with me every moment every second in human form or just in the wind helping me out every second and every moment!:)

Beliefs really need not be explained but I could if I wanted to but wont...cause then you'd still not have enough proof beyond a reasonable doubt...it's just like the Santa Claus question and really the magic would be loss in explaining...but please listen to this wonderful ABBA tune and lot's of people love this tune too cause with over 1 Million hits on YouTube well...so when the person next to you says it is corny or laugh at you for believing or listening to ABBA or Air Supply or Chicago...well tell me this if you are the freak in the room how come those guys are so popular? :) Hmmm...so to all you still in the closet ABBA fans out there and Angel believers ...those on the fence...or those who we are yet to convince...listen to the song as it says... 'I believe in Angels...'

Advent Calendar:4th Day of Christmas-The Gift of Hope in Words and Song!

Some people are cynical about 'Hope' and some believe that many of us hang on to 'False Hope' and in so doing waste our mortal lives away. I say while it maybe true that 'False Hope' can indeed result in us wasting our mortal lives away...well we have many lives to live indeed life itself is eternal and never ending so really we have forever to sort it out and so can there really be any such thing or harm in 'False Hope' then? Cause surely we will eventually figure it out after all we do have an eternity in which to do it! :) And really I don't know some also see 'Hope' as a good and positive thing...a virtue. Tonight on this fourth day of Christmas I give you the gift of 'Hope' as a virtue. A few years ago I stumbled upon a quote I can't recall when exactly and no author was attached to it...but it spurred me to write my own quote on hope and the whole tit for tatting went something like this...

'Hope is not a strategy'- Author Unknown.

I in turn wrote back in response to this quote that got me so churned up that I had to respond! :)

'Hope can never be a strategy...for it is the womb in which our ideas are kept warm and nurtured until they are strong enough to be born into a strategy'- by Babita Dubay...I think I wrote that some where in late 2005 to early 2006.

I dunno...Hum Na Jaane...Ram Jaane...God only knows....but I leave you with this beautiful song about Hope by Mandy Moore in the film 'A Walk to Remember'