random thoughts - newspaper - gardening - men and women and clothing - a bit more gardening

  "...and I can raise hemlines so high, the world is your gynecologist...."
                                                      .....Patsy, Absolutely Fabulous (BBC) 1992


I have let my own garden slide these past couple of weeks, maybe a month, face it - it's been a while since I did any serious weeding in this section of my garden.  It shows, a garden, like a favorite handbag, needs to be regularly weeded and cleaned out.

Desperate garden, not only do the weeds need to come out, plant food/fertilizer and mulch need to go in.

I still get the local newspaper - I just love the way it smells and the way the ink stains my fingers.  The usual weekday edition is just thick enough to use is the garden to keep down the weeds.  A couple of years ago I read the book LASAGNA GARDENING by Patricia Lanza and now I just weed a bit, put down newspapers and top it with mulch.  I take the magazine pages out, just want the newsprint - it composts so easily I can't help but wonder what's really in each issue.          

I like our local rag and have been a faithful subscriber for many years.  Don't care much for the fact that it's not very local.  I think this is what is killing newspapers.  They all print the same thing from the same source.  I believe they could sell more papers if they just stuck with the news and information in their area and added just a sprinkling of what's going on in the nation and the rest of the world (reverse of what they are doing now).  Of course they would be much thinner and probably cost more.  I love the town I live in and want to know what's going on and where's a good place to go for dinner and/or entertainment.  If you want to be active in your community you need to know what's happening in your community.  

Relying on the News at 5 to tell you everything is risky, some of us don't get home until after 6.  Others refuse to miss their favorite rerun of a rerun - forget news.  There's also that problem of "if it bleeds it leads."   The more depressing, the more it's on.  Instead of informing us, the News is the most depressing thing you can watch - some news (the really bad/sad stuff) is talked about so much and graphic photos are shown and re-shown and soon the News just isn't news anymore.  

Not to mention (but of course I will), I have a genuine concern for the women on news programs - why do the women wear 'band aids' while the men are in 'body casts?'  Not that I want men to wear less, I just think the women could have a bit more clothing on and still read the news to me.  Is this a fad?  Can a plunging neckline and a really high hemline cause ratings to soar - for a newscast?  My concern is that if they cross their legs or lean forward we are all at risk of being a lot more informed than we need to be.  What happened to modesty?  At some point in the future will human beings suffer from extreme boredom because they've literally seen it all?  Also, why on earth do - - - - - - -  wait a minute.  This is a happy blog.  We interrupt this train of thought - - - -

I think it's time to find my old newspapers and go outside - even in this heat. I've let my garden run on its own for a while and now it needs some serious supervision and weeding, lots and lots of weeding. 

I'm ready to start work - green sand, azalea food, newspaper and wood mulch.  It's not enough to take out the bad, you've got to have something to put back in - to feed the plants (the summer heat and all the watering have taken out many of the nutrients in the soil) and to mulch (this will hold in the water) - to make the garden beautiful... again. 

I guess this is where you tell me a mind is like a garden, to keep it healthy and running well you have to keep weeding out the thoughts that are of no use, keep it clean, keep it happy.  Always be careful what you allow in - garden & mind.