Where to go from here?

I am not sure what to do with this blog, if anything.  My cancer is gone, that story, for now is over.  I want to keep this blog and my original blog which can be found HERE because it reminds me of my day to day battle
and the freight train that almost ran me over.  I find myself much like the Earth Doomsayers, pretty amazed to wake up each morning to discover that I am still alive, the world is still here and I am strong again!  I truly feel "born twice" and very lucky!  I don't feel as though I deserved to get cancer and I don't feel virtuous enough to deserve to be cured.  It is all pretty much a gambling game, a game of chance and I won!

 a Rose from my garden

My other blog is about "art" and what I do, my garden and political thoughts of the moment, so do I just abandon this one?

Maybe I will show you a "flower a day" from my garden?  That would be an easy job and I would never run out of flowers!  I must have a thousand of them.  They are everywhere, all over my garden, in thirty or so pots, built into trellis's and some seven feet in the air.
Maybe that is what I will do, turn this all over to my garden, and when it speaks to me I will let you listen in?

My Greenhouse

    I have lived on this little third acre for over forty years, the same place but it is always in flux, changing as I grow older.  For a city lot it is interesting, not your flat mowed lawn kind of look at all.  Nothing "plastic" and there is a lot to do here.  It doesn't invite an audience but encourages participation.  You can dig holes on my property, and build things and make a mess, build anything you like.  It has an interesting diagonal division, a drainage ditch that runs through town and exactly divides my property in half.  One triangle is the house side
with its tiny front and back lawns and a rabbit shed and the house itself.  The other side is mine.

Front door to greenhouse.

    One of the first things I built, forty years ago, was my greenhouse.  This is a proper greenhouse not a walk in cold frame bought from a kit.  I can heat it with a 60 watt little heater in the coldest months.   The trick to this is providing enough mass to capture and retain the heat the sun offers for free during the day.

 The South wall of my greenhouse, mostly glass with slate.

It has a one foot thick concrete floor and concrete stem walls about three feet up on all its sides.  Inside the bench is one piece on three sides and is made from concrete with inexpensive ceramic tiles for a counter top.  The North wall is wood framed and insulated and the rest is mostly glass.  It is designed to be wet and on a sunny day has the humidity of a tropical jungle.
    The Southern wall and East and West are mostly glass, set in wood framing with slate veneer between the glass panels.  The slate looks great and I don't have to paint it and it too holds the heat of the day.

 Tomatoes in the greenhouse

The greenhouse is not very big, about 7' x 12' with the concrete benches on either side and a three feet walkway.  I have had 150 tomato plants in there, all heirloom and all started from seed, about eight varieties.
I can grow lettuce all year around.  And I start about a zillion flowers!

For a complete walk about of my garden, visit me HERE.http://www.artwanted.com/slate

Be Prepared!

That is the boyscout motto and often it is interpreted to mean carry a prophylactic in your wallet! Several people have written to me about their own discovery of cancer. Is there any helpful advice I could give them? Keep a journal was the most important to me, a day to day accounting of what was going on and how I felt about it. Looking back on this experience it is so easy to make the list now. There are hundreds of cancer sites on the net. The Mayo Clinic has a great one with its own blog site you can add to or read. At the beginning of this process while I had some energy I would make a to do list, like if the roof needed fixing I would doit now, never put off until tomrrow what could be done today. Tomorrow you might not be able to do it! I would get my finger nails and toe nails trimmed real short because sizzors will be a tool you won't be able to operate. Get a haircut. It will be your last one for a year and you might as well start this process looking good. Don't buy any new clothes! But do make a list for what you want to buy when you have lost that forty pounds you will probably lose. Go out to dinner! Make a list of your ten favoeite meals and enjoy every one of them. You will lose your appetite and all food will taste like cardboard. Remember "this too shall pass". It is not a forever process and with a little luck you will get through it.

Oh, oh, oh! I almost forgot, my thanks to my friends who taught me how to make a link!

Chile Rellenos

A feast from my garden!