Saturday Stuff
I am not sure if my attempted method of briefly mentioning Covid-19 stuff and then posting about other things is helpful or not. It feels a bit stilted to me, and I believe I will abandon it. So, from now on I am going back to my other writing form.... to just write about my thoughts and feelings. Sometimes it will likely be about Covid-19 stuff.... but perhaps just as often, I will be using this space to try to get away from Covid-19 stuff for a while... a sort of "safe harbor" where it does not have to be about Covid-19.
One of the things I reminisced about for a fair bit yesterday after writing my Christmas cactus post, was about the discussions I had with my wonderful friend, my father-in-law the last few years of his life before he passed away about the two of us growing some of our own pipe tobacco in his garden. My in-laws lived (my mother-in-law still does) in a fairly rural area and for decades they had a pretty large garden (at one time, it was close to 1/2 an acre, but in the last decade of his life, he kept it down to perhaps ~2,500 square feet (50ft x 50 ft). Even though I always tried to help out when I could, during the last 10 years or so, I ended up helping more and more frequently. We would look through various seed catalogs during the winter and he would make his choices.
The winter a little over a year before he passed away, when his health was still pretty robust, we had both made a commitment to growing a batch of pipe tobacco for us to see how it went. We looked through the various forms of seed we found (surprisingly, I had not thought it would be available to the home farmer) and identified the two different varieties we both thought sounded the most promising. Unfortunately, that spring, my father-in-law's health started to experience a decline following an issue with a kidney stone, and we were unable to have his garden that Summer. And even more horribly, his health continued a slow decline that then resulted in his death the next January.
I miss my friend.
PipeTobacco
6 Comments:
It was an unusual passion that you two shared, but share it you did.
Would you garden on your own? Besides the Christmas cactus? If you have access to the same land, maybe you could create a much smaller garden and continue growing things.
One year hubby and I tried to grow tobacco a pretty plant. Was clueless about harvesting it.
I've been preoccupied recently getting my podcast up and running so I've not been visiting much. Apologies.
What a wonderful relationship you had with your father-in-law. And what an idea to grow your own tobacco. I can't begin to imagine how you would harvest it. What part of the plant do you smoke?
Before I gave up tobacco 2 1/2 years ago, I also would envision my own crop of tobacco I would grow with love like I did with my pot.
I think focusing on Covid-19 in your writings is just letting it really get a grip on you. Like you I have tried to purge it from my brain whenever I can.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home