And Then I Kissed Her...

Yesterday, was another beautiful day in Wellington, New Zealand. The sun was out in full glory, with wispy high cloud here and there, and a light breeze to cool the air a little.

Mary and I cabbed over the ridge from Kilbirnie to Newtown.

My brother needed a hand to get fitted out properly the new hose he had bought earlier in the week; also, he wanted that hose threaded through the garden in such a way that he could quickly and easily get the plants watered. Besides, the landlord's gardener comes around every three weeks or so to trim the small lawn, so there was a real need to ensure the grass got cut and nothing else!

Yeah, a nice new 30m (about 100ft) garden hose. I mentioned to him in the e-mail the night before that he needs to be careful as the sun will rot the hose. He reckoned she'll be right, he's only going to stay at the leased flat for another two years, eh.

While there, I took the opportunity to get the garden tidied up. A week before, he had bought some plants and I had transplanted these ones into the garden, once the beds had been properly prepared.

The difference between having a good garden and having a great garden lies in the soil preparation. I like to get the soil ready three weeks before, to give the garden time to settle down so any air in the soil is released. Plants do not like their roots drying out, since that is where water is usually absorbed.

When turning the soil, just loosen the top four inches and pull out the weeds as you go along, shaking off as much soil from their roots as you can. These weeds are a mix of unwanted plants that have wild seeded in the wrong place, and noxious plants that have no real value. Still, almost all of these weeds end up in the compost bin, to break down into useful organic matter that plants feed off.

I love organic gardening. To run my fingers through the soil and watch as the creepy-crawlers scurry. Here's a small wolf spider running along, look a millipede, and over there a sand flea. Yep, I know the garden's ready for planting when I see the local blackbirds hanging round out back.

An organic community of life, a true wonder to behold; got me thinking about another community.

Here on Steem we have many tribes, all co-existing more or less on the same Steem platform. I'm a CTPtalk member, so we tend to focus about affiliate marketing issues mixed up with life. Then there's the developers and they create apps and other softwared products and services. We have gardeners planted on Steem too, and lots of gamers splintered in their own land somewhere close by. What an amazing, organically ethered community Steem has become!

There are the steemians intent on some noxious mission, perhaps racing each other to get the most downvotes out of their resource credits, or maybe hacking their way to eventual self-destruction, or perhaps just passing off as being someone here when they're really somebody over there.

Of course, there are the ones who ignore the dark side and just go hard out to make Steem and the associated sites a success, a huge success, and a truly awesome adventure for all and sundry.

A marriage of sorts, a place of wonder and enjoyment, shadowed here and there like a tree enshrouded garden full of splendour, coloured by life in full bloom, nurtured by caring hands; almost husbanded and wifeyed has ClickTrackProfit now become to Steem. What started off as a dance, then a quick embrace, has now tokened into something so much more.

And then I kissed her...

Ian Ballantine
Wellington, New Zealand
November 24, 2019.

Lyrics: https://www.lyricsfreak.com/t/the+beach+boys/then+i+kissed+her_20013936.html

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