The power of flower: Play a bigger game?

Last week was the first tough week since I left my beloved Melbourne home.

It started with Jackhammers just under my bedroom stairs, which I found out would be going all week, due to leaking. Rainy season had just begun.

So I gathered my thoughts as best I could and took refuge at another freind's in Tokyo.

On arriving I found out that friend #2 also had a few days of noisy construction planned, with a builder due to visit my room at first light. Quite Quite unlucky.

I resemble a normal person, but arranging my thoughts in a straight line is a lot of work for my brain, even when things are quiet. One 'bang' and they all scatter like dandelion fluff, needing to be gathered back again.


I may be house-poor right now, but after all these years in Japan I'm getting rich in mates who let me come and stay. So I got my work-gear and life-gear together again, setting out in search peace and productivity.
"Dare to Play a bigger Game' Urged my glossy laptop bag, a souvenier from the NSAA convention last April.

Things didn't get better. My gear, myself and my frilly umbrella spent much of the week in trains, moving from house to house to internet cafe, feeling completely beaten in a very small game that is not the tiniest bit fun to play.

"Never feel sorry for yourself" is a basic rule for having a good and sane life, but I was indulging.

"What a pity you can't die of misery! All my troubles would be over!" These were my thoughts as I struggled though rush-hour Shinagawa Station towards the dreaded ladies room.

Then look, just look at what I saw:

Bougenvillia, Carnation, Geranium leaf and
Take Away Container, Shinagawa ladies Toilets.

Someone had bothered to do this.
Why did they do this?
I was so excited, I ran back to my luggage to get my camera, the dying of misery plans all canceled.

More!

Someone had picked flowers in the rain, happily carried them in the crush of a Tokyo train, devotedly washed out old containers, and arranged them with care and flair.

I bounded back to the restroom with my camera, and just look who I found:


Typical Lucky Cecilia, I caught him in the act, making his corner of the world absolutely sparkle, deftly transforming things for a city's worth of sad and overburdened people.

Hero of my week, and uncontested winner of 'Play a Bigger Game'

Berries, goldfish, and returning from travels - balcony surprises

When you come back from three months of travel, how do you expect your balcony garden to look?
Well, I returned last week, and this is what I found:

Boysenberries. They were probably Blossoming while I explored fairytale Copenhagen, setting fruit as I nestled into my friends apartment in Venice, and ripening as I gave my Permaculture seminars in Japan.

Some aren't sweet enough, the sweet ones aren't tart enough, but mixed into my morning porridge, they give it a wonderful fragrance, and you don't notice the seeds. Most importantly, they make things pink. Cloves, cinnamon, brown sugar and coconut milk make things perfect.


Thank-you Natsumi, thank you Carol, thank you Lon. You are talented Balcony gardeners.

But its my theory that the balcony guard-fish gets much of the credit for keeping things alive.

Of course, he does his thing with admirable ferociousness, blitzing mosquitos, keeping the currents nicely stirred up in the squeezy-bucket pond that is his universe. But most importantly, his presence keeps the humans coming up to the balcony on a daily basis. Its easy to neglect plants, but not so easy to let a pretty fish starve. While they happen to be there, the plants get water dished out to them from the pond, and so long as they top it up before declaring the day's work done, the whole system kind of takes care of itself.

Permaculture systems plus Concientious Japanese. Its a recepie for surprising but inevitable success.

Reality-check your blog - advanced workshop Easter Monday, my house

Go to Google Keywords. (Google it) Type in your name (choose the' Australia' setting). That's how many people might be searching for you on the internet. Try again, with your activities and city 'eg. Angela edible gardens Melbourne'. This will show if they are keywords worth including strategicly in your blog, to get the kind of readers you want. It also generates suggestions for related keywords people are searching, that will lead them to you and your site. Or topics people need your help with, to give you ideas for posts the world needs you to write.
Its almost indecent, the way its shows in hard data how 'In Demand' your colleagues or famous people are. Its an amazing reality check, and hard to believe you participated creativley in cyberspace without it.
There are lots more tricks where that came from. 'Google Analytics' amazed me when I was shown how to use it, letting me know where I was being boring, and who wants what from me and my balcony garden blog.

Last weekend Matthew and I held another Blog creation workshop, for a new batch of creative people to get their unique good work out into the world. Exactly the kind of generative people I love hanging out with (my ulterior motive for holding workshops)
Who came?

Adam Wojcinski, teacher of Sado, Japanese Tea Ceremony. Adam has a huge task, explaining to the world that his work is only slightly like the imaginary tea parties held by little girls. Alongside martial arts like Judo and Kendo, Sado was popular amongst Samurai as a way of doing things with excellence and effectiveness in the physical world, letting that way of being seep into your spirit, and be there whenever life required.

Kit Haselden is a Kiwi photographer, who I'm hoping will one day ask me to pose. Or at least ask my petunias. The thing thats unique about his photos is that the subjects look up at you like they are full of love. Kit and realness elicit that.
Lovely Chiaki is making a personal blog, sharing thoughts and information on how to adapt happily to a new country.

At the next workshop, you will learn how to do things like embed videos, personalize your blog. Its easy to let your aims get fuzzy, so we help each other get clear, visually and in what our final purpose is with our blogs and our activities. We will be looking at how to put yourself in directories, and make sure the right keywords are in the right place to get you found. So many secret things you just don't know unless someone clever like matthew tells you.
Its Monday from 1.30 - 4pm, $120, part-barter accepted. E-mail Cecilia if you think you should be there.

Eden on your balcony

Here is a site for your inner cubby-house builder. Balcony, verandah and other 'edge' gardens are just small enough for your to make perfect. The eden you create on your balcony is proof that there is hope for the world, and evidence that you are someone that makes a difference.

Of course its not easy - nothing worth while is. I have made a brilliant discovery: The person I am being when I am observing, creating, tending and harvesting, that is my best self. The skills and ways of thinking I need to bring a balcony dream to reality, these are overflowing to the rest of my life, making all sorts of impossibly lovely things happen.

Permaculture design, lateral thinking, Japanese tea ceremony. Networks of interdependence, not trying to 'go it alone'. When I get stuck, and remember to use these ways of thinking, things start to work, and blossom.

Reccommended text books for permaculture balony gardening:

Mrs Frisbee and the rats of NIMH

Pollyanna

Miss Rabbit and the Wandering Hedgehog

To start with, anyway.