The tools? Paper, pencil, measuring tapes, and because the ground's frozen state will not allow me to drive stakes in as markers, a willing husband. He held one end of the measuring tape while I held the other and carefully recorded each measurement for later use.
So translating design ideas into writing may not be as seamless for me as I expected … at least not if my goal is to convince someone that they desperately need my ideas over another designer. Those who have followed this blog before know that I'm taking a landscape design course. It's a long sought goal for me to have a real piece of paper designating me certified as a landscape designer. Those new here can catch up with my previous posts.
I've been following the yellow brick road through the AutoSketch forest, where apple tossing tree symbols and a wicked witch of the west (the instructions, not my instructor), cackling 'You must follow these directions exactly, my little pretty!' tried to thwart my progress to the Emerald City (completing the AutoSketch training module) and my meeting with the Wizard (completing the drawings for Lesson 3 of my landscape design course). The good witch, Glinda, was right. Ruby slippers did not let me down. Yes, I had a slight setback – the witch's flying monkeys swooped down and threw a slight hitch into my computer when I was installing the pdf writer necessary for converting the skf files of AutoSketch to pdf files. But my trusty traveling companions– the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, that lovable Cowardly Lion, and of course Toto (I'll leave my family members to guess who is who) – came to my rescue and let me be so I had time to complete lesson 3 before the hourglass ran out. And in spite of the witch's roadblocks, and the Professor/Wizard's hot air balloon releasing into the stratosphere unexpectedly early, my ruby slippers brought that little bit of magic that allowed me to find my way back to Kansas … which, in my case, involved turning the page to lesson 4.
One of the best aspects of learning comes when you are able apply lessons learned to things near and dear. I was able to do this in one of the first lessons in my landscape design class. The assignment: learn the meaning of many of the epithets – the second word that adds some sort of descriptor to the first (genus) botanical name. Cool … I always wanted to be better versed in botanical names. So I headed for my stack of plant magazines, then my notebook of info about the plants in my own gardens, and started my list.
The gardening bug bit me years ago, and ever since I've tried to absorb as much gardening-related knowledge as my brain can hold. Gardening helps channel my appreciation for painting from a pallet of beautiful colors. It fills my need to soak up outside air, sounds, and sun. It allows me to decorate my home with the freshest bouquets of blossoms, branches and leaves, and load my family's plates with delicious, home-grown produce.
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