Monthly Archives: November 2015

I have hesitated posting this post, and was happy to see a new fan liking all the Scaping Cultures Interactive Gardening @ Pirates – 14 likes from one person in fact.  Sadly Scaping Cultures or rather the idea of it will remain an idea, and unfortunately this post is not going to be a happy one, but it has many lessons, which hopefully make up for it and will explain my lack of interaction over the holiday season and dedication to continue to do what I do at Pirates instead.  I really just want to make tea and paint pots, talk about herbs and medicines, share, enjoy, get a canoe… So here is the perspective I am at, in my journey.  It is easy to find small companies or people struggling and get a garden done and sorted for anyone who offers money for it.  However, I do not see myself sitting in traffic, rushing from site to site, never really doing any gardening for everyone else.  I need to farm my tisanes.  I am also not that attached to money or material possessions.

On a Friday Jess and I picked up a friend of mine,  some stuff, or ‘shit’ if I may, went down throughout the morning.  Jess and I ended up arguing outside the property, and a trigger was set off with one simple phrase in which I retaliated from my darkest place – instantly losing a new friend and business partner. Ironically I am grateful for it.  As many tears as I shed, I shed off years of aging that this nonsense already started…and I walk through Greenside back to Pirates, to clean up the beautiful mess I made.  It makes me feel similar to the way I felt when I tore up an amazing painting I did,  because it hurt someone I loved.

Don’t we usually all have this problem, at some point? Being unprepared, rushing in to keep our word to those who don’t keep theirs?  All for our name’s’ sake, for money?  Its funny that so many think money relieves stress – walking away from it has proven many times for me to be a far greater release.  Yet, a lack of money causes stress, and sacrifices people do not understand or ever speak of.  The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it, according to Henry David Thoreau.  I think our currency should be love, not money, simple kindness goes a long way.

I am one of those people who has worked so hard that I actually have 3 rows of callouses on each hand, who has been brutally honest, open, liberal, broken, misunderstood and completely dismantled throughout various expressions in art, poetry, and gardening. I have somehow got something on my side, as I managed to trade for land for a long enough period hopefully to create a tisane producing business. My focus will not be deterred again.  I have been swung by my dreams and collaborating them with the dreams of others, all because one must exchange money or become someone’s bitch or be ok with being suppressed as a child for space to sleep – this, unfortunately occurs on the streets amongst the homeless, in volunteer projects and also in larney people’s’ homes, depending on how psychotic they are or how long one stays.  I have failed in the art of making money but I have my freedom. I can eat very little, I can eat things you walk all over all day. I have put fractions of what I can do out there, scattered like stars, fragments of beauty that have inspired so many and I am still on my own.

I have noticed that those who try create other people’s dreams, as if they are their own, have clearly not been taught that the dream belongs to the dreamer…. if you try live someone else’s dream, it can become a nightmare. Everyone has their own demons to confront in such nightmares, even the dreamer that shared the dream – quite ironic ..

For all of the above reasons I am sticking to Art of Craft, and changing the name of the gardening facebook page again…. here it is if you are still not on the same page as me…. Art of Craft Interactive Gardening @ Pirates

Jess is a fantastic landscaper and designer, she is practical and uses all the materials, even the waste to its potential.  I have seen images of the transformation she is capable of managing.  Please contact her for your landscaping requirements on 083 336 5177

The about section on my facebook page for Art of Craft says – “Showing off skills as I acquire them, and make use of them in expressions of almost ANYTHING ;-) in an effort to educate and empower”.  These blog posts have and will continue to do this for many, its my path to sustainability in original ways.  Most people need to keep the blinkers on in order to survive or maintain sanity, I need to discard them, because once you see it is actually a painful experience to regress and put those blinkers on again.  Im sure that makes sense to a few people.

I have had wonderful times with volunteers, I learn alot letting people in, exchanging information.  People think I am paid lol or well off based on the perception that my expressions create.  I cannot change that.  I cannot lie or tell enough truth to convince those who judge me that they are wrong either.  I can only keep working this land, keep an open mind and heart toward those who enter.  Alot can happen in 3 years, but look at what happened in 7 months (all recorded in this blog) – so many highs, so much to indicate success and prosperity based on perceptions and still nothing constant or permanent, except for a few supporters and people who remind me never to give up.  Nothing is permanent, nothing is as it seems.  This is deeply and completely shit to a degree, but very much a part of the reason I continue regardless of dinner on my plate or not.  Thank you to all of these people.

I hope to see you again, in the garden ;-)

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Jess Ranking is a young landscaper, who volunteered in the Pirates Garden one day.   We have since, put our heads together and created Scaping Cultures.  Our pamphlet below says its all ;-)  We will offer a discount on quotations and reports, as a Chritmas gift to new clients from Wednesday 11 November 2015 till 15 December 2015.  Contact us for details.

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I assisted Jess, and some labor on a property with alot of random pots and we came up with the following results

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One of our next adventures is returning to the garden I started with the Suburban Farmer… these were the results, from when the couples’ dogs damaged the beds.  I am happy to report that some bits can be harvested already, and their new seedlings were delivered last week.  This garden is a garden that aims to achieve self sustainability, if not just juices for a family of 4, that does not mind sharing with their pets and neighbors ;-)

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WE LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU

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Energy captured, released…

Flowing through me

Each exchange entertaining flow

Far removed, almost in secret yet wide opened

I turned the keys

In came the sheep

The banshees

The bees

And way up in the trees the birds watched me…

Watched me weep, sweat and bleed

Watched me feed

Came close by and picked down at me

I looked into them…

Beyond the hollow veils within

Opened the gates

And walked away…

My heart sunk

And I reached for the keys

Seeing banshees and sheep

Under such beautiful trees

Gathered with the bees

And they picked at my heels

As I turned away through the hollow veils

Away from them

Closed the gate

And I wish I could throw away these keys…

Yet more keyholes appreared

And I turned the keys

Along came the bees

And the birds in the trees -

Shuffled and some came down

This time to smile…

Together for a moment we weep, sweat and bleed

Together for a moment we feed

Looking into each other

Beyond the hollow veils within

Opening gates

My heart SOARS and sinks still…

As I reach for any keys

Any reason

Anything REAL

…And the birds went away

The bees are up in the trees

I walk away battered

Shaken

Greatful and IN UTERO

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