A new planter box was donated to the thrift store last week. My gardening coworker Jesse (below, right) wanted to claim it for store use.
"Let's do it," I said, and volunteered cat-sitting money to buy plants.
Staff and customer opinions were split between support and scoffery:
"It'll only get wrecked."
"Probably," I agreed. "But let's do it anyway."
The exec. director agreed, so we did.
Doesn't my hair here ^ look like I did it on purpose?
Marz describes my usual style of dressing as "'Film Director': film directors show up on set looking like they've gone into a Clothing Randomizer booth and pushed a button."
Stanley Kubrick directing Barry Lyndon:
Jesse put the planter on rollers, so we can wheel it in at night for safe keeping. Still, sure enough, on the second afternoon someone took away the three geranium plants.
Annoying, but I'd be more upset if someone vandalized the planter--tipped it over, say. (Yet to come, probably.)
The experiment continues: another coworker said she'd buy us replacement geraniums.
I figure we'll lose, but as I'm always saying at work, "We know how this story is going to end anyway." Like, you can't lose if you know you're going to lose?
Well, yeah, you can, but in this case, the stakes are low so I don't care.
I'm going to try stuff along the way. Like faffing my Minnesota books section, now I've made display space.
I retrieved a plastic bag full of sticks that the housewares sorter had thrown away--on the bag was written "Lake Superior Driftwood."
I put the smooth and strange sticks in a couple glass vases.
The puzzle ^ of the Jolly Green Giant, the Niblet King of Minnesota, was made in China, but the stuffed Kanga & Roo was made in the state.
Written in pencil on the back of the photo :
Papa, Mama, and Ruth, St. Croix [river], 1911
II. Frederic, Year Three
Back at home, I brought up the Frederic potatoes from where they'd wintered in the basement (in a paper bag) and planted them.
Remember Frederic, the potato that'd sprouted in the thrift store when pandemic & uprising closed store in 2020?
I planted it that summer, and again the next summer, and now there are
eleven Frederics.
One had grown around a toy lion that was in the paper bag with them, unknown to me.
She brought a trowel, but it was claimed by the doll Jayne, so the humans dug by hand.
III. Tribbleations & Movie Making
Our Marz is making plans for a new adventure.
Can I say what it is?
Mmmmm.... not yet.
But the girlettes are in on it and yesterday we went to the creek--their favorite spot--and elevated tribbles in prayer that the plans will come to fruition.
(Tribbles provided by bink. They're pussy willow puffs.)
Before Marz goes, whenever that will be, we are going to make a little movie!
I haven't made a live movie in... OMG, can it be since 2009?
Eek.
I'd been on a roll, making several little live-action films with bink--as Fly Off the Wall Films*.
But I'd gotten so downhearted after I made a hash of A Very Herring Christmas (though saved by bink's adept editing), I stopped.
(I still made Star Trek fan-vids.)
bink, Marz, and I are meeting this evening to talk about our little movie. Marz made up a prompt:
"No. Peaches are not good for you." Said in a Romanian accent.
We've come up with a rough plot:
A young woman splits into two people after eating a peach that has rolled off a train at the grain elevators. [in my neighborhood]
She is reunified by a mysterious woman with multiple eye lenses (bink, inspired by her wonky vision she is still experiencing after being concussed a couple months ago).
But who is this old man with the Romanian accent and peaches? (played by our friend Chanto.)
OK, so that's the start.
__________________________________
*Geez, where even are the films Fly Off the Wall made?
Oh, here: the best two--the 32-second Peeps Blow Up, and The Disinherited (A Comic Sci-Fi Western) (5 min.--are on Vimeo,
and the others--including my first movie, Orestes and the Fly--(A Tragicomedy with Tapdancing), are on youtube.
Lovely post! I'll have to remember the film director style of dressing.
ReplyDeleteThe planter on wheels might be a surprise to everyone. At first there may be issues but usually the supporters end up keeping it going. If a plant would make someone happy in the neighborhood, that is a plus.
An idea might be to see what nurseries in the area do with plants that are getting close to their sell-by date. Sometimes all they need is a bigger pot and a little TLC.
Beautiful driftwood! I miss finding similar driftwood along the Potomac River.
Can hardly wait for the Marz reveal!
Kirsten
Exceptionally entertaining post! I love your displays always and the prices of stuff! WOW so cheap.Love your movies, what fun and the places where you did them. You could quit your job and be famous, you realize. Good to see the girls out and about potato-ing.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea..yes like you've found you lose plants...but as it goes in overnight you should be safer.
ReplyDeleteI love your displays! X
I remember when making 'The Duallists', both the Director and Producer (David Puttnam and Ridley Scott) turned-up wearing the most bizarre clothes. Back in the 30's and 40's Directors used to wear Jodhpurs.
ReplyDeleteThe Clothing Randomizer booth is a wonderful invention/alibi.
ReplyDeletePeaches *are* bad for you if your teeth are sensitive. Maybe you can work out a product placement deal with a discerning purveyor of dentifrice.
(On an iPad, and I can finally leave a comment.)
KIRSTEN: Now we've had a few days without anyone tampering with the planter. I have cautious hopes that will continue.
ReplyDeleteLINDA SUE: Thank you for enjoying the movies. LOL: I could be famous because I already have the right clothes!
Our store prices are pretty cheap alright. The neighborhood is poor. People come from all over though--some resellers from other cities swing through.
GZ: Thanks for saying about the displays.
I'm pretty sure the planter WOULD be trashed if left out overnight--not out of cruelty, but someone would sleep in it or something.
CRO: I must add some jodhpurs into my clothing randomizer options.
MICHAEL: Hey, there--nice to see you again!
I'll tell Marz you liked her invention. She always approves of The Leddy. :)
Ooh--I like the idea of incorporating teeth somehow. we've already got eye lenses (from a donation of old optical equipment.)