A collection is so intensely personal. I have known people with collections of teapots, Toby jugs, ruby glass, antique corkscrews, china owls, salt-andpepper shakers, toy penguins, thimbles, Victorian toy trains, Christmas tree ornaments, dolls, watches, pens, champagne glasses, odd keys and chocolate wrappers. The collections all have one thing in common: they tell a story. As the collector picks up an item or points it out to describe it to you, she will say something like, ‘Now, I found this when I was …’
A collection may be worth a lot of money, but its true value is measured by the creative pleasure you gain from it, and the satisfaction you get from the absorbing activity of collecting itself, the way it acts as a record of your emotions and experiences over a long period of time – perhaps your whole life.
Pretty soon your collection will be the inspiration for the gifts you get for birthdays and Christmas, until you’re known simply as ‘the frog lady’ or ‘the guy with all the 78 records’ or ‘the woman with all the 1920s powder compacts’ (that’s me). Collecting gives you a sense of continuity in your life that is deeply soothing and reassuring. There are no pressures. You don’t have to add to your collection every day, nor do you need to seek out new additions by a deadline.
Half the pleasure of adding something new to a collection comes from finding the item in a place you never would have expected. An ordinary day suddenly becomes ‘the day that you were driving back from dropping the kids at band camp, when you suddenly noticed …’ A collection might even prompt you to take new paths you would never have otherwise taken. After years of collecting first editions of books just for the pleasure of it, my grandfather moved into a business selling antiquarian books and maps – a byway he had not previously considered.
‘Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself?’ asked author Henry David Thoreau over 150 years ago. Thoreau wrote widely and poignantly on the subject of the earth’s seasons and rhythms, and of the importance of living in harmony with Nature’s laws. Any gardener will know what he meant – every garden is a reminder that everything flows and changes, that nothing stays the same, and that living things lean towards the light in order to grow.
No wonder gardeners are among the sanest, kindest and most well-balanced people you will ever meet. Gardening also teaches you that, no matter how upset or stressed you are, the smell of freshly turned earth can put things in perspective once more. Even the smallest garden-in-a-jar – like this strawberry pot – serves as a three-step mini meditation. First, in the planting and preparation; secondly, in watching the plants grow; and thirdly, in your looking after it. As with every relationship, the more caring, mindful and noticing you are, the greater the return to you.
Strawberries are beautiful and delicious; they are also extremely decorative and easy to grow in special terracotta or earthenware strawberry planter pots. The pots are available in garden accessory shops and nurseries, along with punnets of ready-to-plant strawberry runners.
Line the base with small stones or gravel to facilitate drainage. Fill the container with a good quality potting mix, forking through some compost as you go. Insert a strawberry plant in each opening in the pot, and fill the top of the container as well. Allow the runners to hang down and root in the openings, instead of being supported, so they appear to climb. Take a minute to water your planter pot daily – the little pockets do dry out rapidly. Pinch off a berry or three and treat yourself.
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