Day 518 Freewrite — Bark — It's Spring and the Garden is Coming to Life!

Time for Day Five of the 5-minute freewrite challenge issued to me by @fitinfun, and which I am now trying to keep up with for 30 days. It's not often I write to a "prompt;" in fact I can't recall doing that since creative writing classes some 30 years ago. But it's a good exercise to be sure.

I still expect some prompt to show up one of these days that I just won't be able to figure out what to do with!

If you are not entirely sure what I am doing here, "Five Minute Freewrites" on Steemit are the brainchild of @mariannewest, who's also the creator of @freewritehouse. It's a daily writing exercise, and well worth doing if you occasionally feel "stuck" on what to post.

I don't usually have that problem, but a challenge is a challenge!

Seagull on a lofty perch: Our neighbor's chimney

Day 5 — Five Minute Freewrite Experiment — topic: "Bark"

Spring has arrived, somewhat with a vengeance. It seems odd that just 8-10 days ago there were still little piles of snow around, and I was wondering if winter was ever going to end, this year.

And now it is spring, and it was 73 degrees a couple of days ago, and everything is suddenly coming to life and growing like crazy!

Around here, it means the beginning of gardening season. Among other things, we tend to grow a bumper crop of weeds — the gentle moist climate of the Pacific Northwest tends to do that — so this year we have determined that we are going to try to get as many of the beds clean of weeds as early as possible, and then we will lay down a thick layer of bark mulch to hopefully keep anything weed-like from growing.

I rather like using bark, because it also holds in the moisture during the dry season. Yes, I realize that may sound confusing to those of you who are only familiar with "the rainy Northwest" but it actually does get pretty dry here from June through September, and we tend to need to conserve water. So mulching beds actually becomes quite relevant.

I have always been rather fond of getting my hands in the dirt and growing things, and it is one of the activities I look forward to having more time for once we close down our shop at the end of June. Whereas I have really enjoyed being a shopkeeper, I have NOT enjoyed the part of it that has kept me cooped up inside during most daylight hours, for six days a week, for several years now. I really need my outdoor fresh air to feel entirely myself, and well.

(OK, so today the timer went off at the end of a paragraph, but NOT at the end of my train of thought.... but I shall follow the rules and make that my stopping point)

Purple heather, one of the few points of color in our yard,in the winter

Reflection on Today's Freewrite...

When I saw "bark," I thought I would write something about dogs, but then I remembered the bags of bark mulch in the driveway, and decided to strike out in a completely different direction.

I will say this about freewriting: When the timer is running, you have to keep your thoughts fluid and running. As a generally "slow thinker," that part of the exercise is probably really good for me.

Thanks for reading!

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(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190322 023:28 PST
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