There’s a cliche that says time moves faster as you grow older. The cliche certainly holds true for me; I cannot fathom that 2008 is half way over already. Hell, I can’t believe that I’m in my 40s already!
This morning, I started wondering if that syndrome has anything to do with why gardening is a hobby that seems to have a greater appeal to an older demographic. When I was a kid, plants seemed to grow and mature at an agonizingly slow pace, glacial, even. Continental drift, I’m saying. Now? It seems like I can see more changes in the yard with every passing day. Each morning I see something new in the yard, or I reach new conclusions about what’s working and what isn’t.
The current enthusiasm for watering seems to be paying off dividends for the bamboo and the small raspberry. There’s lots of fresh green growth and little baby raspberries.
We’ve also planted a tiny plot with some wheat grass and some catnip. My hope is that the cats will develop a fondness for that area, and will be less likely to throw up wheat grass, compared with the daily deposits of bile and mundane grass that they are leaving me.
I think you are dead on with the theory of geezer gardening. Didn’t some kid call you Grandpa the other day?
I dunno about the gardening thing; I was pretty into it as a child, but only my grandmother would allow me to plant and pick things (actually, picking things was considered a chore I might get praised for doing.) Now, only monetary limitations, spousal negotiations, and a vague fear of offending my neighbors limits what I can do to an entire yard of my own. Now, where did that set of Massey-Ferguson tractors with working attachments go…
About time:
When I was a kid I theorized that grownups thought time went faster because they had long lists of stuff that they were allowed to do or had to do, while I spent slow time waiting to be allowed to to the next thing (which often involved waiting for grownups to be finished.) Grownups slowed down to my time while in line or in waiting rooms; I sped up to their time when I was doing something I wanted to do, or when I had too much homework.
On the other hand, my mother used to say that as a little girl I “acted like a 40-year-old woman all the time,” so maybe I’m just weird.
And good luck with the cat vomit. Mine throws up carpet lint.