Five Focused Gardeners

Every day has its highlights. My healing process can't really be measured in daily visible improvement to mobility, as the back brace feels just as snug, hot and restrictive today (no, I am not complaining!)as it did yesterday. Yes, the pain lessens and of course I gain some strength from physical therapy. My longtime (29 years!) good friend Antoinette came up this week from Massachusetts to help out for a few days and these precious visits from my buddies from near and far are truly the silver lining to the accident. Yesterday's highlight was the arrival of a team of gardening friends, Tracy, Nancy, Rosalie and Sharon who joined Antoinette for most of the afternoon to take care of all the deadheading and weeding I have been lamenting in the kitchen and shade gardens. While I of course could not participate and had to take a break to lie down they carried on cheerfully and energetically. Afterward I had the vicarious gratification of seeing the difference it made to have five focused gardeners at work for several hours. Low maintenance my gardens are not! But then, that has always been for me the pleasure of gardening, that mix of sensual experiences: the warmth of the sun, the subtle differences in fragrance of the plants up close, witnessing up close the insect and bird life, the physicality of the process. Like making art.
Bravo to Eva for her article in yesterday's paper! What a good writer she is: funny, irreverent, to the point. this was one of the best. I agree that our rescue had little to do with a miraculous event, it truly was the Matinicus Island Rescue Team (which basically includes everyone on the island as well as the flying service in Owl's Head who wants to get involved) From my perspective, it may not have been a miracle to have survived, but it was dramatic. In and out of consciousness after the rescue, I can recall only snippets of this part of the drama while the entire stretch of time we were in the water, including the moment of the crash, is etched in my memory. To know that I was in good hands when the islanders in their boats arrived is an understatement. While I do not live on Matinicus, I have known most of these people all my life, many since childhood, when our family first began to spend summers on Matinicus. For those so inspired there is a fund called the Matinicus Island Rescue, and as long as there continues to be a Post Office on Matinicus (that's the next story) a check could be mailed to the Matinicus Island Rescue Fund, Matinicus Island, Maine, 04851. This fund is used to buy the equipment necessary to carry out the kind of rescue the islanders recently so successfully carried out. Eva, please correct me if I am wrong in any detail, or have missed any crucial aspects of this! Truthfully, it had never occurred to me before to contribute to this fund, but of course that will now change, as soon as Bart and I sort out the insurance and financial aftermath of all of this.