About

Mature Landscaping began as a meditation on aging from the point of view of a leading-edge Boomer with a background in psychology. My husband and I had retired together into the teeth of The Great Recession, a move not to be recommended, but, I thought, probably instructive for the big wave of retirees coming along behind us.  The impetus was a For Sale sign in the front yard of our home of the last twenty years; the sign was a necessary first step in accepting our age and downsizing before it became too late.  The sign lasted six months; the blog, I hope, for considerably longer.  It turns out that I had a writing itch that had just been waiting to be scratched.

The title comes from a feature of real estate listings: when a home is older, with overripe foundation plantings and garden areas that have grown nearly too complex to maintain without a lot of work, the realtor's spin is to say that the home has "mature landscaping."  We've resigned ourselves to slaving away at biomass reduction for a few more years, since homes aren't selling here on the Southeast Coast.  In fact, most of our time, when we are here, is spent on the maintenance of house and yard.  Sometimes we pout about it, but it's useful work and not yet illegal.  As an incidental pun, I had also begun a six month challenge to vote with my fork by assuming a vegan diet...struggling with biomass, indeed.  When the challenge ended, I returned temporarily to omnivorousness, found it no longer suited, and have adopted vegetarianism--largely veganism--for the long haul. It saves money.

ML has allowed me to indulge my political opinions, tout my addictions to quiet British films, non-fiction, the history and evolution of religions, neuropsychology, and the work of some favorite fiction authors.  I'm seriously obsessed with 19th Century naval history and the works of Patrick O'Brian.  I tend to think and write in the rhythms of his Aubrey/Maturin series and in Austen-speak...salted with the kind of bad-girl language that feminists of the seventies adopted to feel bigger and stronger.

I've shocked my friends and family from time-to-time here.  I know I've made them laugh and I hope I've helped them find themselves in some of my self-revelations.  I have a diverse and smart bunch of Followers whose commentary thrills me.  I'm particularly pleased to have young readers as well as my peers; they've stumbled onto the truth that they may go this way themselves...and sooner than they would like.  I hope to tell them the truth about being old, the good and the bad, without inflating the former or just bitching about the latter.

You are most welcomed here.  I can't know you've visited unless you drop a line in the Comments section by clicking on the Comments line in the footer at the bottom of each post.  You needn't have anything pithy to say...just "I was here!" will do.  And Anonymous comments are just fine, but I do tend to get just a little argumentative when a comment states the opposite of my opinion and, yet, somehow belongs to Nobody. Better to leave a name if you disagree because that lends your argument more weight; then, others who agree with you and disagree with me might feel empowered to speak up.  Who knows?  You might even change my mind.  If your commentary is ugly or inappropriate, however, I will delete it; as Bobby Brown said before they took him away, "It's my prerogative."