best laid plans

What is it about calendars and daytimers that leads us to believe that we can plan everything? Weekdays are for working and weekends for everything else, right?

I'd had in mind to do some planting this past weekend, but nothing in my planning anticipated rain -- and lots of it. A friend in the northwest has slickers, boots, rubber gloves and who-knows-what-else to enable her to slog through mud and more in her pursuit of her hobby, but not I. Nonetheless, I managed to sneak in a few chores between showers.

Friday I took myself to a nearby nursery where I became lost in the sounds, scents and textures of the early growing season. I had a color scheme in mind when I arrived -- even had a list so I'd remember, but once confronted with a rainbow assortment of pansies... Three color combos later, I'd decided on warm colors to stand out and hold their own in the brightest summer sun and against a red brick wall. And I couldn't leave without tomato plants: Early Girl and Sweet 100. Add those to a yellow pear tomato that a friend gave me last week, and I'll be enjoying home-grown in just a couple of months.

Plans aside, the afternoon was pure heaven and just what I needed. Saturday, not so much.

The first of two rainy days, it was a dance between cloudy skies and unexpected soakings. During one of those drier intervals I managed to clean and rearrange the balcony in anticipation of the really dirty work out there. And finally when the sun broke through late on Sunday, I was able to get some pansies into two hanging pots. More to do, but that will have to wait. I expected to continue next weekend, but forecast teasers hint at more unsettled weather. Memo to self: check out rain gear for everyday walking and unsheltered gardening.

One benefit of rainy days is the excuse to catch up on movies and books. Cleaning never even makes the list. I finally had the chance to see "The Gleaners and I." I've mentioned this documentary before. Agnes Varda filmed pickers and gleaners throughout France. From all walks of life, their reasons ranged from economic necessity and homelessness to an eye for beauty, worth and meaning in stuff that others have tossed or left behind. Still others combined their frugality with strong opinions about needless waste. What they all saw was potential.

Having a plan certainly played a role in the lives of the gleaners that I saw in Varda's film. There was a street-wise and seasonal savvy that informed their routes and timing. Perhaps a sense of what they needed also influenced what they found as they scanned the pickings, but more at play was a kind of opportunism. Plan too closely and we could miss opportunities that present themselves ... even come up empty-handed and disappointed.

Planning and potential. Focused and open. I guess my weekend wasn't so bad even if it didn't go according to plan. I gleaned the best from what came my way and will have the chance to do the same in just a few days. More important perhaps is the potential for practicing this philosophy each and every day.


Check out "Gleaners" at http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com.