I Found the Answer in a Used Bookstore
It’s happened before. When I walk into a place, I never know what questions are floating around in my mind.
My eyes scan the shelves. It’s kind of like perusing a menu. Am I hungry for history? Maybe politics or a book on freezing food. Finding the category of the moment is the first challenge. In used bookstores there are so many delightful morsels to choose from.
Well, the other day in Provincetown, the answer to my unasked question was gardening. In a small but crammed shelf I found a grand old book. It’s A History of Gardens and Gardening by Edward Hyams.
It’s chock-full of information from stone age gardens, through Greece, China, Japan, Dar-al-Islam, into pre-Colombian gardens in North and South America, Europe in the Middle Ages, and later Islamic, English, and French gardening. It is just the element I needed to deepen my understanding of the task I took on when I decided to “let it all to grow.” And to write about my experiences.
This is what I’ll bring into the fall and winter to expand Digging the Learning Curve from an interesting series of photos and blog entries into something more.
Used bookstores have often guided me. It’s a shame that places — where the idea of recycling is second nature — are disappearing.