Better late than never, right

[hrafn]

I've been on DW for years but only noticed this community existed today. Uh. Hi!

-Name you would like to go by: hrafn is good here; I'm Fjothr elsewhere.

-Present path or tradition: Ummmm that's a good question. IDEFK. "Norse-influenced free-range spirit worker"? I'm a Lokean. I worship a lot of other Norse gods and jotnar, plus land spirits, plant spirits, and various and sundry Others from 2 or 3 other pantheons.

-Interests: Plants, ecology, environmentalism, birds, bugs, science fiction & fantasy

-Age (not mandatory): mid-40s

-Brief Bio: Grew up in Oregon as an atheist in a non-religious family. Spent lots of time outside. Grew up, eventually ended up in the Boston area. Tried to get into architecture - got a degree and then the economy tanked. Got god-bothered in my late 30s, dropped atheism with surprisingly little struggle, and pretty much upended my entire life as part of that whole process. Moved back to the beautiful, comfortable, Pacific Northwest, which is Home, gave up on the architecture thing for good and have been working towards work with plants and landscape for the last several years, with much help from all of Them. I'm currently working at a garden center, which is LOADS better than desk work, but still not quite What I Want to Be When I Grow Up.

Comments

[finch]

Well hey there, you look interesting. =P

[hrafn]

LOL.

Seeing a couple friendly names in the members list encouraged me to show up.

[mdehners]

Welcommen! I've been a "Botaniphile" since childhood and Asatru since the early 90's. Been Organic Gardening since the 80's. Was big into Permaculture at my old place but my present home limits due to space. Since I've been avoiding news since 2016 I keep missing Frost Warnings this yr and won't know for a few more weeks how bad the damage to my (sub)tropicals, though my Dad's Lime tree is obviously damaged.
Cheers,
Pat

[hrafn]

My plant obsession errr passion really only got turned on in the last 5-6 years, though I've kept a few houseplants, and desired to do gardening/landscape work, most of my adult life.

Permaculture! Yes!!! One of these days when I can actually buy property I am going to put my knowledge there into action. I did a PDC a couple years ago, and I'm /aching/ to do work with the land in some fashion.

I moved to Central Oregon from Portland earlier this year, and early frost, and regular temps below 20, are things I've been learning to check the weather for. :| I have a lot of outdoor plants in containers and I'm kind of worried about our first winter out here.

[mdehners]

I generally drop the hardiness zone a level when growing in containers just in case....at leat the one's under 15 gal. My 'Matsumuto' Persimmon is containerized but it's hardy enough not to worry about no matter what the pot size. I got my 'Green Ischia' Fig this Fall to replace it due to it's bad performance(previous 3 yrs dropped all fruit, this yr got ONE) but the fig is so small I'll give it another yr.
If I knew what I know now I'd have containerized my Yuzu Lemon and Ugli Mandarin. Too much competition from the roots of the nearby Woods....
Cheers,
Pat

[jenett]

What places are Home is so fascinating, isn't it?

I'm a Boston area native who spent 12 years in Minnesota (which I also loved, though not the dead of winter parts) and nearly 4 years in rural Maine (which I'm glad I did, but glad to be done with now)

[hrafn]

Yeah. My last visit to the area my mom grew up in MN - where I spent some time on family vacations as a child - I learned that it is also Home, but not the same way as where I live now. And the part of Oregon where I live now is HOME in ways that even my actual home town area (which I still love and find comfortable) and the rest of the PNW is not.

I've never lived in this area before, but I feel at peace here like nowhere else.

Boston/Massachusetts/New England was /so/ uncomfortable and just subtly Wrong - even before I got god-bothered, I felt like I could just never connect to the land right. I wanted to love it, or at least like it, and I just could not. In retrospect, I think some of the issue may have been that the place/local spirits may have been trying to push me away, since I have spirits here who want me -here-.