Quaking (in Her Roots)

Mother Nature shaking it all up - earthquake edition.

Mother Earth is just shaking it up all over the place today. The breaking news of the morning was a 4.8 magnitude earthquake centered in western New Jersey, felt up to 300 miles away, and definitely 45 miles from Tewksbury here in Yorkville. Working from home, the entire apartment vibrated and lightly rattled, visibly moving. It was evident pretty quickly that it was an earthquake (and I got confirmations back on Facebook right away). Then at 6pm, a 4.0 aftershock - felt that one distinctly, too.

Not my first rodeo. First one was a legit California one when I was in my teens, circa 1991, on a family trip, in a sleeping bag on my uncle's living room floor, the dining room chandelier swaying before us, as my cousin came from his room and stood under the door frame. My second was around 2011, the last big east coast one - I was on a recruiting trip and not far from the epicenter.

So this one, all told, was not so bad. Back in 2011, another California cousin shook her head at the New Yorkers streaming into the streets - exposing themselves to the risk of falling glass. I told her that, tremors being rare here, when our buildings shake, we worry a plane has flown into it. Today, safe in my apartment, I knew it wasn't a plane, at least - some psychological comfort courtesy of post-COVID work changes.

In the domestic plant world, Mother Nature shook up some of my expectations - life and renewal, where I thought there was failure and death. 

Out in the Jardin, three young upstarts are leafing out from the roots of what I thought were a dead tricolor peach tree. In the small rosemary pot, where the original rosemary finally succumbed, I stuck a twig - that looks like it has hope of leaf buds? It looks a bit like a miniature rose twig; but maybe it's a rosemary twig? Must try to label better. Anyway, will wait and see.

Indoors, the petulant Thai lime. I really was quite good about watering this Winter. But midway through, the leaves just started to shrivel. I kept with regular watering, and it seems to be growing new, fresh chartreuse. Thank goodness.

In the bathroom was the morning's first surprise - before the earthquake rolled in. The jasmine that came in for Winter, and originally up atop the medicine cabinet where it lacked light and was hard to water, had, I thought, dried up and died, the soil hydrophobic. I gave up watering regularly, but threw a few drops here and there. But that shoot! That is definitely life trying to assert itself - hooray!

Happy for roots to dig deep and Mother Nature to shake me up with happy surprises🌱.