Often on my blog and at Blotanical I’ve referred to Moosey, or Mary as she is not often known, and her wonderful website at www.mooseyscountrygarden.com where I have over the years contributed to the forum.
Let me start by stressing that this is in no way a commercial website. Its origins lie shrouded in the mist of time, long before blogging was common. She happened to have, in no particular order, a son who was into programming, a love of gardening, children spread across the world with whom communication was important, a journal-istic streak and a healthy dose of chutzpah. And a camera. One thing led to the next, forums were introduced to the family site and gradually Moosey’s became the modern equivalent of a French salon or a Greek acadamy. Over the years many gardening friends from around the world have met there, and no amount of one-on-one blogging gives the sense of community which Moosey’s at its best does. At its heart remains Moosey’s daily journal – a humourous, chatty, self-depreciating record of (mainly) her life in the garden. Go take a look.
Some two years ago she made the following comment on one of the forums: “My latest ‘scheme’ is to build a stone tower which looks out over the pond… I am scared by the process and trying to be sensible – will I have the long-term stickability to get the tower finished? Hee hee. WATCH THIS SPACE…” Well the tower didn’t happen, but recently she spent her first night in Pond Cottage, the progress of which we had heard about on and off for months. That set me thinking about something I had written in response to her tower plan… At the time I was intrigued by the extraordinarily vivid picture in my head which made me write this little story…
Meanwhile I had been thinking about writing about Moosey here. But the deciding moment was when I found the ‘picture in my head’ in a book I hade not seen for 15 years… (And thereby also hangs a tale I shall not tell now!)
Here then is the story as I told it back then. It gave me great pleasure at the time, and it does so still now, and I think I’ve figured the moral: it really does have something to say about the Amazing Moosey and her site!
Moosey’s Tower… it sounds like the name of an art movie. Here’s the plot: a rather strange lady, quite shy, musical, an animal lover and avid gardener, achieves fame beyond her wildest dreams through a smash-hit website created by her webgoof son. Terrified of all the fame, she starts to build a stone tower in her garden, intending to lock herself away from her fans. But word gets out, and one of her goofiest fans starts an international ‘send-a-rock-to-Moosey’ campaign. Soon the local postal service is having to acquire huge trucks to deliver the avalanche of stones arriving from around the world. Being at heart an extremely nice and considerate (if, as we said, rather strange) lady, she feels duty-bound to add every stone to her tower, and her life becomes a dizzying spiral, up and down the stairs of her never-to-be-completed project…
There must be a moral, but I don’t know what.
February 4, 2011 at 10:53 pm
What a delightful illustration! That little princess would make an Olympic athlete … Moosey was where we met, years ago now.
February 4, 2011 at 11:18 pm
True, Diana! And although some of my Moosey friends comment on my blog, you are the only one with your own blog… and a fellow-South African, nogal!!
February 5, 2011 at 6:02 pm
What a delightful story! I had not met Moosey (until now). And thanks for your lovely comment on my blog.
July 26, 2012 at 5:05 am
[...] I had just spent my first 7 months gardening professionally again after leaving teaching. (In the late 90s I gardened professionally in Johannesburg.) It started with a bang on a huge project which fizzled dramatically and left me out of pocket the equivalent of 2 months teacher’s salary, which it took 3 months to get from the client. From there on I did some interesting stuff, but never really found it financially viable. I’ve looked at that first year’s posts at Moosey again: there are two non-descript pictures of work projects, the rest are still mainly about my garden. I started the blog to promote my ability as a gardener and garden designer. The second blog I had intended to start on my projects never happened. I have found my post at Mooseys, written when this blog was just 10 days old, explaining the need to have my own blog because I was now ‘writing with an agenda’. By the way – I pay tribute to Moosey in what I think is one of my best bits of writing EVER over here! [...]