February 1, 1998   I've been going through some of my gardening books and it's got me daydreaming about gardens again. One of my favorite things to do is set up dream gardens in my imagination, plan out what things I'd like to do if I had unlimited resources. My mind fills with wisteria-covered arbors, large ponds with Victoria waterlilies (the giant waterlilies with the huge pads one can stand on if a board is placed underneath), little iris-lined streams with round bridges curving over them, secret nooks with swings and climbing roses, stone lanterns and lawns of moss with stone trails through them, little ponds everywhere with lots of lotus and waterlilies and so on.     I'm feeling very slow and lazy and kind of dreamy right now. Tonight we went out for dinner at Mark's favorite Chinese place. I had an eggroll and an order of potstickers and nibbled at his Sweet and Sour Chicken. Delicious. We were both feeling tired and quiet--we chatted a little bit and mostly gazed out the window at the rain-wet trees twinkling darkly under the parking lot lights, sitting in companionable silence. Last night I re-read Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax Pursued, tonight I'm leafing through gardening books.     Mostly right now I'm thinking of the pleasures of puttering around in a garden. The feel of sun on my head and dirt beneath my fingernails, The silky coolness of water on my hands as I would pinch dead leaves off of my waterlilies, the smell of warm earth and growing things. Sitting and drinking in the round shapes of lily pads floating on glassy water, pinching snapdragons to make them open and close, stroking water sensitive plants to watch their leaves fold up. Sitting for hours in the garden, writing or thinking or reading, and watching as a lotus blossom slowly opens, each new shape it creates as it opens a new delight. The childlike joy and wonder of seeing plants I've nurtured grow a little bit more each day. Weaving morning glory vines through a piece of lattice, coaxing them up poles. I get extremely sappy just thinking about gardening.     And each year I learn a little bit more--I love learning. I think that if I hadn't become a photographer, and if I had also not chosen to try to become a rocket scientist or something like that (which would have been my second choice when I was in high school--well, after becoming a pilot, that is, which I also didn't do), I would have liked very much to be a horticulturist. I only realized this after college, though, with my first garden.     There is so much about plants and hybridization which fascinates me. I love working with plants and want to keep learning about them, because although I know a lot about water plants, there's still tons to learn about them and other plants (which I only know bits and pieces about). I once had a fantasy about someday opening a small nursery for waterplants. I doubt I'll ever do that now, but it was a lovely dream. Because I find I enjoy even the icky chores related to watergardens. Well, most of them. Fish parasites freak me out.     Today I felt like trying some more necklace and throat shots since I liked how the ones yesterday turned out so much. Today I used my green cloisonné koi necklace and my antique topaz necklace. The koi necklace is supposed to be good luck, and its body is hinged so it can twist back and forth--it's really neat. I found it in Chinatown in Chicago with my sister a few years back, along with a couple others.     And the antique topaz necklace I found in a little shop in Boulder, Colorado when Kazumi and I were out exploring one time when she came to visit me. I adored the necklace, so I bought it for myself as a birthday present--that would have been my 22nd birthday. The stones are beautiful--the top one is a medium orange, the two middle ones are slightly lighter orange and matched, and the bottom stone is a darker, deeper orange. I wore it on my wedding day when I married Mark, along with my pale green, lace dress and my soft, dark, olive green kimono.     So tonight I wore a couple of my favorite necklaces, and one of my favorite robes, a light sage silk kimono-robe, and tried to get some pictures somewhat similar to the ones I took yesterday. They were pretty different, of course, which means I'll probably do this yet again sometime. And I tried to get some shots which showed the necklaces fairly well, so I could show them in here. Kinda so-so, still haven't figured out best distances for that awful lens. Someday.     I think I'm going to just save talking about this month's title until tomorrow, but I will tell why I changed to a black background. Mostly I was just dying for a black background to rest my eyes and because most of my favorite font colors look so much better on black. They just glow. And I've been wanting to play a lot more with silly little things with font colors. So, since I no longer need white for the clipart I used to use so much, since my photographs look better on black anyway, and since I want to play with font colors, I decided to finally use a black background. I'll use white ones again sometime in the future.         virtual museum Lotus II Chan Man   fortune  Your life will soon be graced with the presence of stardom. (That was Mark's fortune from dinner tonight.)       Indian names Andrew's Indian name is.... Mellow Dolphin   neat site The Victoria waterlily page is put up by the International Waterlily Society (another extremely cool site), and has lots of interesting info about Victoria waterlilies, along with lots of pictures, and links to Victoria waterlily stuff on the web.   watergarden dreams... Victoria waterlily Victoria waterlilies are gigantic tropical waterlilies native to South America. Their leaves are so large (up to eight feet in diameter) that one can stand on them, provided a board is placed underneath to help support the leaf. Their blossoms are proportionally similar in size, roughly cabbage-sized. Oh, how I would love to grow one of these someday, but one needs a pretty large pond to do so and I'm not sure we'll ever make such a large pond. Although they can be grown in smaller ponds, I believe, they just can't reach full size that way. So maybe I will someday.     quote "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." --Pablo Picasso   All night long listening to autumn winds wandering in the mountains --Basho       special occasion Happy Birthday, Bronwyn! I hope this year is the best yet. You're only 19 once, so take advantage of it and remember to take time out to enjoy it. Happy 19, Bronwyn!         slice of life     Bronwyn also collects cards--I've collected cards since I was little. I love the one she shows here, it's so neat.   cliff notes I thought since very few people check out the about page or read the archives, it might be nice to put some info in right here for new readers. Perhaps not everyone has discovered the Secret Bat Cave entrance, which is a low-graphics index of the most recent entries for people who check back and reload often to check for updates. I also have a notify list right now for people who want to be informed each time I update this journal. And the name of my journal can be confusing, so I'll try to clear that all up here, too. The name of my journal is Dreaming Among the Jade Clouds. Just that. "Ginkgo's Online Journal" is just purely informative, for search engines and people who wander in lost. "What is this?" "It's my online journal." But the name or title of the entire journal is simply Dreaming Among the Jade Clouds. And each volume in this journal has it's own title, so February is called Floating on a Twilight Lake, one volume in Dreaming Among the Jade Clouds--kind of like chapter titles, see? So each month has a new title, but the journal itself, as a whole, will always be Dreaming Among the Jade Clouds.

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