Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Why The Second Garden?

Why the Second Garden? 

A few people have asked me how, or why, I came up with The Second Garden.  I gladly give the long or short version depending on how much time we have, or how busy The Garden is at the time. So here is the full version:

The House
The Library
Growing up, our family, like many families I'm guessing, gave names to the important places in our lives - the centers of family life.  And these names were almost always descriptive. We had Grandpa and Grandma's House, Cousin Geoffrey's House, our San Francisco home was 258. and when our family bought property in the Sierra Foothills of Nevada County it became The Land. And even on The Land, the different buildings we built took on names: we had The Library, The Cabin, The Shed, The House, The Barn.  I suppose the outhouse, was just "the outhouse" not "The Outhouse".  *Wait!* I take that back. Maybe it does merit capitalization.  It was a center of activity.  Ever seen a four seater bathroom? I kid you not!




The Barn

The Cabin















This trend of naming the places in our lives continued into young adulthood. Later we had Fair Oaks (sometimes called The Pink Palace), Shrader St, and - The Garden.

"The Garden" Created by Rachel Gerstein
258 took on this additional name when my cousins moved in. And it's stuck. It feels more inclusive than 258.  The Garden is home to four households and we all care for it and enjoy it.

Nice story. So why not just call it The Garden?

When it came time to name our wireless network, I called it, "The Garden". My first wireless network and it wasn't long before I had some major technical difficulties. I had to rename it. So that it would be easy for the household to recognize the new network, I renamed it, you guessed it, "The Second Garden".  Then when it came time to share my beer (remember, the beer came before the honey). 


I labeled it "Beer From The Second Garden". I felt I couldn't rightly call it "The Garden". How presumptuous would that be! But every time I tell this story, I feel a little bit more like I've got it backward. Out of all the gardens in the world, ours is the one that's second to Eden? Not likely. 

Well, with the birds chirping and the bees buzzing, laying on the grass, eyes closed, listening to the sound of the wind blowing through the palm fronds, it feels like it sometimes. So I'm sticking with it. And now "The Second Garden" begs a story and I like telling it. Besides, Second Garden Honey has a nice ring to it!


Carter put up this tile today.  The Pippenger's gave them to us months ago! Thanks, guys!


Stay Sweet!


3 comments:

  1. Nice story! Thanks for immortalizing The Garden sign--one of these days we should give it a little love. I see the G has lost its G-ness. I think it is worth mentioning that the sign itself was created almost 20 years ago (!!!), for the original Bacchanal in The Garden, when one of the aforementioned cousins was leaving to join the Peace Corps in West Africa...for those who want some other back story. :)

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    1. Yes, the Bacchanal is another story, and a great one! I'll leave that for others to tell.

      Andrea and I have talked about asking you to give the sign the love that it needs. No one else could do it right! Maybe next time you're down we'll see what we can do...

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