walking the dog Part I

I decided to like certain gardens. I like what I call French Colonial. This is where the garden, or nature, is taking over the house. It looks like at one point in time there was a plan, and even an execution of a plan, but the plants and vines and moss took over. I can see where the path used to be and where there was a planned bed for those shrubs, but now it is overgrown and dark there. The more creative people know what they are doing and put things in the garden for the plants to overcome; ie, shoes, tires, gnomes, pottery and other hollow things. 

One house I walked by had a definite fetish for birds. There were about five different feeders, and as Nanuk, my dog, and I walked by a tree was filled with small brown birds. For a moment I thought of letting my dog lose on the tree and watch the birds fill the air, but my dog is too unpredictable. 

A thought I had while walking was if I should write fiction or non-fiction. On one hand I love journalism and teaching people about my favorite subjects. If I didn't have a job, I'd be online all day reading the news and new blog posts and wish I was a little smarter to start my own blog. (note to self: learn to blog properly with links and smart things to say) On the other hand, I love fiction. I love telling stories and trying to capture moments in life. My head is filled to the brim with the beginnings of stories, character sketches and in some cases whole stories worthy of novel length. (note to self: learn to put these stories down on paper and to keep the fear of them sucking from stopping you) 

Then there's Upton Sinclair and John Steinbeck. There are probably more, but these two writers I know the best who did journalism like research and turn them into stories. Upton Sinclair's book The Jungle helped change laws about safety at the workplace. Does a novel about something very real change an opinion, or even help someone form an opinion? Does the fact that it is fiction remove the reality from it? When I read Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, I felt that it was too fiction and even though Steinbeck did a lot of research, the truth was behind the Joads' migration to Californ-I-A. This style of fiction would be the happy medium to my self-argument.

I love rain, but today the sun has made me change my opinion. I think the winter storm we had this winter gave me a new insight on warm spring days. It makes me believe old love songs.