liralen | Coraline and Gardening (Reply)

Jet and John went to see Coraline with me yesterday. We needed a break from stuff and wanted to see a movie, but Jet wasn't all that sure he wanted to see it.

And I was unable to come up with a particularly convincing argument for going or against, but John mentioned popcorn. So that worked.

Afterward, Jet said, "Mom, I don't really know if I liked it. It was kinda scary." And then he thought a bit. "But I did like the very beginning and the very end."

I can say that if you liked the book, you'll like the movie, I think. The Cat, in particular, moved exactly as I thought the Cat should move.

So Jet also liked the fact that Coraline went back to save *everyone*. He figured out that that really was what he liked best. That even though things were really scary, she did it anyway really made an impression on him and he thought that that was really good.

I have to admit that when the Other Mother really came out in all her steely shiny goodness that I thought Jet would be terrified, as there was another kid in the theater who wailed, "I'm too scared!!!" and they left. But Jet was okay with that. I was the one that was scared *for* him, but he took away some good stuff from it, too...

I really liked the animation, as it fit the story and how I see the story and McLean's style that I so often associate with everything Gaiman, that I was delighted. I really enjoyed the garden and Coraline's take on it and the Other Father... It was definitely all the more amusing to see both Fathers after having met Gaiman.

I believe he wrote the book for his daughter. *grins*

There were a number of things that were different than the book, but mostly small details. I have to say that I remembered the cheese omelet from the book so vividly that when it didn't show up I only noted it. What they used instead made sense in the context. I have to say that I really loved the movie and recommend it with the mild reservation that an eight-year-old found it scary; but not too scary, so that was good enough.

I had to giggle far too much at the whole Mom hates the dirt bit. As I've spent the last few days digging in the dirt.

The green onions have come up, and the tulips and irises and daffodils are all showing green, so it's time to start getting the vegetable garden ready and start planting things like peas, onions, carrots, and the cold weather vegetables, even though some of the nights are still getting down into the 20's. But the one bed that housed the sugar snap peas from last year was rock hard.

So I had to dig it up. Peas and beans do nitrogen fixing, too, and rather than move the pea climbers, I decided to just move the, hopefully n-fixed dirt, as the position is perfect for sugar snaps. It's all south facing, but the furthest back so that the runners won't block sunlight for anything else, but can run above everything else to get the sun.

I had to soak it all with water, then use a pitchfork just to loosen things up, and then I dug out a wheelbarrow's worth of dirt, put it into one of the looser beds, and then transfered that much dirt from that bed into this one. Then added buckets of compost from our compost bins, and turned it. My whole upper body is now telling me that it was a lot of work. *laughter* I am so sore it's pretty funny... but it's good, as I've been only doing bicycling for a while, so it was good to spread the work around.

Today is blowing like crazy... but I hope to plant at least the peas, onions, and carrots in the next week or so, with John's parents here while we're gone, there won't be any trouble with watering. So that should be good.

It was kind of fun to get dirty again. I didn't do that much gardening last year, with the lung thing bothering me, but this year I know it'll be good for me, so I'll just go for it.