There are some weeks
When the words and ideas
Just flow.
This is not one of them.
So I think I’ll just take you on a photo tour
From my morning walk
Through my garden.
Enjoy the week.
Gail
WAITING FOR MY MUSE
Filed under Columbine, Japanese Tree Peony, Parrot Tulips, tulips, Uncategorized
A Gift
Like most “mid-century” baby boomers
I spent a lot of time outside
While I was growing up.
That’s understandable
Since I grew up on a farm.
After school and summers
Were spent outside.
My favorite memories are sheep related.
Thoughts of walking into the pastures
Bringing in the sheep each night
Along with annual sheep shearing
Still bring a smile to my heart.
My growing up wasn’t all that different from my contemporaries.
Friends who grew up in town
Talk about playing in the neighborhood till dark
Everyday.
Over the span of the decades
Things have changed.
So it’s fun
When you get a call like I did on Saturday.
It seems that Lily and her father had been out gathering ladybugs
Successfully.
And she had grown attached to them.
Now we all know what will happen to captured ladybugs.
They just aren’t meant to live in captivity
And they won’t for very long.
So after a day or two Lily’s mom, Jami
Finally convinced her to set them free.
Luckily for me
They decided my backyard would be a perfect home.
Lily was very careful as she set them free.
Placing each ladybug gently on a leaf
So that they would hopefully find food and shelter.
Her brother William had not really bonded with the ladybugs
But he like many children loved exploring the garden
Going up and down the paths.
It takes awhile to say goodbye to friends.
But ultimately each ladybug had been safely escorted
To a new home.
Lily, William and Jami went on about their Saturday.
I went back to my weeding
The sun set on another glorious spring day.
Why do I mention this.
Because I know all that nature has taught me.
I also know how important it is to let children
Roam in nature
To learn the lessons it has to offer.
One of those lessons is knowing when to let go.
Knowing that there may be a better place for something
Than the plan we had for it.
Lily will take that lesson with her
Buried deep within her memory
Of a Saturday of her youth.
Gail
Here are a few pictures of the “budding of the season”,
Filed under Uncategorized
FPC Good News Easter Egg Hunt v.4
This spring has been out of sync.
It started early
February early!
Late on the sunny afternoon of February 21st
When I finished pruning my roses
Earlier than ever in my gardening history
I was thinking to myself.
I’m off to a great start.
I’ll actually get ahead of the weeds this year.
About that time I stepped on something in my path
And heard a pop as I went down.
My first broken bone – ankle
Was accompanied with the first use of my Medicare card!
Last week a month of this
Finally ended.
On Thursday the next two generations arrived
For Easter weekend.
For obvious reasons
Ie 20 month old twins
Elliott, Kristina, Harper and Henry
Don’t come this way often
So I’m grateful they enjoy
An early spring visit
It’s especially fun that they get to join in
For the adventure of The Good News Easter Egg Hunt V.4.
I’ve not been able to do a single thing in my garden.
I thought I would after a few weeks,
But I was wrong.
Thankfully, my friends Carrie and Torry
Accompanied by Cassidy and Sloan
Came a few weeks ago
And cut back all the dead.
It tidied up the place nicely
Giving the green a better chance to spring out of the ground.
A little rain helped even more.
But it also fed the weeds.
And I do mean weeds – Henbit, Dandelions and PoAnna
Like I’ve never seen.
Fortunately, along with that Medicare card
Comes perspective.
None of the hundred plus people who came on Saturday
Mentioned the weeds.
Harper certainly didn’t notice as she made endless trips
Up and down the path
And in and out the garden house doors.
Henry didn’t care one bit about the state of the garden
As long as he had dirt to play in
And a birdbath to explore.
Thankfully twins seem to come with parents
Who are not overprotective
And let them be kids.
And speaking of kids
More than ever came this year.
Including the church’s new Girl Scout Troop
Members
And their extended families
So what have I learned through it all?
What I all ready knew.
No one sees the weeds but me.
They are part of life
They are life.
And what a life it is.
On Sunday
We sat in the “squirmy section” of church
Rows of kids with parents
And grandparents.
Midway through the worship service
The grandfather in front of John
Picked up Harper’s pacifier
And handed it back to John
With the knowing grin
Of the common bond of grandfather’s love.
Easter – Spring – Rebirth
God’s amazing love is all around.
Especially in the weeds.
Happy Easter,
Gail
Filed under Easter Egg Hunt, Grandchildren, Uncategorized, Weeds
A GENTLE ENDING
I’ve often wondered
What my garden would be like
If I lived in a place
Where it doesn’t freeze.
Would my garden just keep going
Or would it give itself it’s own “time out”?
Put itself to sleep?
Now I know.
Here we are in the middle of November
And still no freeze.
Not even a hard frost.
My garden has slowly
Quit blooming.
I’ve made my last arrangements for church.
Cassidy & Sloan helped me pick all the green tomatoes.
Who knew they doubled as sun glasses!
Pesto is made
And the peppers have been picked.
Some are drying
Others are seeded and frozen.
Most of the bulbs are in the ground
But there are still blooms.
This is the one time of the year
That annuals in my garden
Show more colors than the perennials.
It’s made for a very confused front door.
Summer’s annuals
Next to fall’s pumpkins
And if you look closely.
You’ll see the Christmas lights
Have been put in place
By the very busy light installers.
I’ve often said that I like living in a place
With four distinct seasons.
I learn something from each season
Patience waiting for it all to begin in the spring.
Perseverance in the heat of the summer.
And appreciating the glory of fall’s slower pace.
Even winter – my least favorite – has it’s moments.
And on this weekend of sadness around the world.
I know from the winters of my life
That light will overtake the darkness.
See you in the spring.
Gail
Filed under Uncategorized
END OF THE SEASON
The season is winding down.
Normally by now we’ve had cold nights
If not a freeze.
But not this year
The garden is just slowly putting itself to bed.
Much more gentle
Than a harsh cold wintry blast for the north.
I’m enjoying it
Picking a smattering of blooms
For my last church bouquets of the season.
And burying an undisclosed number of bulbs.
Thankfully I have help in the bulb burying department.
It wasn’t any ordinary help.
Somehow the princesses from last night’s trick or treating
Became worm loving giggly girls this afternoon.
In my experience
It’s rare that you find little girls who love worms.
Cassidy and Sloan not only love them
They name them.
Meet Earthy
Actually, oddly enough
Every worm we dug up
Was named Earthy.
Apparently a common name for earthworms.
Then there was the dirt – sorry Daddy soil.
It turns out refilling a trench
Laden with tulip bulbs
Can be very entertaining
When you’re a six and eight year old princess
Who happen to love earthworms.
There is still much to do in the garden
You can tell by the state of my garden house.
Lilies, Grape Hyacinths and Alliums bulbs to be planted.
Amaryllis to be potted up
More Tulips and Pansies for the garden path.
And then planting the big pots with lettuce for early spring.
It will all happen
In good time
Hopefully with giggly earthworm loving girls.
Gail
Filed under Uncategorized
WINDING DOWN
Normally at this time of year
I’m praying for a freeze.
Not so this year.
The days are so glorious
That the garden is still showing color
Even if just a bit here and there.
I have a few events in early November
I’d like to have flowers for.
Thus the hope for a late freeze.
We’ll see…I’m not in charge here.
This weekend I did pull the zinnias
They had slowed their bloom
To a snail’s pace
And were so covered with mildew
That it was definitely time to go.
Besides the monarchs seemed
To have moved on to Mexico.
So I don’t feel guilty about
Pulling them up.
Fall is also a good time for review
Now, I’m not one for favorites.
Really who can pick a “favorite”
And leave all the others behind.
Certainly in a perennial garden
Favorites are impossible
Since something new is always coming into its own.
But there were two things that did really well this year.
One is perennial.
Annabelle Hydrangea was new to me.
Yet it’s a very old plant.
It’s bloomed since early summer.
They begin white.
Turn green.
And are still holding on.
Amazing.
The other is an annual.
At least here in zone 7.
It’s Heliatrope.
I used it several years ago in containers.
This year I put it the ground
At the entrance to the backyard.
It’s been extremely happy there.
It’s not easily found around here.
Wish I was better at taking cuttings.
And I’d try to save it.
Who knows…I may give it a try.
With the blooms fading
I don’t have as many pretty pictures to share.
I’ll just have to include pictures
Of Coco
Trying out Cockscomb for earrings.
And of course.
The world’s most adorable grandchildren.
Enjoy this glorious fall.
Gail
Filed under Uncategorized
BUGS – BUGS AND MORE BUGS
For the past week
A spider has been entertaining me
Building a web outside my kitchen window.
I’ve tried taking a picture
From every angle
Inside and out
This is the best I’ve gotten.
You’ll just have to take my word for it.
This spider is dedicated
Working on sunny days
Keeping me fascinated.
You have to admire
Bugs at this time of year.
They must know
The warm days are numbered.
I’m not an entomologist
But I’m guessing that means
Their days, too, are numbered.
That doesn’t keep them
From working away
On these glorious fall days.
The Abelia bushes
Practically quack.
They are covered in tiny moths
Working away on the blooms.
Then there’s the Monarch Butterflies.
On their way to Mexico.
About a dozen or so
Drop by every morning.
They are not early risers
It’s about 10 before they appear.
They fly and dive and drink
Till mid afternoon.
I haven’t pulled the zinnias yet
For just this very reason.
I want them to have all the sustenance
They need for their journey south.
So my garden is covered
With zinnias still blooming strong
Though the foliage is white with mildew.
This is probably very bad for my garden.
But I just can’t bring myself to pull them up.
And deprive all those lovely visitors.
Saturday was spent
Deadheading and weeding.
Pretty much what I’ve been doing
For the past couple of months.
Tulip bulbs will ship soon
I need to begin thinking about
Making room for them.
But for now
I think I’ll join the Monarchs
Basking in the sunshine
And the glory of fall.
I hope you have time this week
To breath in the season.
Gail
Filed under Uncategorized
NEW DAHLIAS
I remember the exact moment I discovered Dahlias.
It was at the wedding of a friend’s daughter
About this time of year.
The arrangements at the backyard reception
Were breathtaking.
I’ve been hooked ever since.
For years I’ve bought from the same supplier.
Mostly solid colors
Mostly dinner plate Dahlias.
Aptly named for their gigantic blooms.
But this year.
When the Redbud tree died
Late in the spring
Creating a new sunny space.
I decided to branch out
And try some new varieties.
Sometimes wandering away from old friends
Is difficult.
Chancy really.
But I’m so glad I did.
I ordered from Swan Island Dahlias.
Found them at that great gardening place…Google!
They have an open house in September
When their fields are in full bloom.
Must put attending on my bucket list.
So here are a few of my new friends.
Swan’s Sunset
Freckle Face
Gabriele Marie
Excentric
Bahama Mama
Coco spent the days
Of this glorious weekend
Looking for a bunny.
This dog allegedly has a great nose.
But not this weekend.
No bunny catch so far.
Thankfully.
Gail
Filed under Uncategorized
NURTURING
Nurturing is an important part of gardening.
It begins with soil.
Adding things that it might be missing.
Making it a rich home for what’s to come.
Once planted
A garden needs continual nurturing.
Making sure that there is ample
Sun, shade and water.
So when I traveled this past week to “twin sit”
I knew I was in for some serious nurturing.
Keeping up with 14 month old twins
Is well…fun…exhausting…intriguing
And so much more.
They too need ample food and water.
A little sun
Sprinkled with shade.
Having never been around twins before.
I’m fascinated with their interaction
Not to mention their constant motion.
So this week nurturing took a different form.
One I enjoy even more than gardening.
We hurried home at the end of the week.
To attend Andrew and Katie’s wedding.
Turns out they too were busy nurturing.
The dozens of children attending their wedding.
Each child gave them a heart
To string for their Christmas tree
Creating memories for decades to come.
Nurturing
Important for the garden.
Even more important in life.
It was a wonderful week.
Gail
A little blog housekeeping. Last weekend I was doing a little “tidying up” and thought I deleted pictures from the media library of my blog. What I didn’t realize was that this actually deleted them from the blog post as well. So from about mid summer back to the beginning the pictures are missing. I’m thinking fixing this will be a project for the frozen days ahead.
Filed under Uncategorized
SUNFLOWERS
Growing up in the country
The ditches of the county roads
Were lined with sunflowers
This time of year.
Maybe that why I’ve always loved Sunflowers.
Who doesn’t.
It’s hard not to smile
When you see one.
For some unknown reason.
I’ve never been able to grow them.
I would plant the seeds
And nothing would happen.
I blamed birds
For dining on each and every seed.
Leaving nothing to sprout.
That all changed last year.
Somehow smack in the middle of a crepe myrtle
That John had carefully nursed into life
A sunflower sprouted
Then grew
And grew.
I guarded it carefully
In case John chose his shrub
Over my flower.
Both survived.
The Sunflower bloomed as it towered above
Everything else at the east end
Of the garden.
I let it go to seed
To provide lots of food for those birds.
They must have felt guilty
For all those years of wiping me out
And they left a little patch of seeds.
The result is a Sunflower jungle
Growing wildly.
I pulled several of the volunteers
But a half-dozen or so survived
And are now somewhere around 12 feet tall
So loaded with buds and blooms
That the slightest wind or rain
Renders them horizontal.
Combine this with the forsythia
And Viburnum
At this end of the garden
And you would think that no one
Tends this garden.
Yet I can only bring myself
To cut just enough for bouquets.
I’ll just think of it as
The “wild child” end of the garden.
And let it be for now.
Some things just need a little grace.
Gail
Filed under Uncategorized
In My Garden 