May 29th, 2020

Morning in the Garden

The shadows are lengthening

as the sun rises higher in the sky

but still it is morning,

and there is that lovely fresh aura

in the air

Spring is late this year, -

at least the gardens' response to spring.

I look at pictures from earlier years

when the Blaze and Princess roses

were in full bloom...

but I am not impatient.

It will all happen in good time

and I find joy in watching the garden gradually

settle into summer!

Here's what's blooming!!!!

The Iris, of course

Iris and a few pink roses, although they are far behind last year's generous offering....

not so with the buttercups, - they are inclined to be weedish - but bright and heart warming, so they 

get accepted!!

 Out back there are some lilies and more iris, a garden shop basket and the promise of lilies and shastas and peonies - SOON

a few early poppies and the honeysuckle coming into bloom

along with the clematis that lives beside it.

The scarlet peonies along the front fence have been quite gorgeous,

but here, in the back garden, the single white peony starts to bloom

and they are so lovely in the evenings when they spread wide

their petals, and their beautiful golden centre glows.

The Blaze rose got a terrific pruning job this year, and although they are not

the brilliant blaze of glory as in other years

we will look forward to 2021!!!

Lilies - the first of many

and more pink cabbage roses

 Everything welcomes the sun and the rain

and blooms merrily

Oh, life would be so dreary without a garden!!

Bouquet No. 1

A beautiful sunny day!

  

a few perennial buttercups at the feet of the iris and alium

yesterday was dismal........

but today is inviting!!

Following a little after-lunch nap

we left Bruce sleeping

and The Walker and I

went out for  a little stroll

(as much as you can 'stroll' with a Walker -

but that's the way things are these days!!)

There are some lovely light lilies in bloom

a perfectly wonderful yellow.....

and the early peony is showing signs of

calling it a day, while the later ones

are still pregnant, - growing closer every hour!

A few early white daisies are crowding in

amongst the clover that persists on growing

at the front of the flower bed,  just 

beyond the fence (that needs painting)

And the yellow daisies show dire signs

of the problems that afflicted them

last year,

which means I must seek expert advice

and get them sprayed, or they will

all curl up and die.

The garden needs attention,

but not this afternoon.

I am here to enjoy the few roses that are blooming,

the poppies that are pushing against

their white metal fencing,

and to pick a few flowers to

brighten up the house.

Not an awful lot to choose from

but soon I had a nice selection lining The Walker's basket

and here they are....

..

placed in front of the "arrival mirror".....

an old dresser that fills the bill nicely,

and makes one think that we have just twice as many

blossoms as the garden yielded.

Off to make a cup of tea, or a glass

of lemonade,

and I shall sit outside and glory

in the late spring.

at 95 one must take advantage of the beauty

that cometh from above....

Just in Case.....Carpe Diem.

On reading Mary Oliver

May 22nd, 2020

I breakfast with Mary Oliver

and one sentence she writes

out of the vast and beautiful picture

she paints with words

takes me back years, into another world -

to when we were young

and tending the orchard

with all the other veterans

on Fairview Heights........

and the children were so contained

in our lives - school buses and bicycles,

picnics on the big rock,

listening to the Night Hawks

as they break the evening air

with their cries and the clap of their wings

Such wonderful memories -

did we realize at the time that we were

manufacturing these beautiful memories

 so they would sit beside us

when we were ancient

sipping our morning coffee and

losing ourselves in the words of the poet.

Nimble in the Garden

Wednesday, May 14th, 2020

There was a time when I was nimble in the garden...

it went on for years and years, and they were glorious times.

First of all, when the children were young and we were raising a family I kept my nimbleness in check and was content with a few Peonies, a willow tree, some Iris and always the Blaze Rose!!!

I
We had thirty acres there, on a hillside, and our house was located half way up the hill.  I had a yen to line the roadway with hollyhocks, as our house had been when I was growing up, but I received very little support for this idea, and the only hollyhocks I have had in all these years are some which volunteer at our back gate, facing the lane.

It was apparent that nobody in the family had experienced the joy of making ball gowns from hollyhock blooms, for clover headed dolls, as I had when young, and with my bestest friend!!!

We were on the farm for almost forty years, but when we moved to town we had three acres of land - pasture for horses (where we eventually grew tomatoes, having no horses then) and just all the room a gardener would wish for,  -  of which I took great advantage!

The header on my blog is a picture of the bed which lined the street, and I think it probably includes the great log fence that Charles built to protect the flower beds from passers-by. and to define the street lawn.

We grew all sorts of wonderful flowers there, - lilies and peonies and snowball bushes, and flax and poppies and delpinium, - oh, I could go on and on.....  It was a gardener's heaven, and always being an early riser I would be able to get an hour or two in the morning garden, with the long shadows and the cool early morning air., - all this before Charles arose for breakfast......

Eventually we moved away, - bought a smaller mobile home and placed it

on our son's property.

There was no garden at first, but we soon took delivery of a few

truck's full of top soil, and planted trees and shrubs

and lots of flowers!!

and, of course, at one end of the house we had a Blaze Rose (but I can't seem to find a picture of it, except in my memory.

We got older, alas, - as we all do if we are lucky, - but it seemed the time for us to move back to town, and we were lucky enough to find a lovely little house, with a beautiful garden, and room for looms, as well!!!   Our son and daughter-in-law own the house, but I indulge myself in the garden, with the help of family, and the dear one who looks down from heaven and gives directions!!!

This is the owl my sister made for me, many, many years ago, to watch over all our gardens, and here he sits amongst the greenery!!

So this is the lovely garden I have now, - just a few pictures.  There is a blue delphinium, lots of shasta daisies a Mister Lincoln Rose, and of course, as always, a Blaze.

Life is good, but I'm here to tell you, I am not as nimble in the garden as I once was. I stop more often and rock a bit in the garden swing and have a swig of lemonade, and Bruce sits with me and we contemplate the white rose on Callie's grave, and miss her......

May 12th, 1945

The morning of my wedding to this lovely man, newly returned from Overseas

He was picking up a bride on his way home

to the Similkameen

and this must have been the happiest one

he could find.

Hard to realize that would have been seventy-five years ago!!!

There is a Sara Teasdale poem

that has always spoken to me about this dear fellow!!

It is entitled "The Beloved"

"It is enough of honour for one lifetime

to have known you better than the rest have known.

The shadows and the colours

of your voice...

Your will, immutable and still as stone.

The shy heart, so lonely and so gay

The tenderness, the depth of tenderness....

Wide as the earth, and high, as heaven is high."

I treasure the sixty seven years

we had together!