My roses bring me so much joy right now–I try to spend time every day in my rosegarden and feeling the excitement and magic of bursting buds.
:)
Photo is of a mini rosebush in the center area of my garden. In the background you can see Ned the elephant–he’s a favorite with our smaller garden friends.
PS: I am very weary today. Some of my new meds are having strange side effects, including sleeplessness and difficulty breathing. Sigh. I’d love to hear what adventures y’all have planned for your long weekend–drop me a line in the comments and let me know!
Had a bit of a scare when my leg got swollen and inflamed again on Sunday. The doctors switched my antibiotics today and we’re watching it carefully. I was a bit of a mess though for awhile there, worried about my infection returning again.
Deep, deep, sigh.
I keep trying to live in the moment and not carry too much fear. I know I can face whatever looms ahead, come what may. But every once in awhile my courage slips anyways.
Thanks for hanging in there with me.
:)
Photo: the spiky tendrils of a zucchini blossom in my garden. Isn’t it both scary and lovely?
I spent several hours this weekend in my garden. It was bliss. I pulled weeds, watched insects, and chatted with my neighbors. I also ate mostly out of the garden because I was on my own and I’m quite content with a lunch of grilled zucchini.
I know everyone isn’t as enthusiastic about gardening as I am–what are your magical/blissful spaces and places?
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” ~Marcus Cicero
Photo: Bee on the lavender bush near my sidegate. If you look carefully, you can see my red bike parked just beyond the fence slats :)
I’ve been thinking a lot about this quotation that ‘wilderness’ left in a comment on a blogpost recently:
“I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times, but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers. The wind passes, and the flowers are content.” -Helen Keller
Photo is a close-up shot of pale pink lisanthus flowers in my garden
About two years ago I bought a bike, and not just any bike–it’s a tricked-out bright red tricycle. This bicycle allows me much independence. I can ‘commute’ to work far more cheaply and quickly than by driving, I can keep up with my kids when they’re on their skates or bikes, and I can have the joy of getting places with my own muscle power.
Because I have a disability that limits my mobility (especially preventing me from walking long distances), my bike facilitates my independence in so many ways.
This evening I took a 30 lb load of compost to the garden in my basket along with some seedlings. I routinely carry a week’s worth of groceries in my “trunk.” Tomorrow morning I will pedal to the local Farmer’s Market and return home with several bags full of tasty local produce.
This is a photo that I took at sunset yesterday. I’d made a quick trip to the garden to gather herbs for John’s Father’s Day dinner and then just had to snap a few pictures.
I came across this quotation yesterday and it’s been in my mind ever since:
“True simplicity consists not in the use of particular forms, but in foregoing over-indulgence, in maintaining humility of spirit, and in keeping the material surroundings of our lives directly serviceable to necessary ends, even though these surroundings may be properly characterized by grace, symmetry, and beauty.” ~Book of Discipline of the Religious Society of Friends, Adopted by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1927
In so many ways my garden is a space echoes my desire for “humility in spirit.” When I am there I am in awe of the world and my small place in it, I am overwhelmed by my own inability at mastery, and I am constantly blessed by grace, symmetry, and beauty.
This is the windowsill in my kitchen and these vases hold flowers from my garden. On the other side of the window you might spy a few of my fuschia plants and a double begonia.
This is what I see when I’m washing dishes (lucky me)….
–one more hurdle crossed, my first-ever baseline mammogram. Whew. Like when the tech said I had to hold my breath while she took the film, I wanted to say (had I had breath to do so), how could I not hold my breath when she has just squished me into this vise? But really it was far faster and far less painful than I’d been led to believe. And it’s over and from what they said this may well be the most painful one (given that boobs tend to get smooshier over time, I suppose?). [Note: I am a bit on the young side for a mammogram, but I’ve recently learned that women who had my type of cancer and treatment have a much higher risk of breast cancer]
–drove to Long Beach and back in record time to get GameBoy’s cello repaired in the nick of time before his grande concert. Jacarandas were everywhere along the way. How can that not make me smile?
–had some QT in the garden yesterday. Planted more basil (for 14 plants total this year! pesto, anyone?), marigolds, asters, peppers, one more tomato (squeezed in just so), and a new-to-me type of lavender (that makes four so far). I have the most amazing new garden neighbors who are planting cucumber vines all along our shared fence (yum). And did I tell you that blackberry season just began–I nibbled my first 2 last Wednesday and expect to have a few cupfuls by mid-week? I didn’t get the corn in this weekend as I’d hoped, but fortunately I can plant it until late July if need be. As I was telling a friend yesterday, I refuse to feel garden guilt if I can’t get everything in as early as possible. I’m taking things one step at a time this year….
–taking catnap lessons from Elly. And I just love that her favorite nap spot is on the pillow where I prop my left leg. She curls up next to it as if to take that edge of pain away.
–Apparently my big climbing rose is still blooming like crazy. Those coffee grounds I was feeding it all winter–they are working their good magic. I suspect that by the end of the week I’ll get to take a look-see for myself. In the meantime the kids have cut a big bouquet for my table. (Do you know that even though my original injury was in the garden, I want more than anything to return….)
–Friends. There really aren’t enough words to say for the friends who’ve brought (delicious) food, who have visited, who have cared for my children. You people rock!
–I am even more wordless when I think of John during these past few days. I’ve buried my head in his chest and just sobbed–he’s watched every needle going in and has been strong. He’s insisted at being at each doctor appointment and in making sure that I’m not getting my medications muddled up (“the shot glass on your nightstand, that one holds the next dose, dear”). Even while under increasing pressure at work, he’s holding up strong. I am so sorry for the toll on him that this has been. I’m sorry for the way that his needs are continually compromised because of mine.
–And of course I’m smiling because I am feeling better. I am nearly pain-free now and I go to the doc in a few hours to see if I can start back (slowly) into my regular routines again. Best of all, the redness and swelling in my leg is nearly gone. Though I don’t doubt that I’ll have some longterm healing and scarring around the wound site, for the most part my leg is looking quite healthy now.
–just as I’m typing this,Regina Spektor’s “On the Radio” came onto my iTunes playlist.. In so many ways this has been ‘my song’ for the past few years.
“Very early, I knew that the only object in life was to grow.” ~Margaret Fuller
If you went this morning to your favorite chi-chi Newport Beach nursery today to pick up a few plants for your garden and felt overwhelmed and grateful for the abundance (even as you smiled a bit inwardly at the perfectly coiffed ladies who didn’t look as though they dirtied their nails in their gardens very often), then went to your garden in the evening for planting, surprised that the scent of citrus blossoms was still in the air from your neighbor’s tree, then getting down on all fours to work the soil in the bed that will host the strawberries, then the peppers, then the eggplants, then planting your newest type of lavender and a shaggy bush of chamomile (it smells of afternoon tea already).
And if this is you, you were a bit overwhelmed by how much work still has yet to be done to get your garden all set for summer, but you realized that you don’t begrudge any of the time that it will take.
You know I love my peaches…so I am just thrilled by the blossoms covering my tree this season! :)
What is thrilling you right now?
Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature –if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you –know that the morning and spring of your life are past. ~Henry David Thoreau
