Category Archives: my garden

I pose my nest among flowers.

crafts, family, my garden

When the latest birthday package came in the mail I was alone in the house. I unwrapped the tissue paper knowing already that the gift inside had been handmade by my daughter-in-law Joy. It appeared to be something very small and lightweight….and then out came a knitted nest of eggs! The beauty of them and the love that had been expressed by the patient labor…my hands actually began to shake — lucky these eggs are soft and comfortable and not brittle.

I began to pose my new toys around the house, and then went outdoors to find a natural setting too. Every day it seems there is a new flower somewhere, so I had lots of choices of where to plant my nest.

I don’t remember what these tall spiky flowers are; they grow from bulbs I planted a few years ago. They are striking for a couple of weeks, but then the flowers get too heavy and the stalks lie down on the sidewalk by the front door.

So we should enjoy them right now at their peak, before they get annoying. If you enlarge the photo above you might see Mr. Glad’s bent back, beyond the rosemary bush at the top.

And a glimpse of Johnny Jump-Ups and various other little blooms behind this close-up.

A happy discovery was that the helianthemum I have been nursing along for almost two years has finally bloomed! I know it does still look a bit scraggly but I am greatly encouraged. I think it is named Henfield Brilliant.

Eventually I took a picture of my birthday eggs nestled among the simple alyssum flowers. Then I brought them back indoors to be the near-perfect springtime table decoration. They would be completely perfect if they didn’t make me miss the dear gift-giver herself. Thank you, Joy!

Flying and Flowers

family, my garden, ,

At least, I was able to be home and in wonderful services at my home parish for the first few days of Lent. Now I am flying away to Pennsylvania for an aunt’s memorial service and to be reunited with some cousins after almost 50 years. Not the ideal time, but part of me is excited about the familiness. Daughter Kate is coming up on the train to be with us, too.

On the home front, recent rains brought out more flowers. These daffodils are always looking down at the ground where only the snails can enjoy their faces, so I cut a bunch and brought them indoors for us humans.

Only two ranunculus are coming up from a previous year’s huge planting.

But the freesias multiply year after year.

 

I’ll be back in a few days, maybe with a tiny travelogue. Good Lent!

Here they come!

my garden,
Iceland poppy
bearded iris

Tomorrow may be a gardening day, of the sort on which one digs and pulls and gets dirt under the fingernails, says the lazy procrastinator. But today one Iceland poppy bloom is out, and irises, and the manzanita is a wall of pink-on-green. So it was a photographic sort of gardening day…

I only took close-ups, because broader views show too dramatically what lackadaisical workers have oversight here. God is favoring us anyway! Isn’t He just like that.

Dutch iris

When it rains it pours.

friends, my garden, nature,

We got rain in the night, and we’re getting a little today. A little rain, and that’s not the pouring I refer to.

It’s our Glad life that has become a little too much for us of late — or so it would seem, but we haven’t left anyone in the lurch yet. We had a blessed and happy visit from Mr. and Mrs. Bread, alongside difficult and sad situations to bear up under with other friends. That kind of thing always feels like too much.

The dirty dishes have been left to sit on the counter (in the lurch?) longer than I like, and it hasn’t done any permanent damage that I can see.

The Johnny Jump-Ups appear to have been nibbled by snails, but as I breeze by I don’t want to take time to hunt under rocks for them.

My kitchen didn’t produce any bread — the disorder was beyond the point where I could be creative that way — so thank God I was on the communion bread team at church yesterday and could happily knead and cut and stamp and let the senses of both my body and soul fill with warm and satisfying smells. Even the dough smelled good and soothing. In the photo I am the reflection in the oven door.

And even before the rain, the freesias started blooming, almost too brightly for my camera’s limited settings. We did go for a quick walk around the neighborhood, and I saw that even the most rundown ugly house with junk scattered about has been blessed with a gorgeous tree all in blossom, sitting as though dropped from heaven in the middle of the front yard.

I’ve been too busy for thoughtful writing sessions, but the pictures I snapped reassure me that the seasons are going around normally still. You know Who we have to thank for that.

The tulips are still making progress up through the now-softening soil, and Sweet Alyssum is growing the perfect blanket to spread below the blooms that are on the way.

Mr. Glad and I are going on a tiny trip this week, leaving behind the clutter of our forever unfinished business, and there will be time and mind-space enough for me to collect some more images and thoughts of Spring and Life. I think I just wanted to send this note that I am here and God is still at work.