In the midst of heady scents.

art, weather, ,

It is such a blustery day. My helper in the garden was not able to come at all in March, in spite of trying and getting rained out. I think he might come today, though even if the rain stops, it’s so windy and cold, I do not want to go out there and join in the clean up and pruning and weeding. I will just stay in and do a few Greek lessons, and show you more pictures of the garden.

At right is a birthday card I received from my grandson. He’s doing an extensive series of these drawings of which this is only one family member, so I don’t think he was necessarily implying any resemblance. But I immediately felt that this motherly looking cat was a kindred spirit.

More birthday gifts illustrate this post, made by several of the younger, most practical and artistic grandchildren. The ones who live in California keep writing cards and letters wondering when they will next see me; these, combined with the departure of the Colorado clan after they had been available for hugs for a whole week, gave me the idea of making a quick trip north to see Pippin’s brood this weekend — but stop… breathe… It looks better to wait until after Pascha, and more easily accomplished. So I’m looking forward to that, though even then it will be a challenge to squeeze it in. Because of May travels.

In the front garden, more Yellows and Oranges are flowering to complement the purples and blues. The freesias have never smelled so divine; maybe it is the heavenly dampness in the air that carries their scent to my head such that I want to sit down on the wet sidewalk and swoon a while. In the lower right of the picture below you can see the new ceanothus covered with its Lenten purple. The green shag carpet is baby nigella, which I need to thin out severely as soon as the weather is favorable.

The hen hotpad above is the exception in the group — not made by a grandchild, but sent by my dear friend in Arizona ❤

The irises in the front, which are supposed to be tall, but have been short lately, are sending up tall stems with buds now, and they are beginning to open, just as the yellow California poppies are coming on. Now, if the rain will just stop, and the wind turn into a gentle spring breeze…

No one has played an April Fool’s joke on me today — I don’t think. How about you?

Women on the very edge of things.

feasts, poetry, women, , ,

We are celebrating the Feast of the Visitation on March 30; this is the commemoration of the visit the Virgin Mary made to her cousin Elizabeth, seemingly soon after the the Annunciation, because the Scripture says she “went with haste.” Elizabeth was also expecting a baby, the Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John.

Malcolm Guite has written a sonnet for the feast, which you can find in the anthology Sounding the Seasons. In the West the feast is kept in May.

THE VISITATION

Here is a meeting made of hidden joys
Of lightenings cloistered in a narrow place
From quiet hearts the sudden flame of praise
And in the womb the quickening kick of grace.
Two women on the very edge of things
Unnoticed and unknown to men of power
But in their flesh the hidden Spirit sings
And in their lives the buds of blessing flower.
And Mary stands with all we call ‘too young’,
Elizabeth with all called ‘past their prime’
They sing today for all the great unsung
Women who turned eternity to time
Favoured of heaven, outcast on the earth
Prophets who bring the best in us to birth.

-Malcolm Guite

Spring ups and downs.

poetry, , , ,
fig

DAYS

What are days for?
Days are where we live.
They come, they wake us
Time and time over.
They are to be happy in:
Where can we live but days?
Ah, solving that question
Brings the priest and the doctor
In their long coats
Running over the fields.

– Philip Larkin

One of my favorites will do for a spring poem. I don’t have much to say about my garden pictures, so I looked through old posts for verse to accompany them, and it appears that springtime has generally found me too busy to read poetry. It’s happening again.

The last day of November I was soddenly planting out bulbs and annuals in the front yard and wishing things were different; I had not wanted to be planting myself; that’s why I’d hired the new landscaper, to help me. It also seemed too late to be setting out those plants. Well, now I am awfully glad for everything, and the flowers that are proliferating at this point.

In the back, more surprises. For one, I didn’t think the irises I transplanted last fall would bloom yet, but they have lots of buds. And a disappointing surprise is that the daffodils from the package I bought are not as advertised:

One of my already blooming  new perennials is this member of the gooseberry family:

Ribes viburnifolium – Santa Catalina Island Currant

At the moment a cold wind is banging the gate and rain is coming on. I’m wishing I hadn’t arranged for help to clean the fountain today, and glad I took these pictures yesterday and before. By the time the storm passes more things will be blooming, and a new day will come and wake us — a day to be happy in.
Continue reading Spring ups and downs. →