Pause a while
and look
see the ants
the bees
the worms
they don't ask
what they should do
they just do

ANOTHER DAY OF RAIN

Let me embrace the rain
...for what it is
-an essential,
as neccessary as breath

I'm getting there. Despite the house guests that smoke on my deck, I have managed to keep going and try to get my garden in some sort of order. Mostly mother nature is doing what she does best...grow!
They are going home on Tuesday now.......look out world..I have pent up energy!

Enter

It looks pretty, but trust me....weeds....
I was going to show you the bad areas...but why dwell in negativity!

Today pictures of My Open Bar of Joy

Since December I have been driving one hour each way to babysit my grandson 4 days a week....while my daughter finished school...That done...I thought good..back to the house and garden...
no.....A dear friend passed away with a brain tumor...and my sister in law is still in ICU..but pulling through...and her sisters have come in from Arizona to be with her....and they are staying with us and using my car....and it has been raining all week or it has been very cold....no gardening except for a few hours of weeding...oh the zen of weeding
So today when they left to go to the hospital the sun came out......boy that didn't sound right..
Anyway, I got out my camera and went outside to look for beauty....I need it
and to look for joy.....need that too....
and here is what I found to warm my heart............
I hope you enjoy a tour of today's garden

What is wrong with this picture?

They go home on Sunday.

Doesn't this say Monet?

I have always had a fascination with witches....blame it on my first grade teacher

Love in the garden....I'm all for it

yeah, I see you.................

Showy solomon seal I believe or is it starry? Anyway it's beautiful and mixes well into the shade garden..although a little bit of a bully...trying to push its way into the grass!

O she was beautiful when I first got her....she held a shell in her hand and was blowing over it....well one year a tree branch knocked her over and she got injured severly....I have her parts...but I have failed to find anything to keep them on......but she loves the garden
and watches over it.......as do I

I didn't have grandchildren when I let my girlfriend cut a hole in this cute childrens chair so I could put a flowerpot into the seat....
oh well...now I have placed a dish there as a bird drink.....and I love suns and moons...and circles...

All I could say was lordie! that is going to be one huge Jack in the Pulpit!
A few of them....also PURCHASED in Iowa
I love them. Once I rescued one from developement and only had time to put it in a pot....
It grew in that put ...really grew....and one morning...I stepped out onto my deck and Jack stood right proud in that pot
Hands raised (leaves)....like he was preaching hell and brimstone... Oh what a memory
I have since piped him down into the garden where he sticks to pure gospel love

I did not capture what I saw.....a sweet mixture of columbine waving in the breeze in front of this old heart jello mold
hanging on the old Swedish church fence.....I did not capture the romance I saw....faith hope and love

A temporary home for the buddha.......

Ah...yellow trillium...PURCHASED in Iowa........

Amsonia and buttercups.....sigh
the amsonia I brought from my old house 16 years ago...given to me by my elderly neighbor....this is all that survives
she...gone 15 years now....She was the one who introduced me to woodland plants...she swiped them from the woods (!!!NO)
But they loved her and her garden was filled with them..even behind her airconditioning unit....now it is all lawn...the new owners I guess didn't know what they destroyed......good thing Phyllis is in heaven...there is no crying there

Now, here's a bunch that loves water...Joe-Pye weed.....I love it.....

Today in the garden I found soapwort....how funny...with all this rain!

uh oh!!!!!!!!!!!

Today I have a quiet day..was planning on working in the yard.
But it's raining outside
maybe tomorrow
I guess I'll have no excuses
not to do the laundry.

Here's the stinky mystery plant. It dies back to the ground in the fall and now it is growing at a very fast pace and will reach heights of five feet. It hasn't spread, only gotten to be a wider clump. Do you know what it is?

I think this is wild valerium. It has been in the garden for 14 years now...We dug it up before the builders came....
Oh that summer..so many garter snakes died...and oh the little frogs that appeared everywhere in everyones driveways and window wells ......I saved as many as I could......I still check my window wells for frogs even though we have covers on them.....
I do what I can...and sometimes more

If you look real close you can see my first rose bud of the year. And it is especially wonderful because this poor helpless rose had been ripped out of the ground.. crudely I may add..to be replaced with sod. This was in my daughter's neighborhood last fall..late fall. My daughter begged me to come over and go on a plant rescue with her....I am proud to tell you that 80% of what we dragged home from the killer woman's house has made it through the winter.
Ah my daughter...a chip off the old block!