I bought these pink tulips at the end of season
then forgot about them in the garage...
so in hurry one late fall day
...a day that was very cold and damp
I hurriedly stuck them into the ground
then watched as the landscapers raked the heck out of them
They'll never come back , I said to my husband
He said I would just have to wait and see
and this morning I saw......they yielded to the call of the sun
while in the warmed earth
Don't you just love Spring with all it's seeming miracles
resurrections
I look forward to seeing pink
I have survived pink.

rue the day

A quick dash out to the garden this morning
before the the little miss and little master rolled out of bed
while their mom and papa were eating breakfast.
I slipped away to the stillness of a spring morning
A quick look about I saw life stirring everywhere
These pictured above are wild flowers I rescued from a building site
I think they are some kind of meadow rue...beautiful delicate little white flowers
with leaves a fine as lace
I love woodland wildflowers the best
Spring is the best time of year for this
the ephemerals...ah!!
soon they will be waking up and the cycle will begin in earnest
another year of the garden
But for now it is the fresh smell of wind in my face that has passed over winter's debris
and the swelling buds on the horse chestnut tree above me
 that  are opening my heart
opening it to living this day
joy

I like to think of myself as a wabi sabi wench ,too
tranquil simplicity...imperfect, natural, rustic
and
treasuring the passage of time
loving things that evoke
-a lonely sense of impermanence
-patinas of age
-the cycle of life and death

When I walk in the garden through the seasons
I witness it all.....it keeps me centered
calms my weary wantings at times
whispers that this is life
nothing to fear....renewal comes
in some form or another....and joy
that's what being a wabi sabi garden wench means to me

"We do love things that bear the mark of grime,
soot, and weather,and we love colors and sheen
that call to mind the past that made them.
                                      -Tanizaki Junichiro

.......Yes, I do.

awake awake
you sleepy heads
get up get up
rise out of flower beds



They don't last long
but I have longed for them
oh the joy these little ones bring

So much work to be done
cutting away the old and dried and dead
but not too fast
Mr. and Mrs. Robin
and Mr. Starling
were spotted pulling up and carrying off
the makings for their nests
Oh to hear peeping again
....and
to watch out for
and guard the garden from Mr. Hawk!

It is like finding a diamond
Its beauty so dazzling
in the light of a spring day

...and as cherished
maybe more

I looked down and behold
another assemblage of nature:
The survivors,
the cast offs,
the fallen,
debris.
But for me today, a moment
to stop and reflect
that the journey through winter
is coming to an end
a page turning

The good Lord has made the sky blue to us.
So blue it dazzles me today
So blue it lifts my spirits
a bandage on my weariness

I sit in the cool air on the deck
looking over the yet to be awakened garden
imagining the joy I will feel when warm breezes
pass over me this summer

But now,I need to put my hands in dirt and pray
It is where I feel closest to God
The soil is still mostly frozen so
where will I go to unburden my sorrow
for Japan?
thousands washing up on the shore

The blue sky

nourishment

You are a good hider
but I am an expert looker
it's not your fault
But before you scampered away
I offered a prayer of thanksgiving for your presence
a shaft of light in my conscious mind
weighed down lately by sadness
for all the suffering in Japan


discovered in twigs
rabbit looks for nourishment
eyes are filled with joy

Near the Stone

I saw the choir rising
from the warmed earth
and I joined in singing
Hallelujah!

survival report

Oh dear
fur pellets
Now who coughed these up?
Not what I was looking for today in the
awakening garden
But I guess it is fitting
The garden at this time of year
is the ugly duckling
Reports of survival are just about due
to be revealed
I made it
thanks to the birds, the squirrels
beautiful tree branches
revealing their form,
pine trees,a holy bit of green throughout the cold and snow
We all are handing in our reports of survival...
buds everywhere on the trees,green breaking through the earth
in every corner of the garden!
I saw the possum and raccoons this past week
sneaking around the deck after dark
the rabbits are out this morning looking around
like I am
It is cloudy,the sky.. that awful color of nothingness white
a gentle mist is covering everything
But the weatherman said it might be 50 today
It will warm the earth a bit more
and me too
I have survived the void of winter
Already I am buying things to replace
what has decayed,broken or returned to the earth
as I wish it to
I bought new iron deck planters...
a new Buddha
heavenly blue morning glory seeds
a new little fairy riding a snail to tuck in behind the hostas
I love surprises in the garden
and I am dreaming and planning of a raised flowerbed
somewhere in the open what is now lawn area
my husband will not approve....you don't need more he will say
But he is not a garden wench

Salvaged from Salvation Army

you were seen in wood
now a forgotten artist
part of my garden

Sunday thought

And in my garden
the Lion lays down
with the lamb

And I forgot to tell you about St. Francis
 tending to the wards at ground level
-those who are often despised
It is fitting that he stands
in water isn't it?
all need water
all need compassion
I walk past him
and bend
nodding
I know the warmth of such blessing

Old friends

I am drawn to the
sitting
Buddha
in the garden
a reminder to stop
be silent
listen
forget
the work
just be still
and let the garden
open
before me

and then there is
the figure of the
standing Chinese
warrior near the rose
who stands guard
at least I think he does
I stop by him too
and take in the sense
of my responsibility
to all within my charge
in this Open Bar of Joy

and I continue past
the iron witch on her broom
a bit of fancy for me
and mischief
always there courtesy
of the many wards that
grace my trees

And then I quietly
look upon drift wood carved
in the image of the Madonna
and Child
An arrow of awe strikes my heart
for the unknown artist who made
this image, only to have me buy
it at the Salvation Army store
irony of irony

And tucked in here and there
is more fancy and fun
and old things that I cannot part with
tucked in behind a hosta or two
to become one day part of the garden itself

Things in the garden come and go
ying and yang
rust and crumble
But I like it like that
Joy!

My Birdwatcher

When Boo was a baby, a wee 2 week old baby, with no mama
I used to take him out in the garden to get his Vitamin D
and to let him walk around the grass and such to explore
Once he actually found a toad....well, the toad found him
to be truthful
When Boo was this little, my oldest Kitty, Webster was dying from kidney failure.
I took him outside too, his only time out in the garden, right before he died,
he sat in the sunshine.
I almost saw in his eyes..."Why did you never let me come out here before?"

I'm going to put his ashes in the garden this year,near my Buddha
so he can be outside all the time
There is danger outside for kitties......especially from people
So Boo has to stay inside too now
He loves to watch the birds and the squirrels..those nutty squirrels
that come up to the window to tease him
Boo will have to watch me in the garden from the window too
I never want him to get a taste of how glorious a garden can be
I love him too much

The garden brings out my gypsy

Ah, lots of work ahead,
isn't it exciting?
I saw green grass yesterday near the retreating ice

It's how I feel inside....green and living
Lots of debris to remove, things to cut back
winter shelter no longer needed
exposure is what we need..soon soon
letting the new growth of what is perennial break forth and grow
and the bulbs..those little gems in a fist...miracles really
like me....once a little bulb
now a grown gardener
Not a Latin name kind of garden
But the kind of gardener that I am as a person
free, wild,beautiful,and joyful
following my instincts, like the wards of my garden ( oh that Harry Hawk)
and each and every flower ,tree and bush that is in my garden
grow and be beautiful..enjoy the rain, the wind ,the sun
This is your life... and mine
Joy

winter's last assemblage

Assemblage:
A form of art involving the assembly and arrangement
of unrelated objects, parts, and materials in a kind of sculptural collage.

-Webster's New World Dictionary


This happens all the time in the garden...art.
You only have to look for it.
Things such as light, branches, twigs, footprints, flowers, leaf texture,
rocks, fallen feathers, bark, water... and did I say light?
come together at different times and form
an assemblage of beauty and mystery and delight
in the garden.
Sometimes it happens around things you have added to the garden
for structure or form
but most times it's simply the elements at work
busy creating unintended still lifes
Blessed is the gardener,or wench, who walks
the hallowed ground of a garden with the eye
open for beauty
for beauty is the language
of the holy
and it brings the being
joy

ice drops

I know my little pocket camera and inexperience cannot capture
the awe I felt looking at the white oak branches that were
holding, suspended- in- ice, drops of water. It was so beautiful,magical
these ornaments of a warming day.
I feel like I am thawing,too.
Each morning I walk in the garden,
and though this time of year it is its ugliest,
I find beauty in the beast.
Soon the work will begin
and I will be filled with joy and purpose
helping to reveal the new life
just below
 the debris and leaves of the season of autumn,
cleaning up and repairing the
unintended damage of the winter
storms
Survival....uncovered in both of us