Getting into the garden is more than a work detail, although it
certainly involves that, and only that, sometimes. I was thinking
of all the excuses that I use to drag myself away from the
computer, or the drudgery of housework, or missing my children when
they are off running the roads and meeting friends.
Sometimes, especially WITH the kids, gardening becomes the glue
binding us together...they have always loved the Earth, and plants.
They grew up with it...their Dad was in their classrooms teaching
them and their fellow students about food and flowers, and trees
and the life cycle that involves ALL the living things on the
planet.
Gardening has unified a diverse and multi-cultured neighborhood,
school landscaping, city streets lined with huge hanging baskets
and containers overflowing with vinca vines, dracaenas, and double
petunias. Bringing flowers and plants into every room in the
pediatrics and geriatrics wings of the hospital...good
medicine.
Sometimes I just want a fresh bouquet, and wander out to browse,
pick a couple weeds, make my selections. Without a doubt, I will
soon have my daughter, or my boys down on their knees, letting the
urges and the need to interact with the earth, and their
Father...take them away to private thoughts and memory making.
Kind words from strangers are sometimes interwoven with the flowers
I am bringing into the house...they love my gardens, they missed
seeing me for a couple days, I mean, I'm "always" in
the garden...just passing comments, and thoughts for other, quiet
times.
Raucous, grass-clipping and leaf fights with the kids, hiding in
snow drifts and leaf piles, making scarecrows and harvest ornaments
for Halloween and Thanksgiving, embellished with Chinese lanterns
and colored autumn leaves, or holly and evergreens and pine cones
for those arrangements for the Holidays of Christmas...
My garden comes into the house as often as I can think of it. And
with it comes the work, and the fun, and the laughter and love that
is shared with this common bond of my children, my friends, my
world...memories live in my garden, and in my house. And in my mind
and heart and my bouquets.
Some peonies and roses for you all! Enjoy.
Jim
TBD on Ning
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by willie on
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Lovely Jim. Your children are very lucky indeed. The pictures are beautiful too....as always.
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Permalink Reply by Daddieo on
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This is a macro of my old garden tote. Back when I first NEEDED a tote, even before my business started...an old, weather-beaten, leather satchel. You could find the tools of the
trade in here, trowels and string, cultivators and plant markers, seed
packets, tiny bottles of fertilizer granules, even a spray of insect
repellent and maybe a stray band-aid or two.
Things were grouped only by habit of placement within, it was waterproof only to the point
of me emptying it once a year and smoothing on water repellent with my
bare hands. An act of love for IT, and what it allowed me to do which I
also loved, a little easier. It was eventually replaced by a plastic
bucket with a nylon carrier with many pockets made out of nylon webbing
and everything tied up with velcro straps. It even had a built in
seat...not so, the satchel.
I miss the satchel...a lot. You could smell it in the heat and humidity...that warm leather aroma...it felt
good to touch, pliable and soft and weathered with use. Something else
IT had over the new crap...it was romantic, just like gardening on your
hands and knees instead of a plastic bucket seat. -
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