A new path

Early morning, and the fog lies heavily above the river in the valley below. The apple blossoms were out in profusion. The air warm - bees would be sampling the blossoms along with the flowers in my garden. The dogs were content to go and roll in the grasses that were growing in the pasture beyond the rock wall  along the edge of what I term the "side yard."

  Honeysuckle, lilac, tulips - all blooming more heavily than in previous years - the scent delicious as I walked around checking to see what was out, what needed weeding and what to do next.

Some days later, these beautiful iris along with the Montana Bluets began to bloom. More colour, more of Gaia's beauty.

A couple of weeks later, Sweet William - memories of my brother Bill - who though seldom sweet was certainly flamboyant as these glorious flowers are, competing with the Siberian Iris and Oriental poppies. And oh dear - the grass needs cutting!

The garden has been lush, verdant, and definitely it's showing off - could it be that it's giving me a spring to remember?

The past  two months have been turbulent in many ways, big decisions, lots of emotion, and then some illness making it difficult for me to write, or even want to write. But many people have been very kind and emailed to say "Where are you? and are you okay?"

Thank you for those thoughtful messages. So here's what's happening: I've decided to sell this property, and this has happened. A wonderful young couple will be moving in this fall. Where I will end up I don't know, but I may start another blog - about the process of finding a place to live.

There are many reasons for this new path I'm taking, most particularly that as I get older, it's less easy to manage this two acre property - maintain it at the least and continue to upgrade the buildings. The other reason is that my family lives more than three hours away. When I moved here it took only two hours to get here, but now, with traffic increasing, and no really efficient or sensible public transportation in this country, there are no trains to one of the most popular tourist areas in the province - it takes too long to come here or for me to go to the city easily and within a decent amount of time.

I'm looking forward to a new adventure, but I do wonder how the dogs and cats will deal with it. They'e only known this property and none do well with change - that alone will be an adventure! One I'm sure that will have its hilarious moments as well as difficult ones.

So I'm enjoying the beauty in my garden this year...

...the clematis - which has never had both kinds blooming at the same time, and all the others. I'm also enjoying all the creatures around the area, the calves, the young foals, and of course the antics of my four. So until tomorrow...have a wonderful day - and hope you can enjoy the beauty of spring here in the northern hemisphere, wherever you are and the luminescence of fall in the southern.

From my garden or my fields

 Last week a friend retired from the community centre board of directors where we worked together. Rather than purchase flowers, I collected many from the side of the road and from my garden. I joked at the AGM, that since she had been treasurer and kept such a tight rein on the board's spending she would be pleased to know we hadn't spent a penny, but walked the sides of the road cutting flowers. I had augmented it with many iris and other flowers from my garden of course and was very pleased with the result.

She has a great sense of humour and appreciated the fun.

But later I thought, why not cut a bouquet for myself and bring my garden inside?

And so yesterday evening, walking the paths and realizing that I would lose several daisies in the pasture when I mow them today, I decided to start picking. Then I added to the small bouquet with flowers that are from my garden while they last.

So in the bouquet are fuscia coloured Dame's Rocket which is a spring phlox, daisies, buttercups, birds foot trefoil, red clover, Siberian iris, yellow iris, purple and mauve iris, tiny purple iris and lady's mantle. I didn't add columbine or oriental poppies or sweet William all of which are either too far gone or I have only one of them... but the joy of looking at this little bouquet greeting me on the dining table this morning reminded me that I have always loved flowers in the house and I must continue to bring some in, specially since I seem to have an abundance outside.

Sometimes it's the little things that are in our lives every day, that we forget to be grateful for. This was a lovely and gentle reminder of how very rich and full my life is. I have little if anything really, to complain about and much to be grateful for - I am truly blessed.

I hope the little things in your life bring you joy today.

Bumblebees and what they like

Despite the weird weather North America has been having and the virus that has attacked honey bees, bumblebees seem to have been around checking out the flowers for many weeks now.

The Montana bluets or caesarea montana that grows like a wildflower in my garden attracts all kinds of attention as it flowers early and repeatedly throughout the growing season. But other spring beauties attract them as well...and I thought I'd post a few of my favourites that seem to like my garden this year.
Just flowers for today because my computer has been misbehaving once again.

Just a few blossoms to brighten your day - they certainly fill mine with joy and pleasure.

A taste of things to come

Not much to say this morning - I think the iris speak for themselves. I can hardly wait until they are more than just a smidge of green peeking through the remains of winter's passing.

May this be a beautiful day for you as well with interesting and colourful things peeking through.