June 15, 2007

• Simple Pleasures in June

  

  ~ Curves
  For two decades we lived with strict symmetry,
  straight lines and angles,
  and lots of green grass.

  

  ~ We decided to steal some space from the straight-angled grass
  and put in a flower garden.
  I wanted curves.
  The picture below is from four (or five?) years ago. 
  I think the spot looks the the state of Illinois with an extra hump.
  I started with flowers you would always find at WalMart.

  

  Then my son became interested in a floral-designer girl.
  She steered me towards perrenials and introduced me to new plants.

  

  ~ Bellfowers (Campanula)

  

  ~ Lavender, I discovered, is really easy to grow.

  

  ~ Living next door to a Master Gardener is one of the bonuses of my life.
  Shelly grows roses on the border of our property.

  

  ~ First Fruits
  Last evening I harvested our first strawberries.
  I be jammin’ today, baby!

  Please understand: I am not a natural green thumb. 
  Flowers and gardens
  were not interesting to me until about ten years ago.
  I saw what some friends had,
  which was a little piece of paradise,
  a paradise I wanted to transplant  to my property.

  It has been a slow transition.
  The berry plants (straw and rasp) have come from the gardens of friends.

  I’m still learning.

  But I’m reaping the rewards
  of a tiny rural-suburban-agrarian lifestyle.
  Truth, beauty and goodness.
  The good life.
  Thank you, Lord.

  Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful,
  we must carry it with us or we find it not.
  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

  • 10:35 am
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