Oh How My Garden Grows....

I have begun to find huge peace in being outside. Weeding (rue the day, I thought it'd never come) brings me countless moments of solitude that I don't normally get. Pruning my flowers and bushes and watering once a day, finding any excuse to be outside near all of it. I love watching the flowers grow from seeds, taller and taller and then finally, a bud appears and you'd think someone was giving me a big fat present (well, they are....) because I get excited and giddy at the thought. I call over the poor Oldest and his Dad and they just stand there, staring, looking really hard for the exciting thing. When I look at them looking at IT, the beauty, I can see, it's lost on them. The Oldest tries really hard to show excitement and muster it up. He sees how happy I am and he feigns the same but I can see, he's almost grinning at trying so hard to be excited. Finally the other day he said to me, "Mom you're really into your flowers aren't you?" Hmmm. Well. Yes, I suppose I am.

So now I have Zinnia growing and they sprouted their first buds of flowers this morning. I have a ton of other things in the works and they are tiny baby seeds just sprouting. The Littlest helps me water them and we talk to them and he thinks its absolutely a blast that we are talking to baby plants. He loves it and laughes that we are talking to them. And when we water them we turn the flow down really low and water them just enough strength so not to blast them down and we talk in these baby baby voices and he thinks it's a hoot. Then that makes me smile and before you know it, we're all smiling, either genuinely or at one another. Smiling and laughing is infectious isn't it? It is.

I put some new Oriental Grass up by the mailbox. They won't stand up right. So I put a dowel in the middle of one of them and took some twine and tied them upright. Looks better but not natural now. Can't get it right. They are BEAUTIFUL. Can't stand the sight of weeds now.

When I was a young teenager my then best friend and I would spend literally all our time together. The summer was basically one thing after another after another. Her mom used to make her weed all the time. I thought it was absolutely ridiculous. We never weeded! What in the world? I thought it was a huge waste of time, we could be playing tennis or....playing tennis for that matter! Sometimes I would pitch in and weed with her and complain the whole time. Phew. It's hard to appreciate the silent wonderful gifts from God when you are a teenager who wants no responsibilites and play all the time. I mean really! These are things you have to learn and appreciate as an adult maybe; I'm not sure but in my case, it went down like that. Long winding road to appreciate such things for sure. Good Heavens, I couldn't even appreciate how my sister would want to change a room around four times in one month, she wore my butt OUT. I like things just the way they are, till I get my own gumption and idea. Don't tell me how to move it, what to do, what to say, what to wear, what to move, what to get, anything. Don't tell me what to do!

I love watching the snapdragons come to life and grow so vibrant and tall. It's almost synonomous with watching the boys do the same, in the same time and beat. I love watching the Hydranga bloom so full and blue and pale pink and gulping up the water by the bucket loads. The Lantana so bold and bright with their yellows and pinks constant through the summer. I can count on that if nothing else, that Lantana bush has bloomed so very full three summers in a row. Gorgeous and effervescant shooting from the ground in plumes of dark pinks and vivid yellows. Love it all. I think I stand out there and just fix it all and water it all and look at it all and maybe it's a control thing...but only a little. It's definitely a beauty thing. It definitely is that. My garden is not in one place in my yard, it's here and there and everywhere and it's growing every day and each season I add a new Perrenial or two and anticipate and wait so I can see and love how my garden grows. --Like the boys, it's adding this and fixing that and loving. Always loving.