November 21.... of flowers..

I guess it's harder to hold yourself to the task of writing about your gratitude 365 days a year than I thought. But .. let it be known that I ponder on things that I am grateful for daily. Truly. Here are a few examples....

I was raised by a woman who was raised on a farm. Whether her gardening acumen came from there or not I am not sure. Suffice it to say I see a great similarity in how my mother gardened, ergo how I garden, and how many Europeans garden - especially my Italian neighbours. I was always taught to yank out every living thing from the garden before the frost hits. Your plot should be pristine, no leaves or weeds, or left over blossoms. It should be ready come the Spring to receive new plantlings. Well I gotta tell you... these past few weeks have been absolutely lovely (minus yesterday I guess) and walking to and from work has been a total pleasure. And there have been sightings... a rose bush, long neglected, not "pruned" or cared for in the manner befitting a rose to be sure, but its there, in the middle of November, with flowers - roses - on it. Deep red ones. They perhaps have become petrified I'm not sure, but they are beautiful. And I doubt the plant any worse for wear for its lack of attention really.

Not long past the apartment building that shows off this rose bush, I came upon a home down the road... happy pansies still growing, still upright - and we have had a frost!!! and they are there - bobbing in the breeze ... and its' the middle of November! Geraniums, purple flowers, Chrysanthemums ... I noticed tons of flowers - in all the gardens that weren't "prepared" for the Spring.

I think I need to try a new approach. I love the sightings of these flowers. They are happy-making. I'm grateful for the smiles they brought to my face.

June 5 ... in the garden...

So the weather here is getting predictable - if it's the weekend it's raining. Except that... it more or less isn't. It looks foreboding enough not to go out and cycle, or picnic, or walk .. and in the end it barely rains. The silver lining in that is the gardening I got done today! My home - the outside - looks awesome. I have some new "children", a clematis, basil plants, ooh and a nice new lavender plant. And I transplanted irises to the front and created a sort of hedge, looks wonderful.

Now, at 5 pm... I can barely move... is that really how 49 is supposed to feel? Anyhow.. despite the stiffness and muscle ache, I am really pleased with my productive day. Yay me!

May 8 ... what a Saturday should be..

Today is the kind of day those Italian gardeners warn you about. Lot's of folk I am sure have set about planting their gardens, vegetable or flower, believing that the most spectacular March and April we have ever experienced in this hemisphere, would surely make it time to plant. Well aha! I say - you were wrong!

My mother, who grew up on a farm somewhere in Austria, taught me about something called the "Ice Heiligen" - not sure if I'm spelling that right. It would sort of translate into Ice Holies .. and sure as shooting, no difference what kind of Spring we have had - we can always count on a chill before the real planting weather begins. I am sure that other cultures (those Italian gardeners I was talking about) have their own myth about it - which is why you never see a real Italian planting before the Victoria Day weekend.

All that to say, cold, rainy, chilly day. Merited turning the heat on for a bit. Windy, blustery, a moment or two of sun, but nothing you could do anything with. Ran around doing errands, enough to get wet, cold, damp - yuck. Came home to nice Pea Soup - I mean is there anything better on a day like today? After noon nap, wake for a sec to find Honey covering me with a blankie.... I smile, feel warm, safe, taken care off... and doze off again.

My kind of day....

May 7 ... Pictures worth the words of gratitude...

I decided I would share some of my gratitude pictorially today. You'll see why in a sec...

I only wish I could share the smell with you. Wonderful... and all the better that these babies are from my own backyard! There are apple blossoms from the Miniature Weeping Crab Apple tree my son got me some Mother's Day ago. And the lilacs are also from a tree he gave me as a birthday gift. It's wonderful to have a son with gardening centre connections!!

Tonight this same young man is taking us out for my yearly Mother's Day/Birthday dinner. Lovely... looking forward to righting the ship, and feeling grateful.

April 14 ... What I did for Princess Day...

Even though my Princess Day had to start at 6:00 am... I am still grateful for how it turned out.

After all the meetings this morning - I was free and went home. I took a nice long bike ride. Oh the wonders there - daffodils, tulips, dogwood, hyacinths, and lovely magnolia trees all in bloom.. amazing.

I then came home and gardened. I suppose that over the course of the rest of this year, I will get my fill of needing to tend to my plants but you know, it's April 14th. And it's already a miracle that I am not shoveling my way out from underneath... but I'm tending to my blooming clematis! I mean what's with that?

So I tended my garden. Took out the plethora of those nasty stinging weed plants, picked up the leaves, noticed that my strawberries have all come back (yay!), and felt content for the smell of the earth and the sound of the wind in the trees.

Much gratitude.