Sunday, January 22, 2012

Speaking of Gardens


With chickens and gardens on my mind, I decided to visit some favorite inspiration gardens.

I feel compelled to remind myself: This is January, the winter month. This is when frost and heavy rain can dampen a gardener's spirit. Beware the false impression that spring has arrived. The weather has many sketchy, foggy, rainy, cold days in store, yet.

But who would believe it? Under a blue sky, with fuschias seductively displaying their petals and finery? Who would ever know...


Light on her feet, with only a knit cap and winter's long shadows to hint at the season, Maria leads the way to a secret garden.


Silent and lovely garden ladies... no one told Maria the way.

We've been visiting this garden for seventeen years. Our friend, Candice, introduced us to many of the area nurseries, back before William was in kindergarten, and Alex was a baby. This is where we found Joe, our dear old bunny. They used to have all kinds of birds, and rabbits here. This is where we first learned about rabbitats... cozier, earthier, roomier rabbit habitats.


Even with all these temptations, with all the pleasures offered, I don't come here as often as I used to. Easily, happily, remedied, I think. Maria played in the little house, like her brothers before her. Her game was sweet... imagining everyone was together, and we were making our plans to build a tree house.


Thinking of outwitting our hens, and revitalizing our garden beds really did encourage my gardening aspirations. Maria and I exercised much discipline and restraint, limiting the number of seeds we carried home. She continued exploring the play house, testing it for all its possibilities, while I finished blanket stitching a napkin, and thinking of sprouting other possibilities.


This was a moment.
Window boxes, and sunshine, play.
Memories, and hopes.
It's no secret,
gardens give way
to wonder
and goodness.

7 comments:

Miriam said...

The fuschias are gorgeous, and the lovely ladies are lovely, and all that green is enlivening - but the sunshine, oh the sunshine! [My verification word today is "greywe", and we certainly are grey here today!]

"Gardens give way to wonder and goodness." I think I'm going to engrave that on a plaque for my perennial beds, in time for the start of the yearly battle with weeds and invasive plants and the limitations of my body, to give me heart and hope and remind me what the point of the whole exercise should be. Thank you for resetting my internal compass!

d.a. said...

Unrelated to your post :-), which widget are you using for your "pip-pip birdhouse bits"? I like it, nice in-between from full blog posts and brief twitter blurbs.

On the other hand, if you're interested, Blogger is now allowing threaded comments! I just implemented it on my site. Dont know if it informs the reply-ee of your reply, but hey, it looks good :-). http://www.bloggersentral.com/2012/01/enable-threaded-comment-on-blogger.html

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

We do need to remind ourselves, don't we? That in the midst of the toil and setbacks there is some worthwhile goodness in the garden. And hey, if not in my own garden, I can at least appreciate it at the nursery!

Hey, D.A.! I do want to add the reply gadget... thank you for the link. The Pip-pip feature (so glad you noticed) is one of Bloggers gadgets: Text. It doesn't archive or link, but you understand what I like about it: it's a nice 'in-between.'

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

Aha! So. Here it is... replying to individual comments!
Very nice. Thank you, D.A.

d.a. said...

I'l check it out, thanks for letting me know!

Cheyenne -Millie said...

Gardens! The pictures of the seed packets makes mom want to get started! Lovely flowers!

nikkipolani said...

Wonderful place, Natalie. I have a friend who's always encouraging me to try fuchsias. Didn't believe me when I told her how many I've already killed and have resigned myself to enjoying them in other gardens and on screen :-(