the garden

HaPpY dAnCe!!

all the weather people say it will get blazing hot again
but all day yesterday
we rejoiced in the gifts from the heavens.
One could almost hear all the collective sighs
above the rhythmic patter

Magnolias in the rain

i never saw a rainy day i didn't like.
Even the ones that come with scary, lashing winds
like yesterday
when i stopped often during my rounds at Greenwood
to view the magnolias through the windshield.

Here is a pine, old oak and a magnolia just opening
(by the way, this is how it looked behind the glass. No photoshop trickery this time. Click on one and a larger version will open)

on the other side of the garden, the brilliant red stems of young Japanese maples appear before another pair of giant beauties



For a while
the rain fell gently, straight from the clouds



then a wind kicked up





and it roared



and huge fat drops pelted the glass and drummed on the roof
and i felt myself smiling behind the viewfinder



Late last night a much different response gripped me
after driving home in all that weather
my hands ached from gripping the wheel for ...was it really only an hour?
then
hearing the news from North Carolina breaks my heart.
Prayers and thoughts for those who lost loved ones and homes.

 

In the rainy woods

The second day at Greenwood it rained.
but there were breaks
and the light changed often.

If these lichen are not called "snowflake lichen", why not?
Oh.
Maybe they are the woodland fairies' rose window lichen?



Later in the day
the rain poured down.
And i marveled even more at the light shining out from the woods.
Even after all those snow storms,
all the wind,
and now the rain
the bleached leaves on the beeches still cling to their branches like
small, pale yellow bunting strung from limb to limb and tree to tree.

When driving down to the barn at the end of the day
i stopped and turned off the windshield wipers
and watched them dance in the rain and took tons of photos
some of which are now in this little slide show:

Yes!

Rain! Yes, rain came!

July 1st

i let the miniature constellations
of allium seed heads remain as long as they will

June 30th

on night last week it rained
and just after sunrise in a clear sky
the garden was bejeweled

February 9th

the willow branches retain their merry, whirling posture
long after the strong winds and rain pass
and now cling, in stillness, to their shining pearls

click on the image to see a larger view

August 10th

Many of you have had too much
too many others have not received enough.
As the summer began, i wondered and worried:
would we have rain
or would i spend the months moving sprinklers
and hauling watering cans?
Previous years of drought have  impressed upon my mind
a simple, basic truth:
no amount of irrigation nurtures the land
the way rain does.

 

July 23rd

We've enjoyed lovely, cool mornings and nights
the last week or so.
i keep saying to myself
this is July?
And
just as the grass was turning crispy
some wonderful
gently soaking rain returned.
To celebrate
(in advance of her coming out party)
Miss Lily got all decked out in pearls.

August 29th

silver droplets cling to the window screen
and shine even as the sky grows darker still.
Yes! it's raining
and raining and raining again.
Just in time
to revive the garden into
in its late summer early fall stretch.

Isn't it odd
how balmy and downright hot
50 degrees feels in a freaky winter warm spell
and how cold it feels in August?
Made this girl's mind turn to hot chocolate...

Several hours later...

the last 3 posts
all about food stuffs
have prompted me to create a place
for those outbursts...consequently
i moved the rest of this post over there
to a companion blog to the garden
called

yes
there is a lot of overlap between
garden and eating but it feels
right to give the food thoughts
their own space.
i will leave a word or sign here
when i post over there
since i'm sure you don't want to miss
a morsel of z's verbage

;^)