Forget-me-not wildflowers
I cannot remember a spring when I spent as much time outdoors as I am spending this spring. Almost every day I’ve been wandering around our backyard, listening to the frogs croak, seeing the ducks and turtles in and around the pond, watching spring arrive, slowly, softly, day by day.
I might have spent as much time in our yard without the stay-at-home directive, but I doubt it. Most likely I would have been going here and there instead of staying at home and puttering around the yard watching trees and flowers leaf out and blossom. Surprisingly I am grateful to the corona virus for opening up this time for me to spend my days wandering…
From Blossom to Blossom
Every day I see something I hadn’t noticed before. Yesterday it was these forget-me-not wildflowers growing near the bush cherry tree that I planted 5 or 6 years ago. I’ve never seen this wildflower bloom before near our house, so it was a special treat to find it yesterday.
“However many years she lived, Mary always felt that ‘she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow’.”
― The Secret Garden
The bush cherry was maybe 6 inches tall when I planted it. I ordered it from a seed catalog and had no idea it would be so small. But I planted it and Jon put chicken wire around it to protect it from the deer and the rabbits.
Each year I checked for blossoms on the cherry tree, but none appeared. Still I cared for it, weeded around it, and watered it. I was beginning to think that it would never bloom. And then today I noticed the remains of a few blossoms at the very top of the tree. It’s probably six fee tall now, still not very big, but huge compared to its size when I planted it. I’m excited to see if it sets on cherries. But I think I will need to cover it with netting if I hope to actually taste any of the cherries when they’re ripe (if there are any). Otherwise the birds will feast on them before I can pick them.
Blueberry Blossoms
My blueberry bushes are full of blossoms. It’s not quite time for my black raspberries to bloom yet but they are growing well after we moved them away from the house almost 2 years ago. Last year they looked pretty sad from being uprooted and moved. And because I had hip replacement surgery in mid-June last year I never tended them last summer. Though I could see a few berries on the tops of the bushes from the dining room window, in early July I wasn’t able to pick them and Jon had enough to do simply taking care of me and everything else at home. So the birds ate all of the blueberries and black raspberries last year.
“Is the spring coming?” he said. “What is it like?”…
“It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine…”
― The Secret Garden
This year (hallelujah!) is a different story. I’ve spent many afternoons weeding and working in the yard. Sometimes I just take a lawn chair down near storage shed and sit and soak up all of the beauty. The spot where I sit is about 15 feet from the edge of the pond. I’ve now spent enough time hanging out in the yard that the turtles no longer plop off the log at the edge of the pond when I move around down there. They just sit in the sun on the log and keep an eye on me.
So I watch the turtles and the turtles watch me. A few of the mallards are quite blase about my presence in the backyard. But the shy wood ducks always fly off or swim away when I move around in the yard. I watch them from the windows of the house every day. In the morning just before and after sunrise there are often half a dozen or more male wood ducks gracefully circling to and fro in the pond. I love watching them and photographing them. They are probably the most photographed ducks in the city. Soon I hope to see baby wood ducks or baby mallard ducks on the pond.
Today I took a bike ride through our neighborhood and inhaled the sweet scent of crab apple blossoms, honeysuckle, and lilacs all along my ride. It was a little bit of heaven biking along with the breeze on my skin, the sun warming me, and the scents of so many blooming things wafting through the air. Such beauty!
When Jon and I were younger we used to go out together on his motorcycle for rides. During the springtime rides, I remember the sweetness of riding together with the scent of flowers and the beauty all around filling me with joy. From blossom to blossom we rode, the scent of spring in the air.
The time I spend in nature nourishes my body and soul. Working in the yard and taking bike rides through the neighborhood are helping me get stronger. I am so grateful for my new hip joint! And I’m grateful for this wonderful world we live in. There is magic in the ordinary turning of the seasons. When we slow down to pay attention and take in the wonder of it all our lives are enriched immensely.
“Sometimes since I’ve been in the garden I’ve looked up through the trees at the sky and I have had a strange feeling of being happy as if something was pushing and drawing in my chest and making me breathe fast. Magic is always pushing and drawing and making things out of nothing. Everything is made out of magic, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and people. So it must be all around us. In this garden – in all the places.”
― The Secret Garden
How are you doing as stay-at-home enters its third month? I hope you are finding consolations for the loss of in-person social events and any other losses you have endured. And I hope that you are enjoying this beautiful springtime weather. The earth goes on no matter what happens and we shall also adapt and grow in this challenging time.
May you walk in beauty.
And wander from blossom to blossom in the springtime.
0 Comments