Dear Reader:

Isn’t spring the most anticipated season of the year…especially this year, I believe? And spring is such a wonderful metaphor for new birth, renewal, hope, and grace. I came across this quote yesterday which I love.

“Gardening is an instrument of grace” (May Sarton)

This bush (title photo) that Mary Lee gave me-along with two others  were planted around the deck.. mixed in with some tea olive plants for a lovely scent… knocked me over yesterday when I walked out to the garden!

For the past two years the bushes have struggled and suddenly I looked down into the most beautiful rainbow of colored leaves…it literally took my breath away. It was as if God sprinkled some magical “moon dust” on them last night and suddenly one bush miraculously went from brown/greenish leaves to this.

After the two beautiful warm days we had Wednesday and Thursday…Friday was a shock… returning to wet and cold…it was a day we had to step back and remember:

1) “Despite the forecast, live life like its spring.” Lily Pulitzer

and

2)  

So true in both cases…today will be warmer and tomorrow even better…and oh how we will appreciate the spring days to come!

We can learn from the flowers and plants with this philosophy of appreciation. Thursday I walked around the garden and yard checking on everything…I found myself smiling broader and broader because there were  little surprises popping up everywhere.

“However many years she lived, Mary always felt that ‘she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow’.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

I don’t remember when my garden grew but I remember when it started…with stepping stones to nowhere but a dream. Pictures on the left to right… 2013-Sept., then Oct. and then November – with the delivery of the magic moon gate.

Even though the garden is still half asleep…let me show you it today…since I haven’t gotten that panoramic photo-taking down yet…I will divide the garden into four parts…from the grandchildren’s Japanese maples with lanterns hanging down, to the moon gate and main path, to the fountain, and the benches.

…..

It was while I was trying to decide which flowers and plants I loved the most… that I suddenly remembered reading something about the wonder of a fantasy world…one which allows the first thing a child sees each day…to become it! I thought what a wonderful way to introduce a garden to a child…if he could become a different flower each day.

(I finally found the source of the memory…it came from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass!)

There was a child went forth everyday,
And the first object he look’d upon, that object he became.
And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day, Or for many years or stretching cycles of years.

I started thinking what flower, plant, or tree would I choose to become…if I could become that object for a day? I think I would have to become a different part of nature each day so I would know what it feels like -from the inside-to be that gift from God. (* Though I would love to be “Big Red” and look out over the front yard from its perch on the white bench…and, also, try to help it recover from the freeze that took most of its limbs away).

Th thought (of looking at something uniquely from the inside out) is so beautifully expressed in this poignant baby nursery wall decal…

Come with me now… as we look for clues that spring is about to be “sprung” on us!

1) The first bud opening on the pink azalea bush in the front yard.

Spring is all about hints...”hints of things to come.” It takes little imagination to predict that this spring, with our unusually long winter, will produce the most beautiful of all springs  to enjoy…We will be rewarded for our patience with Old Man Winter.

 My little angel statue “Bliss” is happy with glee to see all bulbs planted last year and the year before… springing up for us to guess what it is …we get to anticipate its name and beauty.

  This dwarf azalea named “Scarlet” is flirting with the other plants and flowers in the garden… as her red buds slowly reveal her stunning beauty. We will all just have to wait to see the final results … because as Miss Scarlet would say… “Tomorrow is another day.”

All my delectable yellow beauties…it really is like:

A wizard must have passed this way
Since—was it only yesterday?
Then all was bare, and now, behold,
A hundred cups of living gold!

…And with the rain we had Thursday night…wonderful mud puddles…what would spring be without them? I think we must have a ‘mud puddle party’ in the garden when the weather warms with the grandchildren!

“The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.”  e.e. cummings

Since Friday was a reminder that spring hasn’t quite arrived yet…Old Man Winter will continue to pop up unexpectedly..we must keep our memories of what the garden looked like last year with our hopes and dreams for it this year.

“God gave us memories that we might have June roses in the December of our lives.”  James Barrie

So until tomorrow…may we delight in the longer days of light beginning to slowly descend upon us…reminding ourselves to stop and spend more time thanking the One Who is the Light.

* Reminder: Spring forward tomorrow….set your clocks!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Look at this adorable picture Patty Knight sent of her grandson, Jeff, and his favorite stuffed animal- his racoon! Thank you Patty for sharing with all of us!

Jett loves his coon! I am sure it will be thread bare.

* Most of you know that my doll Polly was, is, and will always be my “doll-smudged” love. While going through some old pictures I found a couple of Eva Cate (when she was around two years old) loving on Polly, Teddy, and Dolly Dingle-at the same time)