Dear Reader:

I think this funny ole’ southern saying is right about everything in the south:

The South
The place where…Tea is sweet… accents are sweeter
Summer starts in April
Macaroni and Cheese is a vegetable
Ya’ll is the only proper noun
Chicken is fried and biscuits come with gravy
Everyone is Darling’ and
Someone’s heart is always being blessed (unknown)

……………………………..

Since our rains never came (except for a slight sprinkle) on this side of town Tuesday afternoon I woke up yesterday morning and watered the garden first thing.

I do believe that is always the secret…it must be a “Murphy Law”…”Water and the rain will fall; Don’t and it won’t rain at all.”

Anne said that  Nala helped out doing her monkey rain dance until she plopped- it worked! Go Nala!

The garden is telling me it already thinks it’s summer…the hardier plants are showing up that can withstand a southern summer…at least for the bulk of it.

*

The Confederate Jasmine is blooming and oh, how the smell just wants me to plop on the yellow bench, listen to the fountain and take whiffs from it…so that is exactly what I did!

The nicest thing about Confederate Jasmine is that it is drought-tolerant and the way the weather pattern keeps developing in our lowcountry… I am beginning to re-think what to plant that won’t require as much water or maintenance.

I see pictures on HGTV of California yards and the number of homes that are going to drought-tolerant front and back yards filled with gravel and a variety of blooming cactus…I hope we don’t get to that stage of the drought, but the last couple of summers have been rough with the only relief coming from tropical storms. We sure don’t want to get into that pattern either.

So I went to Ace Hardware and talked to the lady about what to plant in my baskets by the fence and she told me that I can’t go wrong with “Angelonia”…a delicate-looking but tough-as-nails purple flower that can take full sun.

I bought four of them to put two in each fence basket, along with yellow “purslane” as a sun-tolerant, durable plant to use as ground cover. I love purples and yellows together…especially since visiting Provence. I placed them in the baskets…tomorrow I will clean out the basket, take them out of the pots and viola…they will be ready for the summer!

Ace also had staked, growing morning glories….no seeds? Already growing…now that surely (hopefully) will save time.

The flowering baskets seem to be really doing the best…especially the petunia baskets. They are as happy as they can be!

…And you know my weakness for Gerber daisies…they had almost sold out by the time I spotted them in other customers’ carts and asked where they were….Look at this beautiful “peppermint” striped daisy….It just makes me smile. I must give some serious thought as to where to best plant them too!

I know summer is approaching…even in April…when the long-leaf sunflower bush begins to bloom…they will grow much taller than myself by summer’s end.

Early man watched for natural signs to let him know the seasons, especially planting seasons and hunting seasons. Today man doesn’t depend on natural signals as much to observe seasonal changes.

( *But even, now, with me entering my fifth year as a gardener…it is the flowers, plants, and trees themselves that tell me spring has faded and summer is knocking on the door. No need to check a calendar. I am sure God doesn’t!)

I started thinking more about this observation and I could just picture God setting an alarm clock for over 6 billion people so He could ‘catch’ them first thing in the morning. This, however, is just a human living on earth’s perspective; certainly it is not God’s.

He is with us all the time so there is no need to set alarm clocks or any other ‘man-manufactured’ invention to try to capture time. God is the one “Person” Who is not captive to time…He is free to be wherever, whenever, Whoever He wants to be.

Can you imagine a world like that? It is almost impossible for us to understand and attempt to rationalize another world that has all the ‘time in the world’!

So until tomorrow…Let us remember: On earth we are captives to time…but in the next world we will be freed and released to a world where eternity exists. Mind-blowing isn’t it?

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Look at these cute cardboard cut-out direction markers to help small children (toddlers) locate the hidden Easter eggs! Thanks Mollie for bringing them!