Dear Reader:

I had an epiphany last evening as I pondered the direction my thoughts would choose to travel for the blog today. The realization of my acknowledgement that God leads each of us along our individual paths through our life journey (on a daily basis) here on earth suddenly clarified. It just doesn’t stop with His Presence observing our choices in life. Metaphorically it is the direction of our thoughts that become paramount with living a fulfilled life here on earth.

I think it was the beauty/glow from my two morning glories, early yesterday morning, that got me started thinking about the soothing presence of nature. Since starting my garden almost five years ago…it has become the salve that heals my own troubled thoughts. It truly is my personal sanctuary.

While these thoughts were running through my mind…a God Wink appeared! I “happened” upon a familiar poem by Wendell Berry. Suddenly all my muddled thoughts concerning the impact of my garden on me, my life, and inner musings… came to light through this short message/poem.

There it is…my garden has set me free! It is civilization that causes me the most concern…not God’s greatest gift to us through nature. It is man who spawns our problems in his attempt to “improve” our world through untested waters and missed priorities of a self-imposed, societal definition for what constitutes a “civilized” life.

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Friday was the first full day (in what seems like forever) that we didn’t receive rain in some form or the other…torrential rains, pop-up thunderstorms, steady rains, or soft drizzle. The humidity has felt like a thick veil wrapped around our bodies… tightly…continuously… upon stepping outside.

On the first day of June…the rains ceased, however, the temperatures began climbing and the nineties are now knocking on the door for the next several days. The gardener, in me, has gone back on daily vigil duty… assessing what plants, flowers, or trees need what sustenance, while adjusting to the brighter, hotter weather.

The one plant I don’t need to worry about are the hydrangeas…the blooms are literally toppling over each other. So far all my hydrangeas are “boys”….all different shades of blue…and they are so beautiful. Every now and then I peek outside my computer “office” window and stare down at the two dwarf hydrangeas I planted after mounds of leaves and debris were removed last fall from that section of my property.

*All the good earthy composition left behind is so rich in nutrients that the bushes have outdone themselves for their first revelation.

I am praying this citronella plant, I have on my deck, is going to do the trick…with all the rains we have had in our wettest May on record…the mosquitoes are busy having babies…it is going to be rough for awhile getting out in the garden.

Hydrangeas make the most beautiful flower arrangements inside.

Welcome to my two new mandevillas in the back yard. Since the morning glories seem to be struggling somewhat this year…I thought the mandevillas would add more color to the fence area. (PSST! These two-gallon pink planters had been $25.99 at Home Depot -a piece. While I was shopping last week they were literally marked down to $5.99!. Doesn’t a “steal” make us feel so lucky? It made my day!)

I think we must end this post with a chuckle and Jo Dufford can do it better than anyone I know. She had let me know that she had trouble leaving a response the other day…something popped up about cookies and privacy. She got her daughter, Kelly, to try to explain the tech jargon behind the term. (Jo thought she had gotten busted sneaking cookies out of the cookie jar!)

Then she ended her message with this fun excerpt….

…“Really I’ve always kind of enjoyed cookies so I should have felt that anything with the name cookie couldn’t be very bad.  I feel like the guy named James Lewis, whose wife yelled at him, “James Lewis, get a way from that wheel barrow because you know  nothing about machinery.”

*Jo, please don’t feel alone…anytime something pops up that I don’t understand I just delete or turn off the computer and go about my merry ways.

So until tomorrow…“For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and I am free.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Joan Turner, John’s mom, let us know that her beloved dog, Lucy, passed away. There is a long story here…but basically Joan rescued Lucy running down a highway…took her home where she promptly had four puppies that Joan provided a home for, along with their mother Lucy, at her house.

It was definitely a “God Wink” when a stray dog and a great humanitarian, like Joan, paths crossed on a busy highway. What a life Joan gave her…no dog could ever have been loved like she was! Heaven is going to have to “up their game” to come close to the life of unconditional love you gave her and her family in this world.