Dear Reader:

I almost fell over when I went to edit this photo…at first I was dismayed because I couldn’t figure out what that white streak was doing in the middle of my photo… messing it up. Then as I enlarged the picture I slowly began to see the prism of rainbow colors inside the ray. I got the biggest smile on my face! 🙂 I was overjoyed...the picture of a lifetime and I got it sitting on a lawn chair in the shade by Eva Cate’s Japanese Maple.

It was a little after ‘noon’ so the sun’s rays were directly overhead but there was nothing there when I took the picture except I just thought that patch of the garden looked particularly pretty as I enjoyed the cool breezes in the shade and relaxed under the Japanese Maple providing that shade …for the first time.

What is even more amazing is that the light was directly falling on the face of the statue “Bliss” with her arms spread out, a huge smile on her face, seemingly, welcoming the light from heaven. Even the little bird on the left arm appears to be looking up at heaven. It gave me chills…I have been getting a lot of that lately.

(*This picture of the front of the statue, Bliss, was taken back in March… as I was first cleaning up the statues…I only took the one photo (title picture) yesterday since I had no idea that anything so special was happening at that time. I didn’t start looking through the pictures until three or four hours after the photo was taken.)

Then I thought about what I had just written yesterday…how amazing benchmarks in our lifetime memories occur on the daily “normal” days in our lives…not usually on the major holidays or special events.

Here it was… the day after Easter, a ‘back-to-work’ Monday for so many people, yet somehow, I managed to capture a ray from the sun at just the right moment…certainly a completely unconscious act on my part.

I can’t help but think my garden has been blessed. It certainly has brought me so much joy, happiness…and yes, bliss.

On Earth Day 2019 I wish we could put the earth back into its natural healthier state minus the last three centuries of greed over green but I do take solace in the fact that I have a little plot of earth that I adore and lovingly tend to…like a mother with a child. Shouldn’t we all show Mother Earth the same respect?

I spent part of the day putting up bunny rabbit plaques off the fence, gate, and chair in the back yard and, I also,  removed the wooden plaque on the white bench on the front porch which read…”We believe in the Easter Bunny.” 

This only took me about twenty minutes…Easter is definitely easier to clean up after…as  compared to Christmas ‘put-aways’ which can take me days instead of minutes. And I couldn’t believe it…for the first time in the history of Easter egg hunts in the garden I didn’t find one stray egg that went un-discovered. These kids are getting too good at the hunt.

Wait…I take that back. I did find one blue and white egg…it wasn’t left behind in the garden…it was Jake’s decorative egg (I gave each grandchild a pretty souvenir egg – still hanging from the fireplace.) *But then after all what does a four-year-old boy care about a decorative egg…but I will get it to you Mandy since moms of little boys do. 🙂 I think the photo below should be entitled “The Last Easter Egg 2019.”

Soon I will have another bit of “magic”…the magnolia tree that Doodle planted the first year the garden was created is just now about to bloom for the first time…can hardly wait! Gardens keep on giving us happiness and joy…and lots of God Winks!

So until tomorrow…”If you look the right way, you can see the whole world in a garden.” The Secret Garden

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

All three of my grandsons’ Japanese Maples have different shades of red…alike but yet unique …just like them.