Rainy are my days or the peas trees are in.

 Happy is my garden.  It has been raining all week long.  The rain started on Sunday.  Just in time to rescue us from two weeks of smoldering humidity.  Our nights are sweet and cool again.  But I am never satisfied with perfection.  I long for the hot days of summer.  We are getting the pool up and running this year.  The kids are so excited it makes you smile just watching them as they watch the water and chemicals go in.  Just thinking of watching them, we will have to be extra vigilant.  Should I place latches high up on doors.  Or at least latches with bells/noise makers attached.  Pools of water and children equal thoughtless attraction.

Oh, but my garden, I planted peas yesterday.  There were a few hours stopping of the raining.  I honestly thought that it had stopped so I got my four little peas trees off the porch garden and transplanted them into my, whatever-I-wish-to-plant-this-year, garden.  It poured last night.  I planted them on a hill so this morning when I checked, they were still alive.  I am ecstatic.

The Beautiful Green Days

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All winter long the mad gray giants raged, scouring and scratching at the ice covered sky.  Their brittle bone like fingers broke often.  With sharp snaps one piece after the other would go crashing down to the frozen earth.  There, adding their music to Winters. 




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Green is the color of the trees now.  They are growing fat too, on sap, and have covered their hands in soft leafy gloves.  No longer raging, they gently sweep puffy white clouds across the blue-blue sky.  It is the hue that covers everything, even the rocks that live in wet locales. 





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Early springs' favorite color is the many shades of green.  She dyes unchecked and I spin to see it all, missing twice as much as I catch.



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Dragons! We have wild pumpkins.

Once in a vegetable garden far away there lived a young group of plants called the companions.  Better friends than Corn, Zucchini, Lettuce, Basil, Chives, Tomatoes, old man Rhubarb and the lover-ly Marigold were never before seen.  Certainly not in this garden.

One day wild dragons came.  Even Gardener didn’t know how they had got there but they stayed and started taking over the garden.

The plants all felt threatened by the beasts.  They were afraid the dragons would wrap their long shinny green tentacles around them and squeeze the life right out of them.

The dragons were rumored to be aggressive wild things who would strangle any unsuspecting plant in their path.

 

The plants of the garden could not grow fast enough to move out of the way of the oncoming dragons.  Something had to be done.  

Basil stepped up and suggested that the companions get in line and go to war. 

So with the help of the good giant known only as Gardener, they were able to turn the dragons aside. 

Corn and his family cheered the longest.

The Zucchini family cheered the shortest.

Tomatoes and the rest of the plants were just happy it was over.

A garden party was held all the ladies and gentlemen of the land were invited to a feast that seemed not to end.

Soon after the great dragon war, the companions settled back into their daily routine of growing and dreaming of the thing called harvest that Gardener talked so sweetly about.

Changing the sheets or Replacing sweet comfort with careless luxury.

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Spring is here.  Summer is coming and I am glad that winter has left.  It is getting hot and turning green outside.  My big blankets are starting to keep me too warm.  Last night I stripped my bed of the fluffy green winter sheets, the ones that make me feel as if wrapped in a cocoon of sweet comfort.  I dressed my bed for the summer in regular cotton sheets the color of sand with circle patterns big and small.  When I looked down at the bed that I had just made a feeling of gratitude took me to my knees.  Mine are Blissful prayers.  As I lay in bed smiling and thinking about why I was feeling so happy the only thing that came to mind is the change in seasons.

 

Green has not always been my favorite color, so the symptoms of the deficiency surprised me.  In the springtime, I feel a great sense of hope, like an expectant mother.  Every morning I get out of bed, look out of my window, and smile at the subtle changes.  By the time summer arrives, I am fierce and full of energy, like the big strong baobab tree, I find myself gloriously centered.  Than the leaves begin to turn, signaling the end of summer.

Disappointment comes at me in full force, autumn in all her beauty has come.  A compelling urge to dress myself in all these colors consumes me.  I daydream of commissioning a beautiful autumn colored winter coat.  My thoughts and conversations are of the coming season “will we be having a calm or bitter winter this year?”.  In the winter, I experience a sadness that I medicate by doing nice things for myself, like spiking my morning coffee.  The entire season I spend eating homemade cakes and pies.  Thank God for Christmas.  Rugs and throws in every room and cheerful music on the radio.  Winter is spent waiting, waiting for spring to come again, waiting for the green.

The Porch Garden

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I have always been attracted to flowers and greenery even as a child.  It was not long before I realized that if I was having bad days and I went through the greenhouse section of a store, I would perk right up.  All the flowers and plants there had the simple effect of making me smile; the scents helped me to breathe when I didn’t even know that I was holding my breath.  Being among plants feed my soul.  My senses of touch, smell, sight, taste just come alive. Now I only go to green houses in the winter and in the summer I keep a porch garden.

Spring has just began, and it is time to get work started on the porch garden.  Last year the garden was home to plumb tomatoes and big beef tomatoes.  They were so delicious.  All of my house plants found themselves outside.  Rosemary and her friends Sage, Oregano, Mint and Sweet-basil made life in the little garden on the porch wonderful and fragrant.  The children learned to name, recognize and care for all the plants that lived there.

My sister Jacky our family chef cooked lots of special foods with the materials from our garden.  We had the daily pleasure of walking out to the porch-garden/Sanctuary for coffee or just to pick 3 sprigs of mint to add to a jug of lemonade at dinner time.  This was incredible for us because we lived on the third floor.  When the frost came in it was miserable and a bit depressing knowing we would soon be inside for the winter.  The frost damaged some plants and the apartment could not support the herbs so we ended up losing those as well.  Our apartment was just too small and dark.

We moved last November and even though our new place is bigger we are still on the third floor.  Here I feel like a rich woman when I sit in my empty living room and survey the square footage.  Blossoms, foliage and more Plant life are my big plan.  In the spring time I will have greenery, in the summertime too and Greenery in the fall and if I have my way in this house with all these windows and space, I will have a green and white winter.  Imagine that, happiness in the winter.

The new porch is large, 7 feet wide and 16 feet long, it has great potential.  We have a lot of work to do before this new porch can be called “The garden”.  The last tenants where not kind to the place.  They kept a dog on the porch, but did not keep him well.  When we moved in here it was cold, and now that it is getting warm it has also become the time to clean away the smell of dog and the mess.  The first thing we will need to do is empty the area and clean it with a scrub brush and lots of soap and water.  There is outdoor carpeting, the green grass stuff, the new landlord said it is in good condition.  The cleaning will tell.  This is an exciting time, I have to remember to save more egg containers for the tomato seeds and get potting soil for all the new slips I have been taking from the house plants.