Of rain, flowers and neighbors

Rain rain… I’ve never seen so much rain in the 30+ years we’d lived here. We’re high desert people, and around here, rain usually comes only in the form of snow during our long cold winters, and the tin-tin-tin light showers of early spring…. Then, it is only in the form of the sprinkler systems we see water.

Not this year thought—the year of changes, and strange happenings. 

In Nature, things are following the same pattern, I’m afraid.  Spring came super early this year.  And it came with some drastic fluctuations and uncommonly seen patterns—mildew infestations, leaf-feeding insects and weeds of all kinds. It was the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine kind of a thing.

The worse thus far it had to be having to prune so early in the year. By the end of May the garden had already grown so much, that it was starting to look like a lost garden of sorts…

Usually, that's the time when things are barely starting to blossom… this year, however, it was such lushness as I’d never seen around here.

...roses everywhere

I won't complain!

 

 

Beyond the garden, on the other side of the fence, things are not as pretty, though... you can always see our neighbor's monster of a motorhome park there, like an eyesore behind the roses...

 

 

One must concentrate on the pretty... 

one must bring her soul onto the lovely side of the fence

and she have to train her heart to dwell only on the good 

and the ephemeral and the everyday eternal...

 

 and I do...

I have enough with my pretty side of the garden

the lovely sounds of birds

and pastel colors of roses...

The neighbors?

What is there to do?

Keep filling the garden with more prettiness;
keep trying to cover unpretty things up this side out

then, dwell on possibilities...

It was almost painful having to prune all the beautiful flowering trees and native bloomers such as the Columbine and garden Phlox the other day… but it was a job it had to be done.

For years and years, I had Mexican Evening Primrose growing at the feet of some of my favorite roses, but this year they were finally pulled out, and I am so glad I did what I did, for “where you tend a rose my lad, a thistle cannot grow.” (The Secret Garden)… 

Evening Primrose are such invasive little flowers, they keep moving to places you don’t want to see them grow, they don’t ask for your permission either, and they can get very lanky and unruly past their prime.

My idea was to only keep the snapdragons that are also growing in those beds… they’re so pretty and come in such variety of colors… but I know that the Mexican Evening Primrose is an aggressive grown cover and sometimes can be difficult to eradicate. So they will come back, I’m sure of that.

Peonies are done...

until next year!

Nothing better than them to remind you how ephemeral life is... 

As for man, his days are like grass, 

he blooms like a flower of the field, 

when the wind passes over, it vanishes, 

and its place remembers it no more 

(Psalm 103:15)