In the garden

April 29—cold and windy.  “¿Hasta cuándo esperaremos por la recompesa del dulce sol?”.  And how long will we wait for the sweet reward of the sun?  Are we ever going to see “nuestro pequeño mundo envuelto en calor?”—our land wrapped in warmth?  

As it was, I couldn’t wait any longer to plant my David Austin roses—the ones we had brought home on Friday.  So, I went out and planted them… my Boscobel and Abraham Darby.  The garden has evolved into a real dream these days.  I stand in it with my arms raised to the sky and I get this feeling of being content as if something, or someone bigger than me is drawing and making things out of nothing. Everything is made out of magic, and my heart sees what is invisible to the eye.     

April 30—I have scattered the zinnia seeds today; mainly in the rose garden in the rotunda, and around mom’s little garden—zinnias for summer flowers when the ephemeral glories of spring are long gone...

It was another day of high winds and chilly weather, but I am blessed and thankful for being able to work the soil, and still enjoy life outside.

 

May 3—today, I planted two Double Knockout roses—red petalled roses for a rubicund glint and a trickle of flushed glory among all greens and pinks.  I decided to plant one of these roses under the Quaking Aspen, on the west side of the garden, and the other is now replacing the bare-root Sundowner Grandiflora that I had planted last spring by the big fountain in the center of the garden.  

Nothing looks more pitiful than a newly planted bare-root rose standing like a skeleton in the garden, its thin, naked stems clacking together in the wind. But then winter passed and spring had its way with the world again.  Days grew longer and temperatures rose, summer came and went… yet, this rose never switched back into beauty mode.  I wouldn’t have it any other way, which simply means I took it out and put in its place that other red Double Knockout.  For plenty of blooms and incredible successions... 

 

I didn’t want to put that Sundowner Grandiflora in the trash yet, thought, and so I decided to give it another try and went onto replanting it in mom’s little garden.  We’ll see what little miracle would come out from this decision… only time will tell.

 

I have learned that when a plant or a shrub isn’t doing good in the garden, one must remove it as soon as you can; particularly when this relates to roses.  Life is too short, and the garden life so ephemeral that I refuse to continue on nursing the bad and the ugly.  I love this poem:

“A poor old Widow in her weeds
Sowed her garden with wild-flower seeds;
Not too shallow, and not too deep,
And down came April -- drip -- drip -- drip.
Up shone May, like gold, and soon
Green as an arbour grew leafy June.
And now all summer she sits and sews
Where willow herb, comfrey, bugloss blows,
Teasle and pansy, meadowsweet,
Campion, toadflax, and rough hawksbit;
Brown bee orchis, and Peals of Bells;
Clover, burnet, and thyme she smells;
Like Oberon's meadows her garden is
Drowsy from dawn to dusk with bees.
Weeps she never, but sometimes sighs,
And peeps at her garden with bright brown eyes;
And all she has is all she needs --
A poor Old Widow in her weeds.” 
― Walter de la Mare, Peacock Pie

  

The gypsies

The gypsy caravan took the gypsy lovers through green valleys, quaint little towns and hills after hills clad in bright gowns, sown in yellow wildflowers.

About a quarter past three, they finally rounded the last hill and arrived at their gypsy camp. It was one of the finest and upmost picturesque campsite the gypsy girl had ever seen! Gloriously beautiful to her soul and splendid all around.  The afternoon air brought wafts after wafts of the splendid scent of lilac, from dozens of trees in perfect blooms, and down the green fertile path the sound of placid waves to sooth the spirit and tend their senses…

Off they went right away to set up camp; putting things away and getting their gypsy trailer all leveled up… after they were settled in, they went out for a walk along winding paths covered in wildflowers; every tree and shrub were in bloom, as if claiming for themselves every blossom and glory of early spring.

 

I took oodles of pictures, sighted and marveled at every bend in the beauty and exquisiteness all around me, while collecting flowers and making bouquets to later embellish and perfumed our gypsy trailer with. 

Then, it was lunch, or dinner or both… I made our usual arroz guisado with lots of vegetables, mushrooms, onions, colored peppers and black beans.  I had my veggie crumble meat too, and the Fisherman went for the grill and his favorite stake and corn… then, he went down to lake to fish while I chose to wash dishes and reorganize our little pantry…  everything looked so organized and clean!    

After I was done organizing inside, I went to sit outside and spent some time bird watching and taking more pictures, and collecting more flowers, until I got really cold and had to come running back in… to write and keep dreaming and just continued on being the sole old gypsy of my caravan!

Our gypsy caravan has seen a lot of changes as far as styling and decorating goes since the day we got her; particularly our little bedroom.  You see, I wasn’t fully happy with how I had originally styled it… something was missing, there was a void an emptiness too large to be ignored; too boring of a feeling…  or something like that!

I wanted more vardo more gypsy more color saturation more veils and tapestries and lots and lots of character.  So, I went to my closets and visited several of my favorite thrift stores and collected an assortment of scarves and shawls that were too pretty to leave behind, and then started the real decorating… when I was done, this is what I got!  

Even the ceiling got covered!  It also occurred to me that this space needed some curtains to act as doors… the old orange gypsy curtains with patterns of exotic flowers were perfect for what I had in mind…

I particularly loved that it immediately separated our little nest from the rest of our tiny house on wheels, turning it into a cozy little gypsy den.  This also helped with dimming out the light from the built-in clock on the top shelves that were so bright at night… Now, I can sleep! Then today, I laced them with something even more cheerful and sparkly...  like these cute panels I like so much!

I could not stopped admiring the amount of lilac trees growing in this campground... I was in total awe with the glorious rows and rows of perfect blooms barricading our gypsy caravan.  The wafts of scent brought to us on wings of winds were intoxicating and the place a dream.  

It was glorious waking up in our cozy gypsy nest all cuddled up and then having breakfast outlooking the placid lake down below our gypsy caravan...

THEN, later on that Saturday we were visited by some very dear and beautiful fairies who came by to spend some time with us old gypsies… we made food and shared food, we collected oodles of flowers from mountains and wildflowered paths, we hiked to the top of hills where deer roamed, and then droved to see the dams and to a nearby ice-cream parlor for milkshakes.  The girls had a lot of fun playing in the gypsy caravan and telling scary stories of bad bears and wolves.  

It was such a beautiful beautiful trip, and the gypsy caravan is so pretty and it feels so cozy there, and I want to sleep there every night from now on!

Thank you for coming along with me! 
Hope you too enjoyed our lovely little trip!