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!

Tulips

April 14—today I planted three new roses in my rose garden—one Chicago Peace in mom’s little garden and a Pink Peace and a First Prize on the opposite side of the garden, by the robin bath. I’m planning on filling this space behind the roses, under the lilac tree, with one or two bushes… I’m already living my dream of creating a little jungle all around me. 

April 16—today, I planted two Quaking Aspens that soon will be willowing atop the back fence. All the rains have left and the sun has come out spilling new buds and life from sunshine filled pockets… 

April 24—this is the time of the tulips, the time of the awakening of the earth and the time for which my heart waits for all year around. Spring! How fresh and renewed the earth wakes up every morning, how glorious the light what shrouds the garden, blessing it from above in hundreds of tiny petals. My heart is overjoyed; my spirit swirls in morning breezes and bird songs. I go to the garden and my eyes cannot be still; contemplating, searching, drinking in all the glories and blessings the new day has to offer. 

The tulips I planted last autumn have all bloomed and are filling the garden splendidly with their pastel magic. I cannot describe in perfect feelings the joy they bring to my heart; the beauty, the silent blessings. Such delicacy and beauty in each bloom, that I have decided to plant more this fall and have filled with them that special space by the fountain I had been saving for the Boscobel roses for so long. In between the tulips, I have planted petunias; spreading petunias that will soon fill the space when the tulips are done, so that now, instead of roses, I will have a more compacted lower beds of beauty, that I am very much pleased with. I’m very comfortable with my decision, specially because the tree behind the fountain is growing rapidly and that area will be quite crowded soon. 

 

The crabapple tree is shedding its lovely cranberry colored petals and the garden floors is carpeted with them, and it looks as if the soil has turned dark pink all of a sudden.

 

It is such a great feeling to feel in total control of your garden, as it is with this one, and as lovely and lush as my southerner garden was, I cannot say that I love this one any less. I know exactly what I want to see here and what I don't.  There’s no weed nor petal growing without my permission; no wildflower without my consent.  

 

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

 

“She turned to the sunlight
    And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
    "Winter is dead.”
― A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young 

 
 

“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"...
"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden.

 

What a beautiful thing!  To be alive beneath tulip blossoms…