All Joys

The kiss of the sun for pardon,

the song of the birds for mirth,

one is nearer God's heart in a garden,

than anywhere else on earth.

♥

♥

Hummingbird

"Hummingbird don't fly away, fly away"
- Seals and Crofts

Ohmygod. I saw a hummingbird today!
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I was communing with the ivy along the front walkway, trying to convince it that it did not want to cross the brick edge work along the stone front path, when there he was. Hovering his tiny self, wings going a zillion miles a minute. He was eyeballing the bright deep orange impatiens in the flower urns containing the elephant ears.
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Now I know what I need for my birthday: a glass hummingbird feeder.
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Although, you're right: if you have to boil the sugar water concoction, I am not going to do it. Much as I adore them, I would not cook for hummingbirds.
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Thank god I don't have to feed Orchid.

Planting Time

is now.
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Fall bulbs get planted in the Fall, producing flowers in the Spring. Spring bulbs get planted in the Spring, producing flowers in the Summer.
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That's how it works on our island. For this, I didn't make the rules, I've just learned to follow them. I grew up in the magnificent formal garden maintained by my parents who were both ardent, passionate, and diligent in their gardening. Planting time for bulbs always confused me; I spent years asking, "But why do you plant them now if they don't grow until then?" The answers I received were less than scientific typically consisting of, "Because that's the way it's done." In much the same way that nickels are larger in size than dimes but have less value, planting time confuses new gardeners.
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Confusion results in staring at everyone else's beautiful tulips in the Spring and wondering, "How did they get them? Where did they come from?" Unlike the wild orange North Shore daylilies, you do not get Dutch tulip blooms unless you make the effort to plant them.
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In the Spring, our yard is a riotous profusion of color. While many tulips come back each year, and do prove to be hardy perennials, I treat tulips as annuals. I plant approximately one hundred new ones each year.
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So, this is a reminder for those on our island: planting time for happy tulips, sunny daffodils, and the like, is now.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Having read the book and sat through the movie, I conclude that my favorite part is still the statue. There are better books in the world and there are better movies, but the statue design is classic and timeless and can hold its own with the best garden ornamentation ever created.

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Chancing upon a lovely darkened cement version, my husband indulged me and he agreed that our mutual bird friends would find it equally intriguing. So, here it is; the best part of the famous book and famous movie, in my garden. Like they say: It's All Good.

Fireflies Dance

The phone rings last night. "Hey, what are you guys doing?" asks a friend. I reply, "We're outside watching our very own Laser Light Show." My friend says, "It's pouring rain out!" I said, "Not over here. Or, maybe it is and we don't know it. We're outside on the patio, watching the most glorious spectacle of intermittent flashes of lightening punctuated by the sparks from millions of lightening bugs. I'm exaggerating the 'millions' but we have a very great many. And, they're everywhere. And, we were just discussing that we have no idea what makes them glow or whether they spend their days charging up or why they zoom around the way they do. And, we were talking about how we do so love them and that they are amongst our utmost favorite bugs. The combination of heat lightening and lightening bugs is just heavenly!"

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So, in order to shed light on our lightening bug questions my friend thoughtfully provided the following link:

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http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/basics/firefly/