Sunday, September 21, 2014

Of Iceberg roses and more...

“Sometimes since I've been in the garden 
I've looked up through the trees at the sky 
and I have had a strange feeling of being happy 
as if something was pushing and drawing in my chest 
 and making me breathe fast.

Magic is always pushing and drawing 
and making things out of nothing.
Everything is made out of magic, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, 
badgers and foxes and squirrels and people. 


 So it must be all around us. 
In this garden --in all the places.” 
 ― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden


And we're back home after what it had seemed three seas and a world of a time.  There’s an island in my heart, and I’m thinking that people build too many walls and not enough bridges… I want to build bridges; be a channel, a conduit between people, between races, between cultures, between families and friends; always building, always trying to find common ground through love.  But sometimes you just have to wonder what kind of things may be waiting for you and those you love on the other side of those bridges… what motives, goodness or wickedness awaits in that dark end to stalk you; to haunt you beyond your fears?  Bridges can certainly be destroyed in a moments notice to no fault of your own.  I’m just praying my little heart out that the only and truest thing awaiting at that dark end of our bridges is true love...


The garden is a little oasis of joy and delight these days. 

The Iceberg roses in the front flowerbeds are blooming wonderfully again after some necessary ruthless cutting at the beginning of summer.   


They bloom but did not produced much foliage, and only spindly, thin branches.  They had to be cut almost to the ground. 


Now... lovely little miracles...
 What great gifts roses bestow unto our souls…
endless expanding, wonderful gifts.


They look lovely on our table too...



One little piece of advice to pass along about Iceberg roses... if you want more blooms and less scraggy thin limps, don’t just deadhead them.  Cut far back with long stems. If you cut the blossoms with very little stem, they tend to throw very spindley new growth.


Is it already getting autumnally in your neck of the woods? 


It is here… slowly and inconspicuously, but Autumn is around the corner for sure. How can I tell? You see, the other day…. the woods drew around me while out weeding early one morning… something spectral moved between the trees… a white shadow, a rushing wind among the trees.  I stopped what I was doing and stood up still, very still... listening, my heart pounding. 


What was it, I couldn’t tell.  Except perhaps, that nothing should surprise us, really… why, the season of enchantment is upon us and anything of the spooky variety can surely happen at any given time.  I’m sure if you listen and pay close attention you too would hear it—the cackles, the songs, the music of dragonfly charms and beads of ankle bracelets of witches as they trot the sun-warmed earth almost in a hurry.


What else do you see around you 
that’s foretelling the soon arrival of autumn
in your little world? 
Do share!



5 comments:

  1. What do i see? I see spiders, foggy mornings, shorter days, disappearing hummingbirds, football games (War Eagle), pumpkin patches, fall festivals, and jacket cland children. Happy Fall!

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  2. According to the calendar fall is officially here, Oh how I would love to wake up to warm colors on the trees, pumpkins on the doorstep and a chill in the air. Not in California. Summer colors are still present and if you buy pumpkins now they would be in terrible shape by Halloween. There is a very slight, and I mean slight, chill in the air at 6AM but it is just a memory by 10AM when the temperature has climbed to 80. It is far better than the triple digits we had last week though. So I look to the internet for pictures of fall and the colors I love for it could be another few months before I see something close. I am sure I will be grateful around the time snow is on the ground though.
    Happy Fall.......Sherry

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  3. Well here in Texas, we are no longer in the 100s but lower 90s. It is bearable to work outside and our evenings are in the lower 70s. There is that gold in the light of day like a filter of a camera. Summer is tired and is getting ready for its slumber finally. --Benita

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  4. We caught the first glimpses of scarlet maples this week! I have been welcoming the season all around the house. Love the cool air and brighter blue sky. However, I, too, have really had to force and beg and encourage my cheerfulness and optimism. The news is so bleak. And no, I don't sit and watch it, but it seeps through enough to fill my heart with sadness and a little dread. Ferguson is very near, plus I have a nephew living there... And the Middle East it too horrible for concentration... Must look to the hills from whence cometh my help! Hugs!

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  5. Buenos Dias Cielo
    Hace mucho no se de ti te escribo para dejarte saber que nuestra querida Amiga Sandra Diaz murio que Dios la tenga en su Gloria yo dedique
    Un blog en su nombre solo una persona contesto estoy muy Triste ya q trate de ablar con Ella cuando regrese a Miami despues de bibir en California y una sola bes pude ablar con Ella estaba muy malita y me Dijo me boy a ingresar en hospital nunca mas able con Ella
    Si tu tu biste contacto con Ella antes de su muerte dejame saber
    Que Dios te bendiga y espero Estes bien en tu nueva cottage
    Xox
    Isora

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