The Privet flower...

Same days same hours; same things.. and yet each morning we're born again... the new morning always knows how to bring better hours and days filled with wonder...  

Does it happen to you that sometimes, in the dark of night, life becomes something of a terrifying thing?  I call those night 'the dark nights of the soul'.  But then, morning breaks in the panorama, light starts to fill the dark spaces of your soul, it touches the tired sockets of your eyes dissipating fears and any numbness of your brain, and it fills you with mirth and blessings and goodness and then...

Everything change in a zilch of that moment...  you roll over, buried half your face in your pillow and smile slightly... it is then the overwhelming realization washed over you that there is so much more to life than simply surviving a bad night...  There is never a night or a problem that can defeat sunrise or hope, don't you think so!

The woods behind our gardens have been dressing up themselves in supple dark green dresses, and the wild Privet running rampant near the little creek are wearing crowns made out of white flowers shrouded in such a fantastic fragrance.

Their flowers are in bloom and are filling the earth with an enticing sweet fragrance almost impossible to describe..  It smells like honey and sweet dreams and butterfly wings and it smells like magical woods and happy spring days.

The flowers of the Privet remind me of Lilac, but with a stronger sweeter scent than Lilac typically carries.   A wonderfully strong scent that captivates me and keeps me outside, wanting to return here time after time during my day... like a lover singing love songs outside my window...

One neat thing I noticed is that Privet flowers hold their scent really well.  I broke off a few branch of blooms this morning and brought them inside.

Our little cottage now carries the glorious scent of the garden outside... 

It smelled like a spring day and that’s about all I can say to describe the lovely scent.

Always remember this my friend:  "For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning" (Psalm 30:5).

Hasta luego!

Cielo

LINKING TO:

BLUE MONDAY

Diary of a garden

I can hardly believe it's been already a year since we moved to our little white cottage.    We reached our first-year anniversary on the 30th of April, and I can still remember as if it was today how bare and inhospitable this little plot of earth was...  a field of weeds and a jungle, keeper of strange sounds and overgrown vegetation--that was all.  

About this time of the year, last year, I was up to my eyes in soil and sweat, cutting and removing sod by hand almost to the point of exhaustion, with my heart fixed on the flowerbeds and garden paths I envisioned and knew would bring such joy to such untamed place.  Today, it is almost hard to believe how my hard labors have paid off and how my dreams have come to fruition... plants and flowers I worked so hard on establishing are now giving giving... this amazes me and enchants my little soul to its fullest...  

Yes, it is the same place of a year ago!

Ah my soul is a little butterfly with wings the color of sunshine

It’s been one amazing milestone to relish in – we’ve tasted the goodness and faithfulness of God in our lives, the journey hasn't been easy, testing too at the beginning, but it has gotten sweeter as days go by and I learn to trust my Heavenly Father in all aspects of my life. 

Sometimes the best thing one can do is not think, not wonder, not imagine, not obsess. Just breath, and have faith that everything will work out for the best... and that's that I've been doing.

I have discovered that the speedwell plant I planted and so loved last year it did survived after all. It is just a little wee branch coming up from the ground right this moment, but it is there and it is enough to keep me hoping.   

We have built another wall on the east side of the garden to contain that jungle out there.  I stained the wall and made a little path using concrete pavers.  Then planted a whole lot of flowers and added a mirror to the wall.  I also placed a chair painted in blue by the mirror to create the impression of a room and bring that little corner to life.  It looks like a little house seen from the outside now.   

Oh and remember this?

Now this...

 I can hardly wait to see all those Elephant Ear plants I buried in there coming to life!

May... the month of May brings such joy.  Butterflies, too, have moved in with the arrival of May.  Roses are waking up and the fields are getting tinted in colors.  Wildflowers masquerade the earth, and the May wind, coming in from the woods, are bringing the spring snows...  snow that flutters in gusts of fuzzy white tiny seeds covered with silky white cotton-like fuzz, making it easy for the wind to pick them up and transport them miles away.  You can trace these seeds to the cottonwood trees growing in the woods behind our garden... it is a lovely sight, and I'm thankful that as beautiful as this is and as bad as what it can connote I haven't' been affected with any allergies.

I want more of this!

Experimenting with miniature roses...

They were marked down to one dollar... had to have it!

Chiggers and other creatures have come in with the month of May too... in a lessen amount thus far, but they're here irremediably... I guess it's their season to be in season. Nature never ceases to amaze me... it has its own biological clock for sure.

I found three frogs under the patio umbrella this morning.  One landed on my head as I was opening the umbrella--smooth and ashen looking in color, and so cold to the touch!  Oh I know this for a fact, because I was able to caught two of them and placed them on the pond.  The third one got away.  Their soothing night songs are enchanting...

I am the happy queen of my little world, I am committed to live my life surrounded by flowers... it may not be an easy task to accomplish, but that will be my life.  Never give up in procuring your dreams.  Work hard and make it happen!

LINKING TO:

FEATHERED FRIDAY

SIMPLE AND SWEET FRIDAYS

Gypsy days

It was the perfect time of the year for a gypsy gathering.  So we all gathered up our belongings... 

and headed out to the clouds...

Trailers and campers and gypsy caravans rode on to that place called Cloudland Canyon--straddled in a deep gorge cut into the mountain by Sitton Gulch Creek...

As we traveled in one long line, the air, slim and emerald green, carried the sweet scents of the mountain laurel and wild rhododendrons...

Picture a river jumping off some waterfalls, blue mountains in the distance and lovely wild-flower meadows.  Tucked in among the long grasses is our gypsy caravan.  Windows propped open to let a trail of wildflower scents drift into your gypsy rooms...

Daydreaming in your own warm, cozy and comfortable gypsy caravan...

...in rooms with a dash of glamour tinged with the romance of Romany life

Your books and magazines open on the caravan's bed, just where you left them last time. 

Meals will be laid out across the campfire table, 

...to night fireside revelries waiting...

You may try your hand at Romany cuisine, cooked at the caravan's little kitchen...

 A campfire roast, or a stew bubbling in a kettle, but oh coffee is always a must in the gypsy camp...

Soul warming lattes to enjoy by the campfire too...  

Her books and garden magazines to take along...

Feeling sassy feeling goofy feeling free... 

Thoughts in the clouds
is what she does best! ;)

Stay a while and escape the stresses and strains of modern living with worship, music, food and good friends...

So many fur friends showed up at our gathering too... big, small, all alike all so different, 

You pick which one you like

Some true Romani blood there too--my friend Olanda and her precious baby Tatiana, from Romania

Little gypsy Tatiana and her Romani dad

Isn't she adorable!

Life proceeds in the slow lane, with minutes drifting into hours as the simple tasks of the day are allowed to take over. This could be playing all day long in your gypsy tent... 

...but look outside and you catch the curve of the waterfalls, 

the lilting horizons of the mountains, 

or perhaps the course of the river... 

We had such a wonderful time this weekend.

The weather was perfect not too cold not too hot with warm breezes blowing wild hair..

Lovely time spent with friends in a glorious natural atmosphere...

This is certainly the perfect time of year to go camping...

Do you love camping?

PS:  Our garden is looking marvelous.  The Knockout roses are starting to bloom, the hostas are growing in gigantic sizes, it is warm and sunny and I've been working on some awesome projects I'll be sharing with you soon.... hope you all are enjoying lovely spring days wherever you are!