Drawn by Beauty

Every day, when I have the time, I take a turn about the garden.  It’s not exactly an acreage so this walkabout takes about five minutes if I walk slowly and examine things minutely.  I like to do it while I’m drinking my coffee in the morning, but I often don’t get to it until later in the day.  I like to check how the plants are faring; are the roses still blooming? Is something eating them? Are the raspberries ripe yet? Is anything suffering that I didn’t notice yesterday? Today, I was intrigued to notice that a bloom is coming up in my “hens and chicks”.  These cosy succulents, that produce baby plants (“chicks”) as offshoots of the mother (“hen”) are  planted in a container my sister made for me.  The container is becoming crowded by bee balm so I don’t always notice what the family is up to.  You don’t have to do much maintenance on them, except to pull out the odd dandelion that manages to squeeze between a hen and her chick.  They produce rather outlandish flowers every once in a while and one seems to be developing.  I’m keen to see it, but  I think the weather has been a bit wet for them and the bloom might not make it.  We’ll see.

Mid-summer tends to be a slow point in the gardening calendar (or mine at least).  Some things are doing well but the magnificent spring-flowering bushes and flowers are done, and the late flowers are not yet in bloom.  The different coneflowers, the clematis, day lilies and bee balm are all doing well and they’re the backbone of my mid-summer garden. If it weren’t for those, there would be nothing to look at but my deck planters.  I appreciate these stalwarts but I admit I find them a bit pedestrian.  Everywhere you look you see the same flowers right now.  I guess maybe a new and exciting plant is in order.  However, I don’t want to talk badly about these beautiful flowers behind their backs.  If they decide not to bloom next year I’ll be in trouble.

The walkabout is a chance to allow nature’s beauty to filter in before the day begins.  It calms me down when I’m stressed, so I often do it in the afternoon or early evening as well. There are always changes, though some are subtle. The garden is a place where the inevitable march of time is accentuated, but it doesn’t bother me.  There’s a calming reassurance there that things are progressing as they should.

Here’s a little gem: “Avec le temps” (by Léo Ferré) sung by my daughter, Erica Martin.  Forgive my nepotism, but I really miss her!  It kind of reflects the mood of this gloomy, rainy day, too.