Tag: anniversary

Welcome to Gardens Eye View.

 

These were my first words written on my blog of the same name.  How funny to see them now some 5 years later on my journey.  I decided on this anniversary to review and update where I am now since writing this first post (here in bold print).

 

 

This is a blog of my ramblings as I discover the life and soul of the garden.  I hope to post weekly about my quest as I garden and have gardened through the years.

 

I still write weekly, every Monday, not missing one week so far in 5 years.  I have frequently been told by readers that I write about the soul of gardening and express the words of the soul of the gardener.  How wonderful is that?  I can tell you it is humbling to say the least.  And I still connect with readers in over 50 countries and 50 states.  When I think about the people I have met virtually on this journey it is mind blowing.  Such incredible people with so much to say.

 

 

I remember always loving digging in the dirt from my earliest memories between 2 and 5 years old.  I loved it so much so that my nickname as a child was “digger”.  I was always carrying a stick and digging holes in the small patch of grass and dirt behind our row house in Philadelphia.

When we moved to Northern Indiana in the early 60s, I remember my mother planting cherry tomatoes, mint and strawberries in our small yard.  A huge sweet scented honeysuckle vine greeted me every time I left the house by the lower basement door.  Mom was always tending her roses and planting a swath of colorful annuals.  I would watch, pick and weed. I was hooked but never really knew it.   The lure of the dirt-the feel and smell of it.  The smell and colors of the flowers.  Whatever it was I looked forward to spring, then summer and then the colors of fall.

My mother does not have a computer at the age of 83, and that is fine with her.  But she has read my blog.  I printed many posts, put them together and sent them to her.  She told me she cherishes every word.  Her daughter, so smart.  Who knew she had a daughter who was an author who could write these beautiful words?  These words come from her and touch my heart.  She and my father and other ancestors have influenced who I am, and I feel I write from their hearts and souls as well.

 

 

Central NY was our next stop in the late 60s.  Here my parents began again as they planted a medium-sized veggie garden that seemed to grow larger every year.  I was in my teens so I would watch, pick, eat but not really feel the lure of the garden.  It took until the late 80s, when I was living in an apartment with a balcony, that I tried my luck at container gardening.  I found I loved to watch gardening shows too.  But it wasn’t until 1995 that I started to have a go at gardening around my house where I lived with my husband to be.  It took me 30 years to get back to the beginning.  Back to the lure of the dirt-the smell, the feel.  I was in my late 30s, but it was a good time to begin again.  To strike out and plant perennial gardens under the 100 foot walnut trees surrounding us.  A challenge I was up for, but that’s a story in and of itself.

My life with my husband (we have known each other now for 23 years) has been an enormous gift.  Sometimes I don’t think I would have any sanity left it it wasn’t for his unconditional love and acceptance of me.  All of me with no judgements…how is that possible.  My parents gave me that same love.  Yes a garden full of love growing all the time, all around me nourishing the seeds within to grow and bloom here.

 

 

Well now we live in a house we built 5 years ago (10 years now).  A blank slate, a creation waiting to happen.  Another new beginning.  A garden or should I say gardens that begin anew each year.  Never quite the same as the year before.  Never quite done.  But maybe that is the lure of the garden.  The never-ending beginning every year as the brown earth springs forth with new growth.  I marvel at that beginning.  How this barren brown garden is suddenly green and growing until you can hardly see the brown earth anymore.  What beauty will it bring, what challenges, what changes?

 

Over a year ago I retired.  It can be a scary prospect when you make big changes like this.  What will I do with myself now?  Will it be enough to sustain me mentally, intellectually, emotionally?  What new challenges will lie ahead, and will I be up for them?  And if these new changes weren’t enough, I began writing another blog last year, Living From Happiness, which is heavily influenced by my garden and my life.

Now 10 years on, what are my thoughts about my garden especially now as Autumn is upon us.  I think they still mirror me at this moment in my life during this season of change.  I now am on a path where I am regaining my strength, reflecting and looking for the next step on the journey.  Putting down strong roots to grow and bloom in the future.

I am never quite sure what my garden will look like each year.  What projects will I work on?  What plants will return, and which are now gone?  Will our journey, my garden and me, be forever inextricably linked?  I think so.  And there is still some fear with this new journey of writing….it seems surreal many days.  Resources are needed and the biggest one is time.  How to make sure there is time to grow each idea carefully so it establishes itself is the true test.

 

 

The garden seems the perfect metaphor for my life.  I guess that is why I chose to write this blog.  As I have grown in years I realize my life is constantly starting anew whether I like it or not.  I am always re-creating myself, not quite done; always changing; every year different.  I used to resist this change, but like the garden I am learning to accept the changes that will come and learn from them.  So I plan to write about those changes, my life and my garden-how I see them.  I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I do.

 

So I continue now on my journey with this blog, this life.  It continues to take me in directions that are unknown.  Each new fork in the road an adventure, a new lesson or an old one doomed to be repeated until I learn it more fully.  And as I listen to my inner guide, I seem to be taking the right path that is bringing me closer to where I am supposed to be.  How do I know?  I just do…it is something you just feel with your whole being.  I hope you continue to join me on this wonderful journey of life towards a new beginning once again….here at Gardens Eye View.  And don’t forget to stop by my other blog, Living From Happiness, now a year old.

 

 

 

Why stay we on the earth except to grow?

–   Robert Browning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week’s vase is a special one to commemorate my 5th blogging anniversary.  I decided to use my special Belleek vase that I have used only once before.

 

 

 

Pale yellow sunflowers are still blooming prolifically and they scream fall garden for me given our cool down recently.  They have a special place in this vase.  Along with pink hydrangeas (another favorite flower) and anise hyssop, a native wildflower both hanging on and resurging a bit.  I also added a very special coleus I found this year.  It is a dark green with dark purple veining and trim.  I do not know its name, but I hope to keep it alive this winter, and take some cuttings.

 

I am joining in with a few memes this week:  Cathy@Rambling in the Garden for her wonderful meme, In a Vase on Monday, Today’s Flowers hosted by Denise@An English Girl Rambles and Judith@Lavender Cottage who hosts Mosaic Monday.  Please check out these wonderful blogs and link ups.

 

 

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Join In The Seasonal Celebration:

As I feel autumn’s call to celebrate the coming season, I hope you will join in the celebration. I welcome those Down Under who will be celebrating the coming of spring to join in too.  

All you have to do is write a post between now and September 23rd  telling me how you are celebrating the new season.  Then leave a comment on the kick-off post with your link so I can include your link in my summary post on September 28th.  

I do hope you will consider joining in the Seasonal Celebrations meme as we celebrate the new season in your corner of the world.