Do I spend too much time at this ephemeral task? In spring, summer, and autumn I work harder at it than at writing, and I expect that looks crazy, but what it does is balance all the anxieties and tensions and keep me sane. Sanity (plus flowers) does make sense.~May Sarton
To answer May Sarton’s question I would say no. Any time spent outdoors in nature and digging in the dirt is grounding, balancing and creates ease in my body. It allows me to breathe deeply, slowly. And while the flowers are gone sometimes within a matter of days, if the weather warms too quickly in spring, it is worth every second to see the beauty. To appreciate their color, fragrance and form.
There are times I miss my big garden at the old house. The endless days, for weeks and months, just focused on the little patch of earth in front of me. Weeding, moving plants, trimming, adding new flowers and seeds. All to create some beauty for me and anyone else who appreciates it as well as a habitat for the critters.
With a smaller garden, I can still get this sense of sanity. Soon it will be time to fill all the containers with flowers. Or start seeds that will bring flowers in a couple of months. Weeding will take place once all this blessed rain ends. And then once it is all planted, it will be maintenance time again. Back to weeding, watering, pinching spent blooms.
Of course all this gardening is perfect allowing me to bring a few blooms indoors for a vase or two or maybe more. Today is May Day or Beltane, a celebration of fertility. Every year on this day, I gather what is blooming, and make a small vase to place at my threshold. It is said to bring luck.
This year I cut a couple of pansies and decided to float them in a bowl. It is still raining a lot as of this writing so once it ends I will pick a proper posy for the threshold.
The bowl is a rare vintage Hydrangea Paragon fine china finger bowl from the 1930s made in England. An antique I picked up at a shop. Isn’t it exquisite. One of my favorite finds.
And I have continued making a small vase that I keep on my desk where I see it throughout the day. This one was filled with Mascara ‘Mountain Lady’ a particular favorite of mine that I planted in several spots. It lasts a long time in the vase.
I color, write and read in this space so the flowers just make it feel even more creative, joyful and abundant here in this special sanctuary.
And for this one I added to the Muscari the miniature tulips, ‘Little Beauty’, that finally started blooming. You can see both flowers growing in the garden in the photos above.
We are supposed to finally warm up towards the end of the week, which should coax more flowers to form and bloom. I really can’t wait.
With this week’s lovely vases, I am linking in to the wonderful meme, In A Vase On Monday, at Rambling in the Garden.
All the pictures shared in this post were taken with my Nikon Coolpix or iPhone camera, and manipulated on my iPhone using the apps, Pixlr and Prisma. You can follow my progress with #the100dayproject in my Instagram and Facebook feed.
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