Everything is Perfect

Through all the sadness, anger, fear and loss in our world, sometimes it takes just a single flower, opening to share its sweet face, to brighten my day.  I smile and am thankful for another day on this planet.

It's All in the Details

Dear Mother Nature, 

Your attention to detail on even the tiniest green strawberry is impeccable.  I stopped making jam and simply explored this little work of art that came out of the dewy fields this morning.  Each seed was perfectly placed as if by hand, your hand.

Just last night, I marveled about the intricacies of the heavens as I gazed at the huge starlit sky overhead.  The constellations aligning as the Moon chased the Sun around the Earth. How grateful I am to live in an entire universe filled with such beauty and symmetry--no matter how big or how small.  You are really quite talented.

I would like to be just like you when I grow up.  People tell me I am detail-oriented and a quick study so I would be interested in taking a class or a webinar from you.  Perhaps a summer internship? 

Humbly Yours,

Nancy J. Zavada

 

Mother Nature Gets the Last Laugh

The trees along the Oregon Coast are shaped by the wind and salt air.  Any esteemed landscaper would be proud to take credit for their magnificence, but it is Mother Nature's work. 

Then there are the poor arborvitae who must stand guard at fences around the world to adorn property lines.  Alas, they don't enjoy salt air and wind.  On the Oregon Coast, they end up looking more like sad poodles.

Free Smiles

Because you just can't resist this sunny face on a warm, fall afternoon.

You know you can't!

Apologies to the Spider

It is about this time of year, when watering the garden turns into a daily occurrence.  The heat and lack of rain make for very thirsty plants.  It is also about this time of year, when spiders begin to take over the yard spinning their webs every evening for the catch of the day.

My highly-advanced remedy to avoid walking through spider webs is waving one arm in front of me in a move resembling a baby elephant's trunk.  Around the garden I go, waving one arm while watering with the other.  The children always found this hilarious while I found it very effective.

This morning I was hurried and began darting about with the hose (forgetting the elephant walk).  At one point I took a sharp turn and came face to face with...

this unhappy spider whose web I had apparently disturbed during my watering activities.  Too close for comfort, I apologized both quickly and profusely while retreating to the house.

Beach Lily

The salt air, mist, and spotty sun breaks seem to make Calla Lilies spring forth everywhere at the Oregon Coast.  Their flowers embody grace and simple elegance.

Nature's Symmetry

Beautiful, elegant, fascinating, complex and delicate.

That is One Dandy Lion

When I was little, I would carefully pick a dandelion as to not knock off any of the "wishes."  Then I would concentrate on a truly spectacular wish and blow, blow, blow until all the wishes were airborne.  I was very confident this ritual worked and still am.

Lucky for me I have a whole yard full of dandelions and can wish away whenever I want!

Rose Festival

Everywhere you look in the Pacific Northwest, roses are in bloom. 

Their blooms are so fragrant and graceful...a festival for the senses indeed!

A Face You Can't Resist

Grumbling through my early morning walk, this little face made me break into a full grin. 
I stepped a little lighter after that.

Joyful Planet

People from a planet without flowers would think 

we must be mad with joy the whole time

to have such things about us.

--Iris Murdoch

On Gardens and Books

If you have a garden and a library,

you have everything you need.

--Cicero

I Believe in Tomorrow

"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow."

--Audrey Hepburn

Deer Candy

According to this photo, I apparently started gardening very early in life.  Roses were my specialty and I am pretty sure Dad helped out some in the beginning.

Once I arrived at Saltair Station, I was advised by the locals that coastal roses are actually "deer candy."   Deer can strip a whole rose garden in a matter of minutes.

After learning this first hand (not heeding wise advice), my rose beds now contain Crocosmia which are less exciting to deer and a favorite hangout for hummingbirds.  They just don't smell as fragrant as the Mister Lincoln roses I grew up with!

My Father Was a Gardener

My father was a gardener.  Thanks to him, I know what a tomato tastes like when it is still warm from the vine.  A tomato that was started from seed early in the year under a grow light in his basement and nurtured until it was big enough to transplant into a ½ milk carton to be transported to my garden.  In the early years he would plant them with me and teach me as we went along.  In later years, he delivered them and left me to do the planting,  He had trained me well.  

Each year, we would have a race to see who would get the first red tomato of the season and then another race to see who would have the most.  He usually won both of these competitions, but I was gaining on him.

He gave me his knowledge of nature, gardening, and the weather.   Just like him, or because of him, I am graced with the overwhelming need to spend more time outdoors than indoors among these earthly delights.

Somehow it was fitting that this gardener should pass away as the final leaves were falling from the trees.  His work done here.  During his last hours, the sun burst out of the clouds and came in through his hospital room window.  Unable to speak as the sunbeam warmed his face, he looked up at it knowingly.  I held his hand and told him it was a good day in the garden after so many days of rain.

An amazing sky outside his room, I took this photo which will always remind me of the last time we would sit in the sun together.

Today's Reason to Garden

He who plants a garden, plants happiness.

-Chinese Proverb

Heaven in a Wildflower

"To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wildflower:

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour."

--William Blake

Drip System

Fall raindrops drip delicately on the garden.

Ballerina Flowers

Performing in hanging baskets all over!

Why Do I Garden?

The magical colors of hydrangea blooms in the
late summer sun.  
Priceless!