And now there are flowers!

I love flowers, don't you? I think my garden dragon loves them as well, because he looks like he's going to guard them forever.
This is how the garden is shaping up. I love the green gazing ball.
I read that the Victorians thought the gazing ball was good luck. And that you should never give your gazing ball away because you would give away your good luck if you did. I didn't know that, but I love the gazing balls. They are kind of like panoramic mirrors of the garden.
  So here is the update of the garden.

I've finished four flower beds so
far, and more to do. I took time out today to mow the lawn and finished about five minutes ahead of the rain. How's that for timing? Don't you love this dragon?

There be Dragons in the garden!

Beware of the dragons. lol... well, I like them anyway.
  I have been hard at it trying to get some work done in the gardens.
My old formal herb garden is coming alive again. Yes it is a lot of work, one step at a time. But, I want to plant flowers etc. and set up all the wonderful things I have set aside for the garden.
  The green houses are yet to be put together, but they will get done before winter I hope. Then next year I can plant vegetables in the raised beds inside the greenhouses and will have something nice to eat from there.
  The fish ponds will get done this year and they will be fun to view.
I will be ready for my new Irises in July, and maybe next year I'll have some new blooms although most of the time it takes two years for them to bloom. The whole place will change it's look and I am looking forward to seeing that.
  So... here is the ongoing work so far.

Ongoing work

Shovelful by shovelful, I am moving a mond of dirt and building a waterfall. And so the raindrops have put a halt to that for a few days.
But in the meantime, one can see a bit better how big and grand a scale this is turning into. Take a look...

Koi ponds

I have always wanted a fish pond. Like a Koi fish pond, but just wasn't able to get to it, or afford it. Now, at long last, I am working my way though weeds, rocks, and a lot of digging. Good thing I had help cause this would not have happened.
  This is the channel between the two ponds. My bridge needs to be revarnished, and the bolts tighten, but it is going to work out there I think.
I have a waterfall to build, and have to lay the liner in the other bigger pond. I will have to move that huge mound of dirt in order to make the waterfall be in the right place. A lot of work, but considering what I am working on as a whole, that is just a drop in the bucket, in the scheme of the whole garden area.
  Most of it will be transformed. Now if any one can tell me how to kill the wild grass roots, I will love you forever.

For the love of life

I have often wondered what makes a person keep on going when so much is against one? Is it desire, stubbornness, determination, or just plain love of living?
  If it's desire... what could someone want so badly that would make them wish for more of the same? Of course that would depend on what the sameness was? Money, fame... maybe the love of ones life?
All good reasons perhaps to want more. Until it goes to ones head... and that can get ugly. Kind of like the movie Coyote Ugly where you would rather cut off your arm then wake up what is laying beside you. Some people just can't handle money or fame, and they get down right ugly to be around. But, the love of your life... that brings to mind something else entirely. Something beautiful and wonderful in the fullest sense of those words{ more on that later}.
  When a person gets stubborn... they are not pretty. In fact they can be completely ridiculous. Like an ostrich with his head in the sand, someone who is being stubborn sticks out his jaw, sets his shoulders at an angle and stomps off. Have you ever noticed how that jaw just aches to be hit? As in maybe some common sense could be gained by re-alining that jaw line? Someone who is just plain stubborn {and I do know a few like that} seems to never learn. They appear to have no common sense. A little bit of stubbornness can go a long way. After that.... I tend to take a different road. One they are not traveling!
  So, what about determination?  Can that carry one thought a mist of pain? Will that succeed when one has the loss of something one needs or perhaps what one holds dear? I think the mind can do anything a person sets themselves to do. Deal with pain, both body and mind, or even live no matter what. It's called "flying in the face of adversity". You have so much against you but you do it anyway.
One can be determined to live, love, laugh and even cry no matter what.
  I think it's up to you what it is you become determined to do. So make it something worth-wile! Make your life have counted for something more then yesterdays day old beer. It's flat, tasteless, and one can do without it. Do you want people to say of you "they didn't need to have lived at all, they were useless"?
  I have always wanted my life to have counted for something. I wanted something I could leave behind to say I had been here.
It's laughable to know that the very existence of the ones who would deny me that right of being counted for something, can not because they exist. No amount of ignoring, forgetting, or whatever they choose to do will change my rights.
  I exist therefore I am. It's good to know however, that my life doesn't rest on just that. So many things that I have done, been, lived, shared, become, loved and even hated stand as testimony to my having lived.
  Was it worth it....??? Only time can tell. I'm not famous, wealthy, beautiful, or any of the things so many think life must have in order to count oneself as being worthy of notice. But I have left my mark in many places, times and endeavors.
 So what is it that made me keep going? The love of life, and what was around the next corner. That and so much left undone if I just didn't keep going for another day, hour, or minute.
  What keeps you going? Perhaps the one thing that will never die.
Love of life or perhaps in life.... it will live on forever even if it's denied.
Make your life count for something worthwhile. There is nothing more worthy then love. Give that to a stranger, or a friend... and you will live on forever in their hearts... making your life worthwhile and someone who is glad you lived.

done deal

The fence is done, and I am so glad. At last I will have privacy. And it looks great too.

fenceline

This has been a long time in coming but now I will have a fence around my place to keep the nuts out. That and a couple of other things.
So take a look at what makes good neighbors, {or so they say}.

The Purple Tree

  When I said my Christmas tree was going to be purple, white and green, last year, no-one thought it would look very good. Well, it not only looks good, I think it makes a fashion statement. lol.
  "And when I grow old I shall wear purple."
   For some reason that sticks in my mind. So this year it was purple, kiwi green, and white. I found some really pretty glass balls, and the nice part is you will see some of them again, as I use certain colors together.
  The white owls are a big favorite for the cats. In fact, if I have any left on the tree at all I will be surprised. The pale green birds {in fact any birds are theirs, or so they claim} are another part they go after. I found some very unusual purple bugs that I just couldn't resist. Bugs on a tree? But just look at them they really do go there. I have never been so surprised at some of what I found this year. The white lacy drapes just really look like something special and rich.
  Turn the lights out and the tree glows purple. I love those white glistening pine cones. They really go with the rest of the tree this year. I was lucky enough to add another strand {making it three} so they would fit the tree better.

 

Well there it is. My 2009 Christmas tree.

What do you think?

In Search of.....

my mothers garden,.... I found my own!
 What a wonderful phrase. The first time I saw it, it made me stop and think. How this phrase applies to so many of the times and happenings between my mother and I, is deep and profound. History in the making as we grew older. My growing up and leaving home, my life as it was effected and evolved around hers. The control and influence of one upon another when there is no-one to step in and offer a different view, or ask for a variation in attitude toward one or the other. When none is allowed, leaves someone at greater risk. A risk that could leave deep scars for a life time that will never heal. And who is there to know? The one at risk seldom is allowed a voice, even in old age. "Suffer in silence". How rich is that meaning? Does one? Must one?
 I don't think so. No one should ever have to endure such a thing, and yet where the mother began the daughter prevails. And why? Because it pleases her? Just because she can? Is it truly worth the pain and heartache it inflicts? What does this say about the kind of person she has become? Was the one so right, so perfect she need be repeated in all manner and being?
  I have never seen where so hurtful a wrong made the repeating of the act, right. I can only feel sorry for that one. It spells out a great deal in the lack of upbringing, manners or morals that must have been present, let along the selfishness of intent to have let ... no intended for this to go on for so long.
What must have been in that mind. It shows a sad lack of maturity, not to mention a great deal worse.
  I've known others who have lived with like problems or perhaps they should be called memories? Many never get over what was inflicted on them as a child. Some have risen above the pain and hurtfulness, only to be struck again by another of like mind with the same eternal intent. I simply cannot understand why anyone would carry something that mean, and vile so far and never bother to examine their own thoughtlessness or take ownership of what they were intentionally doing. Or maybe they did, and that is their form of insignificant imaginary revenge? Of course by ignoring it all they can absolve themselves. Or so they think.
  I've tried hard to understand, and the truth is... I just don't get it. I guess I never will.
But the best part is, in examining myself so intently, in searching beyond myself.
I found my own garden. My place. Untouched, and untouchable by the deeds of the past. A place uniquely my own, where grows still that which is me. The garden God gave us all, each to his or her own. That place where we can make something more, bigger, better, lesser, or whatever needs be. It has always been there, and I think I always visited it when I needed too. It's the reason I survived. And the reason there is so much more, and why I can still share where and as I can, and with whomever needs me, for however small or large a time, place or thing.
  It too, is the reason we give voice to our feelings. Given wings they fly away. No one has to hear them, or for that matter understand them. It's only important that WE give. It's taken me awhile to understand why I wanted to say something at all. I don't even care if she knows or not. For one it's to late, for the other to early. Thank God, I don't have to stay stuck in the middle between them. lol.
And what is really important.... is there.
I found my own!
Here is hoping you will too.