Longing for greener pastures

I know I have been in the city too long when scenes of open fields, country roads and waving wheat immediately sends me into wistful revelry. I don’t know how it happens, but I suddenly find myself staring at a news story or television show and wondering how to get back to a place where I am not surrounded by millions of people in every direction.

You might think my garden could offer up some solace and, in fact, it does. Wandering through my small little plot of relative wilderness helps to ease my mind, but it almost as if the pressure of the city is constantly there, pressing down on me from every side with no way to escape.

I need to consciously remind myself that there is a rare beauty to my garden. Even though I night see all the troublesome areas and the work that needs to be done, there is a sense of wholeness and comfort to be found there. I am made most aware of this whenever we have visitors. They don’t see the broken sprinkler head or the clump of dead Nandina. They see towering trees, a welcoming garden swing, roses abloom and birds a-flutter. My garden is a unique environment to them, whereas I see it with the “contempt” of someone overly familiar with its contents.

We have had a summer garden party every year for the last several years. This is a great occasion to invite people into our garden and remind me of its wonders. Unfortunately, this year, other commitments have left us no time in the schedule and I am feeling the results.

A garden needs appreciation from myself and others. Without it, I become jaded, grumpy, cynical and difficult to live with. Maybe missing the party wasn’t the best thing for me this year. Despite the cleanup work and organizational issues, I think I could have used a nice get-together after all. Woulda, coulda, shoulda always rear their heads at the most useless times.

School Magazine Drive

The school year has just begun and we are already into our first fundrasier, the Magazine Drive.

If you are in the market to renew any of your subscriptions -- or start a new one -- please take a moment to check out the QSP Reader's Digest magazine store.

40% of your purchase will go directly to Joe's school, St. Cyril's.

Click here to visit the store!

Garden for the nose and the eyes

Some gardens delight both the eyes and the nose

This article, from the Christian Science Monitor, points up the fact that gardens should smell nice, as well as look nice.

As I mentioned earlier this week, lavender is going to become much more prominant in our front garden over the coming year. In the back garden, I have 2 gardenia bushes, one old and one new. I am entranced with the smell whenever they are in bloom. I don't remember this smell from when I was growing up, but somewhere in my life it made an impression on my senses. I always get a sense of well-being when the flood of gardenia scent envelopes me.

If your garden looks good, but smells of nothing more than mown grass, maybe you should look into a few scent-ual items to add a new dimension.

Landscape Lights

I am sooooooo tired of dealing with my landscape lights in the front garden. On a regular basis the fixtures stop conducting. This leads me to fiddle and poke and prod until I finally get them all working again.

These lights were a CostCo special, so I can't compain too much about price, but my aggravation level rises every time I have to repair them. Since the problem appears to be with the fixtures, not the main wiring or the transformer, I am wondering if I can just replace the fixtures with some new ones. A quick trip to the home store should sort that out, as soon as I find a few minutes to get there.

Amazon Links for Landscape Lighting