Here Comes the Sun

There is nothing like a summer shower to break the heat. We have been fortunate enough to have approximately 3 weeks of cooler weather with a nice rain thrown in here and there. Once again our yard is green and lush like it was at the beginning of spring. Birds are more abundant and seem to be more active. New flowers have bloomed and flourished also since the beginning of our cooler wet spell. Yet it seems that summer is not quite finished with us yet.

Although July gave us a nice break from the heat and reminded us of the wonderfulness of fall, August came in and seems to be telling us that summer is not over just yet. The 100 degree plus temperatures are said to be heading back our way this week. The added heat has already given a nice boost to the grass and mowing is going to be a chore that will need to be tended with before the week is over.

The heat has also once again urged the sunflowers to once again grow and bloom their big beautiful yellow flowers. Lifting their faces towards the sun at the start of day and turning them slowly as if to follow it throughout the day to bask in all its warmth and sunshine. Being an avid bird lover, sunflower seeds is something that are abundant at our home. Throughout the yard small seedlings can be found. Not just underneath the obvious bird feeders yet also throughout the yard from where the birds have dropped them, the seeds seem to be everywhere. Many of these seedlings are mowed over or plucked from their place in the ground. Yet this year many have been allowed to grow and bloom.

Thanks to my granddaughter, who shared her left over pumpkin seeds with me a couple years back, I have learned the joy of cultivating the seeds of many plants and using them the next year around. Thus, the large yellow flowers that eventually drop their faces from the sun and lean over as if in exhaustion due to the weight of the seeds that have grown to cover their face, are then cut and dried. When fully dried the seeds are then extracted and kept until the next year to once again start the cycle over.

Granted many of my sunflowers are not grown in this manner yet from the seeds that have dropped from the birds, yet there are a few that still are planted from the seeds that have been recycled from the years past. This is still a project in the early stages. With flowers only being on a 2nd or 3rd generation. Yet I look forward to the years when I can enjoy the flowers that have been grown from seeds that have been taken from a plant, that can claim the first seeds as a long distant relative.


Much like an aloe vera plant given to me, which came from a plant that is over 30 years old. Many a new growth has been taken from her and many have enjoyed her remedies. Imagine 30 years. Silly maybe, yet to pass something, even a plant through time excites me.

Peace & Blessings
Janie

My Secret Garden

There is that place for all of us where we go and escape when the stress of everyday life seems to become too much. It is a place that helps us to drift away and find the solace that we so desperately need at that moment. For some it is a good book that takes them away to some other world other than their own. Some lose themselves by closing their eyes and allowing their ears to do the traveling while their favorite music plays softly for some and loudly for others. Each one of us feels that our secret place is the best. And for each individual this fact is true. As we each have our perfect fit.

For myself, I feel that I am truly blessed. On an early morning, just as the sun begins to peek over the horizon, or at the end of a busy day, I can go to my special place and it always seems that all the worries just pass and life is just pleasant. I am speaking of my yard, yet to me it is my secret garden. From the moment we laid eyes on our property I knew that it was special and that it would hold a dear place in my heart.

It is a large yard of about 3 acres with a small pond just off to the side. Willow trees circle the pond while large and small bullfrogs line its bank. A variety of birds have called it home and frequent the bird feeders that are scattered through out. Our many cats and kittens can be seen running and playing in the coolness of the morning or lounging in the heat of the afternoon. The sounds are simply that of peace. Although we have a few neighbors near, we are off the beaten track of the noisiness of a city or the road of a busy highway.

As the years have passed we have worked hard on tending it. Many of the willows that circled the pond initially were damaged in an earlier ice storm. However this clearing made room for other things. Smaller flowering shrubs and scads of wildflowers now grow in their place. A tree house has been built in the large elm and a small wild flower bed is tended beneath her. The squirrels frequent the woodpile nearby as well as the feeder that is consistently filled with their favorite morsels. Large fairy rings fill the yard near the time of the full moon and gifts left under the small oak, which I tended from a sapling, are welcomed by the bunnies that also enjoy the lavender and rosemary that grow along side. We have had an abundance of wild animals visit throughout our time here. Deer, geese, turkey, roadrunners, coyotes, turtles, armadillos, to just name a few lend their presence on occasion. It is a refuge. Not only for us yet for anyone or anything that comes to visit.

It will change even more as time passes and become even dearer to my heart. For it is my place of peace. Where I know I can go and all my troubles for that time will be gone, or at least made lighter. It is a place where my head is cleared and my thoughts once again run freely and uncluttered. Yes, I do love nature and all her glory. For she is where we all first came from. Our sweet dear mother earth. How in her simplicity she shows us her wonder. And just like a mothers soft words, her beauty calms us once again.

Peace
Janie

Content Copyright 2009 – Mother Moon’s Message – All rights Reserved