Tuesday, February 13, 2007

A Dream of Summer...

Garden catalogs have been arriving in my mailbox in recent days. I don't know if I'll buy any of the lovely, colorful plants that grace their pages, but I have certainly "whiled away" several hours leafing through them, dreaming of summer in the garden. Most of my new plants will come from other gardeners, or the bargain table at my favorite nursery. Of course, I will splurge on a few new full-priced items, but most of my gardening projects are done with just a little money and a whole lot of elbow-grease (my own!) And, of course, faith that the garden will be a beautiful sanctuary for my quiet hours. A lot of faith gets turned into the soil in my garden, and dreams mingle with the fragrance that fills the air.

Today, I read a sweet children's book called Rosy's Garden: A child's Keepsake of Flowers. The illustrator, Satomi Ichikawa, gets top billing on the book's pretty cover, while the author of the text is noted in smaller print on the title page. Someday maybe my gardens will be as exuberant and carefree as Rosy's Grandmother's. Eavesdropping as Rosy's Granny told her stories about the herbs and flowers in the garden, I lost myself for a while in an imaginary summer.


photos by Aisling, Summer 2006




1 comment:

Marcie said...

How fun! I know you don't have a lot of gardening room where you are, but is there a community garden in which you could volunteer? I did that for a season or two when I was about 19 in the herb gardens at a nature center. In "payment" of our work hours, we volunteers received lessons from the resident herbalist. Anyway, garden books are wonderful - right up there with cook books! I have to admit to wanting a lot of great color photographs in either! :)