My Favourite Season ...

... is Spring!  

The "breeding ground"
for my garden

The season of new growth. Of rebirth.  Where long dormant plants poke their hardy heads above the ground.  Seeking the sun.  Seeking warmth.  Hardy souls.  They rise again from the death of the cold winter temperatures, winds and snowfalls.  

a snow crocus
the first to rise - and bloom -
again

As soon as the ground thaws, the snows fade and the temperature gets warmer, I take a daily perambulation around my yard.  Checking all those places where the plants used to be.  Looking for signs that the rebirth is coming.  Signs of life springing from a barren prison.  Rejoicing in seeing those shoots spring out of their winter prison.  Rejoicing to see those bulbs which have survived the squirrels' digging and removal practices.  Rejoicing in life itself!

hellebores,
an evergreen,
an early bloomer

I invite you to walk with me on my journey around the yard.  Enjoy the delicate bloom of the winter crocus, the earliest bloomer (next to snowdrops) in my garden.

tulips

Looking up
through the apple trees

Look at the tulips as they begin their journey out of the ground.  Still shoots, they won't bloom for another three or four weeks.

Look upwards, through the still dead tree limbs, imagining them glowing with green leaves and life.  And fruit.

Buds, set in the fall,
on the "daddy" magnolia
planted in memory of my father,
a true Southern gentleman

 Go past the magnolia which was planted in memory of my father, a true Southern gentleman, who died in 1999.  It was his inheritance which made the purchase of this house a reality.  And hence this garden my treasure.

The "daffies"
an early sign of spring
an early bloomer

One cannot forget the daffodils, those hardy souls which poke their heads out early reaching toward the sun, blooming a glorious yellow, pink and white in their turn.

Again in another "memory" garden.  In memory of Noella, one of the bravest women I know.



And no garden of mine would be complete without at least one boxwood.  From another time, another tradition.  Reminding me of my Southern heritage.

Another evergreen
Boxwood 

The rhubarb
rising from its
winter prison

 

Signs of new growth
on the lilac tree

 

Fragile, young and delicate,
this lilac has managed to avoid
being pruned by the wabbit
population

Planted last summer
these hens and chickens
have survived and
seem to be thriving

Black Mondo grass

 Like myself, my garden is a composite of my past and my present; my heritage and my future; my likes. A growing, live representation of my courage as I pick myself up from the ashes of trauma and rejection.  Poke my head through the soil into the outside world once again.

Enduring the cold, ice and snow of an unexpected traumautic incident and resultant affects.   Yet, daring to live, daring to survive, daring to believe that warmth, sunshine and optimal growing conditions will come once again.

Daring to believe that recovery is not only possible but probable.

My garden speaks of who I am in ways that words cannot.  That in my fragile state, I cannot.  When words fail me.

 It gives me hope that like my garden, I too will rise again from the barren prison of trauma and trauma-related physical and emotional affects.

I too will bloom.