My Brand of Green

This is the most favorite flower in my garden.  It is nothing special, but it means something important to me.  My brother in law gave it to my husband and I on our wedding day and it blooms every year on our anniversary.  The blooms stay fresh for months.  Orchids are funny.  If you give them attention they die.  If you totally ignore them they will flourish. (PS. I am not a photographer.)

My yard is surrounded by a green wall of foliage.  Mainly because it creates a retreat in the city, a jungle, an oasis that I can call home.

Also because I have nosy neighbors (one in particular who likes to keep every floodlight on around her house at night, because at 90 years old, she’s afraid someone is going to break in and rape her…please).  I don’t like the light pollution at night and the green wall helps me to pretend that I live in some exotic place in the wilderness instead of a city 10 minutes from the airport..

Sometimes the maintenance on it can get to be a headache, but it is worth it.  I call it The Jungle.  Most of the plants here are horribly invasive and will take over if you don’t spend hours keeping them cut back.

For all of you folk who live where it is snowing right now. I am sending you rays of sunshine and greetings from Florida.

I took this photograph this morning.  Aren’t the sun rays pretty?

A bit hazy for a photograph, can’t pretend to be an expert. HA!

Do you keep house plants or some way to keep the green in your life year round?  I couldn’t live without green in my life.

Green is life.

Mood Setting for Reading

I have places that I love to read certain works.  Some people can read anything anywhere and be taken to another world through their own imagination.  I like to afford myself the luxury of setting the mood whenever possible.

For dystopian fiction or fantasy that is otherwordly, I like to go out on my back porch that overlooks The Jungle with the banana trees, travelers palms, pygmy palms and wisteria creeping invasively though the philodendron.  The hanging spheres of stag-horn fern in globes of dripping greenery  seem to set that mood. The angel’s trumpet with its intoxicating fragrance but deadly seed takes me to enchanted places. For some more wicked reading, I like to go out there during the lightening storms that we seem to have every summer day.  For a soft sweet romance nothing could be better that  to curl up on the living room sofa and light candles in the dark.  That’s why I love the readers with backlighting.  Or I crawl between the sheets with my husband.  I love classics , like Jane Eyre, at the mountain cabin, in front of the stone fireplace during a long soggy week of rain,

and  for murder mysteries and thrillers I like to seal myself away to the comfort and safety of my bedroom and close the door.I call them bookdrops. I hear from and speak to writers a lot, and writers are also readers.  Do you  enhance or set the mood, or do you depend on your imagination exclusively?

Historic Angel Oak Tree: Charleston, SC

I planted a tree today.  It is a slow growing live oak tree.  I will feed it, water it and watch it grow for many years.  I wonder if I should live long enough to see my great-grandchildren scamper along its branches.

My grandmother had a live oak in her yard and we grandchildren played in its branches until we were too old to think about it and its branches were too high for our children to reach.  She planted another one and wondered if she should live long enough to see her great grandchildren scamper along its branches.

A few years after she died, my uncle cut it down.  It was so sad.  I was hoping she would.

Plant Something

Recently there has been a lot of media attention on people with front yard vegetable gardens in my area of the country. I think it is grand, but some home owners associations and county commissioners don’t think so.  Neighbors do not have a problem with it, they love it.  Neighbors are frequently thought of and gifted at harvest time.  One couple takes their surplus produce during harvest time and makes a big pot of soup.  They take it down to Lake Eola Park and feed the homeless (another practice some folk aren’t to happy about).  I think everyone should have a garden, whether it is in the front yard or the back.  
It doesn’t matter whether it is a garden of vegetables or flowers. It makes the world a little bit better place.  Gardening doesn’t always require a lot of space.  When my father was living in a little basement apartment during his divorce, he took seeds and planted them all around his apartment complex. (You may want to get permission from your landlord or groundskeeper.)  He had peppers, all variety of squash; zucchini  yellow crookneck, acorn and butternut, tomatoes etc..and he gleefully handed them out to his co-dwellers who were most appreciative.  There is not much that is more satisfying than digging a hole in the earth, planting a seed or a starter plant and watching it take root and send out greenery and flower and fruit to reach for the the sun.  It adds color and beauty to the landscape.  It can feed the hungry.  It restores the soul.  Plant something, anything, and watch it grow.  It is the perfect time of year.  Watch it progress from nothing to something.