Retreat

Each year on or around my birthday, I like to take a day all to myself where I spend the time alone doing some of my favorite things in peace and serenity. I try to disconnect from email and phone and spend some time outside in nature and with myself.  I usually spend this day admiring the garden, reading a book, and watching a film or two. These are some of my favorite things. Later or on another day, I will celebrate with my husband and friends and family.

Petal Passion

Hydrangea quercifolia 'Alice'

I am fascinated by all of the plants and flowers in my garden and in other gardens, but each year hydrangeas entertain and awe like few others.

Breathing Lessons

My breath could tell a story all its own. When I am frightened, my breath is shallow, slow, stale. When I am excited, my breath is like a pant--quick, uneven, unpredictable. With calmness and relaxation comes a breath that is even and full, open and free. As each moment of each day unfolds, there is a breath that accompanies it. There is a breath that resists or a breath that embraces. And, inevitably, there is a lesson--a breathing lesson. These breaths reflect the lessons I learn in the garden.

One of the most marked events this year in the garden has been the alternate weather. Our weather has not followed its usual pattern with a cold, perhaps snowy, winter and a warmer, but still cool, spring. Instead, we have had an unseasonably warm winter. The ground never froze and hardened, and as spring arrived it was very warm with temperatures sometimes reaching the 90's.

My Garden Notebook - June 2012

Great Spangled Fritillary Butterfly

stats


Gardening Zone: 7a
May High Temperature: 93 degrees F
May Low Temperature: 51 degrees F


Precipitation: 3.48 inches

wildlife


The bluebirds fledged and are now being taught how to feed by the parents. Just this morning I saw these same fledglings eating on their own from the feeders. Mom and dad must be so glad for the break.


Here are two of them begging from Dad. It was hard to get a clear photograph as they were moving around quite a lot.

Two Fledglings Begging from Male Bluebird