This is my first attempt at blogging and with my typical approach, I thought about it long and hard and now...
I'm just starting.
I love the idea of writing as a way to connect with others and right now gardening is what is uppermost in my thoughts, so it will form the meat of my writing. I may add other topics as the mood strikes me, but for now I see this as a place to talk about how I will build a lovely, magazine-worthy garden in an almost bare yard that is regularly visited by deer. As as I find gardening to be a very meditative activity, I may also include reflections on life as they seem appropriate to me.
Thinking about my garden, now, in the depths of a very snowy winter, is filling my soul with hope. Maybe spring will come after all. Why do I always need convincing of this? It is the perennial joy and struggle of gardening, I think. To plant and work and weed, and then... wait and trust.
My first attempt at turning a rather wild yard into a garden was to plant tulips. Now, when the snow creeps up higher on the deck door and the drifts get higher along the driveway, it is such a comfort to think of those bulbs getting ready to bloom. Years ago, one of the ladies who lived here must have loved her garden because there are very old lilacs that still bloom, a pear tree, and a wild (very wild) flower garden. Also some rouge daffodils have shown their faces in amongst long grasses and weeds.
As I was planting bulbs in the fall, I heard some quiet rustling in dry leaves that has collected under the lilac bushes. And as I moved closer, a rabbit hopped out! She was quite a large, healthy-looking creature and was gone in a flash, leaving me grinning behind her. Over these last few months of winter, when I've come out with the ash pail to dump where I hope there will one day be roses, I've surprised the rabbit in her nest in the lilacs.
As she will likely be my gardening companion this spring, as long as she survives the local predators, I decided to give her a mention in this blog's name. I also have a long-standing admiration for Beatrix Potter.
of americanart.com.
So, here will be the spot where, for the next few months, I chronicle my battle with winter, and plan and execute my garden campaign.
Thanks for following!
Ellen
