As I stood at my kitchen window this week and watched rain pelt my patio and the wind whip the trees, I struggled to remember that the summer solstice is a mere eleven days away. Dubbed the wettest Oregon spring in one hundred years, I marveled at how this season differed from last year. The […]
Flowers
Mother’s Day Beginnings
Mother’s Day means many things to different people. Most of us view the date as a way to show honor to our mothers, often bestowing gifts and sentiments to them. But, originally, the day began for a very different reason. The observance grew out of a movement known as the Mothers’ Day Work Clubs, designed […]
The Saddest, Gladdest Day
In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. 2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the […]
The Dogwood Has Bloomed
The dogwood has bloomed. The tree sits on a corner along the street I follow to get to my bank. Every year I anticipate the arrival of the flowers, waiting for the splash of white blossoms to stir my heart as I hurry down the thoroughfare. Not only is the sight breathtaking, it reminds me […]
Pansy Petulance
Cooler weather, light rain and a long summer behind them, my patio flowers needed pulling this week. I replaced them with the cheery, happy faces of fall pansies. My son, when he was little, thought pansies his favorite flower because they are always smiling. Something about their bearded petals and wrinkled lines that all converge […]
Shadowed Strength
The nasturtiums finished their season this past week. They might have lasted longer, but the incessant heat against the pavement surrounding their planter fried their blossoms. They crumpled like balloons in a volley of darts—leaves, petals, and stems sagging into a lifeless lump on the ground. As I gathered their remains and stuffed the foliage […]
Overcoming Growth Obstacles
One of the benefits of living in the Pacific Northwest is the usually mild winters. The absence of severe weather affords flower gardeners like myself the advantage of not having to dig tubers every fall. We can leave fussy flowers like dahlias in the ground and know that if we mulch them and keep […]
Renewal Awaits Us
Not often do both Palm Sunday and the first day of spring arrive together, but this year they do. Both events represent renewal in God’s scheme of things. Spring brings rebirth of the earth. Flowers awake from their slumber. Birds build nests for their young. Trees bud out, grass grows, the sun fills the sky […]
Color Makes My World
This week the first of the camellias popped open—bright pink, lacy flowers that cluster among the satiny green leaves. They joined the daffodils who already stand like trumpeters along a parade route, their cheery yellow petals little bursts of sun around the yard. I’m in love with color—everywhere it appears. And what’s more important, I […]
Enduring Love
**The man hurried to his early morning doctor’s appointment, anxious to see his physician and leave in time for his next appointment across town. The practitioner asked the man what the urgent demand on his time was. He replied he went every morning to see his wife at the memory care facility where she’d been […]