Treasure Hunt

Why gremlins exists, I don’t know, however I had to fight those off as I began to clean out my front flower bed . The voices whispered to me ”You should have done this weeks ago, actually, if you were really a good gardener you would have cleaned it out better in the fall. Look at those dead sunflowers in there. What a mess. And this is the flower bed everyone sees as they driver by…”. I told them to be quiet as I settled into the peaceful routine of it, knowing full well I left it til today for good reason. It needed me and I needed it today.

With the wind blowing I could hear the tops of the trees swaying, my wind chimes singing to me and the bamboo ones adding their two cents worth. I began to clear the dusty dead plants away to find the newly growing ones underneath. I reminded myself how important the old growth is to protect the plants underneath and marvelled at what was there.

My hands dug in the soil and I could smell it’s freshness as I moved it around, pulling weeds out, watching the worms try to squirm away and uncovering hidden treasures. Lily’s came back that I planted last year that I didn’t have a lot of hope for. My heart warmed as I continued on. Angel by my side wandering around as I continued to get into a meditative state, working through the bed. My clematis in the front has struggled and I worried also that it might not have made it. Pleased I was to find new growth at the base. Ah…yes, it too survived.

As I pulled out daisy after daisy as they have a tendency to overtake the bed, the Raven who perches in at the top of the weeping willow called out to me and Angel, I wonder if she was saying stay away from my nest. The sun warming my back, I found that the 4 or 5 new perennials that I planted last year are thriving and looking quite content in their homes.

My last job was to re-hang the honeysuckle that had come unattached from the house over winter. It’s strong vines are wound around a plastic trellis which has somehow broken. I head off to the back yard and get the ladder. Ernie had said before he left he would put it up when he got back, yet something drew me to the honeysuckle today. I hate heights, ladders included, yet I got up on the ladder and first cleaned my window. Last year I watched a couple sweet moments when humming birds would come to suck from the flowers of the honeysuckle. I want my windows clean for that again this year.

As I reattached the lattice with wire and secured to the hooks, I admired the honeysuckle and it’s beauty, strength and determination. It doesn’t seem to have the same “claws” that some vines have to pull themselves up, yet it climbs and winds itself up the lattice creating the beautiful scene on the front of my house in the summer.

The treasures found today were not only the plants growing, but the treasure of peacefulness in my heart as I quietly worked connected to the earth.