LOVE IS IN BLOOM

Yes, love is in bloom! By that I mean that my rose named, "Love," is blooming. It's a beautiful bright red with lighter edged petals. It's a gorgeous plant that was given to us for our 25th wedding anniversary.

It's been quite a week here already. I finally got a chance to pick strawberries. I was gone on the best day for picking--yesterday. I decided it had to be done today. I picked 7 quarts from the patch! That's measuring them after they were cleaned and hulled! Even at that several berries were past ripe and had to be left out there. I've never had the patch bear this much before. It's been amazing. We froze this group once again.

I did alot of weeding since the frequent rains have made that task easier. Our clay soil is resistant to being worked only a short time after the rain. A few days and it's no longer easy to till or weed or dig. I have to take advantage of the rain cycles for some things. I got a chance to till as well and now the nice, freshly turned dirt really makes the garden look good! I do have some problem areas out there that still need attention, but that is for another day.

I planted a "penstemon" today. I saw some somewhere and decided they were a must-have for the English garden. Pulled a few weeds out there as well. I noticed that the grasses have begun for the year. They are my worst enemy in the garden. I pulled several and only made a dent in the clean up work.

What's blooming out there? Lots of great stuff. Almost all the delphiniums are open and they are gorgeous. A few roses are open and the honeysuckle greets you with its scent as you enter through the garden gate. Next to it is the old-fashioned, heavily scented rose. It's worth a trip to the garden right now for the smell alone! I got the lace canopy hung over the bed frame and as soon as the sun decides to shine again, it will make a nice little area of diffused light for reading.

I finally discovered what the "mystery" flower is that I have grown to enjoy so much. I checked out a book while in the library today and ran on to a picture of it. It's "Lychnis" or "Campion." These are the ones I transplanted from Jt's house the other day. They are profuse and their magenta flowers against their silvery gray foliage are a striking addition to the garden. They remind me of velvet. I definitely want to cultivate large drifts of this showy flower. I also noticed that I need to do some dead-heading soon. The daisies are especially needing to be shorn. They are so profuse that it will take some time to get all the spent flowers clipped off. But that's kind of an enjoyable job becuase when you clip them down, all the many smaller flowers that are amongst them begin to appear!

While I was in the garden late this afternoon, I was kneeling down and weeding a specific area. At about eye level was a large stand of coral bells. Suddenly a ruby-throated hummingbird came right up to me and began flitting from flower to flower, drinking at his plant of choice. The hummingbirds seem to flock to the coral bells. He didn't seem to be at all scared of me. As he drank he came closer and closer. I even said, "hi," to him and it didn't seem to deter him at all. I guess they are getting very used to me being out there. He put on quite a show and I was able to see him very close up and get a really good look at his beautiful iridescent feather colors. Lovely!

Another blooming item of note are the clumps of dianthus in the landscaping around the porches. Wow are they beautiful! I never imagined when I put them in last year that they would winter over and grow so profusely. They are a bright pink with white variegated petals. The clumps are huge and so full of flowers it's like a seed catalog picture! What an unexpected surprise!

In spite of all the beauty of the day, I had several frustrating moments. It seemed that some things I've been trying to accomplish just resist coming to fulfillment. Today was that kind of day in so many ways. I thought alot about "open doors." In the Revelation chapter 3, verse 8, the Bible speaks of Jesus as "He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens." These verses are referring back to a verse in Isaiah 22:22. It is comforting to me to meditate on the fact that the Lord I serve is able to open and shut doors! I must choose to rely on Him even when there seems to be resistance. After all, the Apostle Paul felt resistance in the important work of the ministry. He was opposed and hindered (Romans 1:13), but eventually he accomplished his work. In another scripture (1 Corinthians 16:9) Paul says, "For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries." I have a tendency to give up too soon. It's a lesson to learn. I was thinking as I went to the strawberry patch today, how thankful I am to be living on this pretty country property. It once seemed like such an unreachable goal. No kidding. Several years ago before we built this place, I was incredibly frustrated in what seemed like an endless search for the right, affordable property. It was as if the dream of living on a piece of acreage would never come true. I am sure that all the things that frustrated me today will one day seem so insignificant and I will wonder why I spent any time at all in aggravation over them.

I hope that you enjoyed this day. It was very humid here with lots of cloud cover and misty, foggy-like moisture in the air. Despite the less-than-sunny conditions, it was a day to be lived and enjoyed because "this is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24 Blessings, LORI