Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2005. This is another great photo that I literally just found in our on-line photo gallery that we maintain. Thankfully it was there because it is no where to be found on my computer. This photo was taken at one of the themed parks we took Mattie to while visiting my parents in California. The irony is at the time this was just cute cut outs of sunflowers. But now, after Mattie cancer battle, sunflowers mean a great deal to me. They symbolize love, community, and compassion. How I arrived at that notion was because Mattie's care community gave me lots of sunflowers through Mattie's cancer journey. We couldn't have flowers in the PICU of the hospital, but whenever we were home, I was always surprised with a bunch. This photo captured my ultimate sunflower.... Mattie. 


Quote of the day: In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful. ~Abram L. Urban

Our hibiscus is blooming today. The irony of this plant is it looked practically dead this spring. After winterizing inside, we brought it back outside for the summer and I literally chopped the plant way back. Apparently it responded to this dramatically. The plant came back with a vengeance. I bought this plant last spring at home depot. I remember talking to their plant expert there and this particular woman worked in Hawaii for years cultivating hibiscus. She helped me pick this one out and told me that the purple flowered hibiscus are rarer. It is simply a beautiful plant that adds to our garden. 

There are wonderful lessons one can learn from gardening. Lessons that apply to our every day world and lives. There is something to be said for nurturing something, because most times.... you get a response. The ironic thing is the response goes two ways. Certainly in this case the plant is growing and thriving (which is positive for the hibiscus) but on the other hand, seeing its beauty gives us great happiness and hope. 

We started growing string beans from seed about a month ago. Our plants have been great producers and we had a whole bunch of them for dinner last night. They have a much more tender skin than what you buy in the super market. 

I love banana lantanas. Lantanas are hardy plants and when things start dying off in our garden at this time of year (because of extreme heat), they get replaced with lantanas. 

Check out the progress on our carrots! You will notice a piece of wood to the left of the carrots. This is one of Mattie's claimed pieces, or prized findings along one of our nature walks together. There are many items on our deck that came from our Mattie walks and they remain a part of our deck today. 

I love our Black Eyed Susan. She is a courageous plant! She remains outside over the winter, but every spring, she surprises us with a great come back. I haven't had the best of luck with perennials, but this one is a keeper!