A Frosty Morning and a Sunny Afternoon in the Garden

After yesterday’s miserable weather and bleak, dark chill, it was pleasurable to wake up to teeny icicles on the graceful red blooms of my pineapple sage. But I’m not sure it wanted to be frozen or if it’ll survive that, being a plant that prefers a warmer climate. But stranger things have happened to make it through this very cold fall season, so perhaps I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
I spent an uneventful couple of hours inside catching up on jobs left unfinished from yesterday (oh no, not me) but afterwards I managed to throw on my warmest clothes for puttering around in and went outside to play in my garden.
When I was just starting out living with my husband (of that time) just about an ice age ago, I painted a picture of a girl in a garden, actually I copied one from something someone else drew first, and gave it to my mother to cheer her up. She missed me so and I was her last child at home and born on her birthday and we were like two peas in a pod in many ways. My leaving ended all of that even though we still lived so close to each other in the beginning of my marriage. But eventually we bought a house and I had my first real garden of my own to tinker in. I didn’t know anything much about plants except what I liked and the effect I wanted so I had a lot to take on board. But I managed to pick up a few tricks here and there and made a good job of most of it with the help of a landscape architect and working to a plan I was off and running. In comparison my mother’s life had taken a tragic turn within a couple of years of my living further afield from her. She had gone blind, and in those days, nothing could be done to bring back her vision, or her life really.
After many years of being invalided in her sightless world with a heart condition and other horribly painful conditions, she left her reality completely and my garden didn’t mean so much to me by then.
After she passed away, which was a blessing, I threw myself into my natural support system that had meant so much to me for so long and revisited my glorious garden digging my way to China to let go of my grief and disillusionment with the world. And I took back my painting I made for her those many years earlier that gave her such joy to look at.
I’ve had so many highs on my journey in this life and my mother was at the top of that peak. So, when I glance at this little picture that hangs in my kitchen on the side of the window I peer out while I’m washing the dishes, I’m reminded of her again and again. She used to ring me on our birthday very early in the morning and it was both annoying and dear at the same time. Cherish your parents. The time goes way too fast….