“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas …” I am! I had enough of these 100 + temp days! How about you? Well, if I cannot have a white Christmas right now, I will settle for milder summer days in the north woods of Minnesota with friends. 
Dean & I are headed there for a few days! Need to hear the loons once again!
“For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed,” Khalil Gibran shares with us. It was a “little things day” yesterday. I awoke early Sunday morning as usual, even after 3 of my grandkids’ slumber party continued well past my bedtime Saturday night, which needs to be at 9:00pm! After perusing the yard, taking in the morning sunlight, I returned to my kitchen to cook eggs, sausage, and toast before the little ones and my exhausted husband awoke. He was up late working on the jeep, trying to take apart the layers to access any engine damage. It looks like it is “fatal” as Dean says. Shopping for a new engine now, or a new vehicle. I let my husband work on those details while I played and relaxed with the grandkids. We watered the plants and played with the hose a bit. Frisbee and the neighbors’ dogs filled up the rest of the morning. After our afternoon nap and quiet time I feel refreshed. We watched a hummingbird visit the canna blossom. We played with a bouncy ball, colored, and watched a movie. I showed my granddaughters how to propogate cuttings of wandering jew and swedish ivy. The slower pace of the children quieted my spirit, even in the chasing after my 2-year old grandson. “The dew of little things …” 
The ambiance and local menu tonight was colorful. My huge kitchen is decorated with vases of our cut flowers and the fireplace mantle is overcome by beautiful blue hydrangeas from my parents’ yard. Dean & I’s dinner plates were filled with roasted spring root veggies and beef farm fresh by friends who allow their cattle to graze in their farm’s natural pastureland. I sit on my patio listening to the evening chatter of the birds and crickets until the summer night sky is dotted with fire flies. I needed some beauty in my life today.
My feline companions bat at the moth and June bug on the patio screen hoping to get a hold of them. Celine and Lily will need to stay inside as the neighborhood Great Horned owl visits our tall backyard maple tree some evenings. This may be one of those evenings. We protect our animals from harm with barriers like screen doors. Maybe similar to how our God sets up boundaries for us. I take in the beauty of our green friends, the plants we care for everyday. Tonight I will not water or trim or plant. I will sit and enjoy the greenery. They endured the sudden hail storm yesterday. Our elephant ear , banana trees, and birds of paradise have ripped leaves now. These plants will come through after some shedding. Is not life like that? We get hammered by hard blows, unwarrantly and needlessly. Yet, we rise again to be ourselves, probably better people for it if we allow. Thank you God for the beauty my eyes behold tonight, and the reminder that the heart heals.
I work in the county seat of Clayton, Missouri, the hub for many financial institutions, businesses, and the government offices for St. Louis County. Every morning when I arrive next to the Police Headquarters building, a peregrine falcon calls from the Commerce Bank building, which is at least 20 stories high. It is a destinct call, and it echos between the other tall skyscrapers. Today was no exception. Although I appreciate the photo of the week challenge, to take a photo of this peregrine falcon would show up as a speck in the photo as I do not have a zoom lens. I cannot enter the rooftop of the bank building. I am sharing an online photo of a peregrine falcon found on the city hall and courthouse in Minneapolis. I have yet to see this falcon and his companion up close other than through binoculars. I see remnants of where they have been, torn feathered wings of pigeons along the sidewalks and on top of my 5-story building. Someday I may witness an attack in flight. Until then, I enjoy the echos of their calls to each other. They seem to need each other. 
Our tall pink hibiscus seems to attract the male ruby-throated hummingbirds in her new home! Why not, she is gorgeous! In the short time we are home today Dean & I have not seen the territorial rights being displayed amongst the male hummingbirds. This will take place, if it has not already. I know her nectar is sweet, but there are plenty of blossoms to share guys!
Being home today brought a sense of belonging. I am rarely home, and it was wonderful to be here. “Home is where the heart is” as the saying goes. I took a stroll around the yard checking the greenhouse plants that now make home here. They like it here! They nestle between trees and shrubs and in our lime green screen house. The beautiful Japanese maple and dogwood trees in the photo below provide shelter so filtered sunlight peeks between the lush leaves, perfect for the red leaf philodenrons and ferns.
After my morning stroll I ate my tuna sandwich and sipped on iced gingerale with the windows open, fresh air gently blowing in, and sunshine beaming through the tree branches. This lovely May day brought another mild evening with a cooling breeze. Ah, it is quiet at home as I am here by myself. Only the sounds of birds tweeting while I prepare dinner. Dean is visiting with family at his son’s out-of-town graduation. Simple. No conversation, no TV, no need for music as I sing my own tunes today. Life is good.
I have been everywhere and back this past 10 days. Yes, it has been that long since I posted on my blog. Besides my full-time job and everywhere it sends me any given day, I have spent time with family, and of course at the greenhouse. The greenhouse is not so crowded these days. Yeh! We have been selling many botanicals, perennials, and herbs, mostly at the Saturday farmers’ market. Our wild-looking tomato plants have not been a hot selling item. Not because of their looks we do not suppose, but because the township where we sell does not allow its residents to plant vegetable gardens! Yes, you read that correctly. I could not believe what I heard residents saying. So our healthy, long-stemmed tomato plants have made new homes in organic farm fields as well as in family and friends’ yards where they are wanted. Our farmers’ market clients have swooped up bedding plants and hanging planters. Our greens are loved by others besides ourselves! With my restless personality, we have started moving some other plants out of the greenhouse to our yard in preparation of our move Memorial Day weekend. Our “momma” plants, a huge arrowhead, rabbit’s fern, and red-leaf philodendron are sheltered under the Japanese maple near our front porch. The beautiful geraniums made their way to the wagon in our front yard. And the Kingston ferns are loving the filtered sunlight under the big sugar maple. My husband put up the screen house in the backyard ready to put the little plants on tables inside after this busy Mother’s Day weekend. It the midst of all this activity, one evening I found an immature robin bird sleeping in the “momma” red-leaf. It was awaken by my watering. He scurried away from me in short flight, but hung around the front yard. I think this robin bird became as restless as I feel. He was not around the next morning. So happy our plants made a home for him while he was learning to fly. Just hope the neighbor tom cat did not come around.
“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”
– Charles Dickens
March has such turbulent weather conditions, storms, tornados, and floods. Yet there is a knowing of what is to come after the ruckus. Baby birds chirping, wild violets showing purple, green grass glowing after the rains, and a rainbow’s promise of that pot of gold. For me the pot of gold is garden growth, showy dogwood blooms, the birth of a new thought, the memories of my child laughing in a swing, capturing a walk in the middle of my day … “No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.” – Hal Borland . March into spring …
~Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.~ Emily Dickinson
Birds even sing in the winter season…so my hope will be during this time.
Deanna Greens and Garden Art 