The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses. ~Hanna Rion
Smell: I love the smell of my rosemary bush as I brushed against it in preparing the southern most garden bed we now call the blueberry garden. The soil was very dry as I worked it, so instead of that freshly turned soil smell, I just got dust up my nose. Then bunny manure was added, not exactly a pleasant smell. Strange how something that smells bad makes things grow and smell good. Thankfully, my jasmine is just beginning to bloom so I can smell it on the north side of the house as I go through the gate to the backyard, but I am too busy on the other side to venture there much.
Sight: I have seen too much wrong with my gardens from several years of neglect, between droughts and lack of funds...and perhaps lack of desire to work them too. Now I am trying to make them more lovely to my eyes...when I get the dust back out of them, that is. So far, I have cleared and placed mulch around the Floribunda pink rose bushes and the azaleas in upper front garden. I finished the blueberry garden today, splitting apart variegated liriope to make a border all the way around and planting water melon seeds in the wide spaces between the young blueberry bushes. It looks so much better, so the neighbors tell me as they stop by while walking dogs. Sigh, I keep seeing those baby oak trees everywhere, though!
Hearing: I hear the occasional calls of red shouldered hawks, geese, an numerous birds of which are nameless to me. So many warnings noises from the birds and squirrels; they seem to have much to say when the mitten kittens are in the gardens with me. I hear my cats purring as they try to distract me from my tasks. I hear my newspapers I planned to use as a mat to keep down weeds persuaded by the wind to run off with him instead, but I expected as much for newspapers are fickled.
Taste: I taste salty sweat and dust mostly as I work, washed down with an occasional cooling iced tea. I crave chocolate as I usually do when doing so much physical labor...something I have been doing nearly every day in the last week--more than a week actually!
Feeling: Oh, I definitely have restored my feeling! I feel the grit of earth in my shoes and on my arms. I feel tired down to my bones, with aches and pains that thankfully diminish as I rest at night, which is a surprise to me! I awake a bit stiff with reluctant muscles but as soon as I am back in the garden, I think only on completing the job. I feel tired every night by 8:00 PM, and I feel that 5:30 AM comes too soon and I am so sleepy that spending ten minutes sitting is all my body needs as permission to fall asleep. I feel mosquito bites and itchy rashes from unknown sources, perhaps poison ivy from the kittens playing in the wooded areas. I feel time goes faster in the gardens and I feel it will never be done.
Still, if I had not else to do all the day, I should enjoy gardening more.
~ My Lord, I would have loved to live in Your garden of Eden! Oh, yes, indeed! ~
