How Does Your Garden Grow?

Many find solace in the garden.  Some, inspiration.  And others, peace and rejuvenation.  Today after Mr. Confessions arrived home from a very hot, long day on the job, he had some work to finish at the computer before dinner.  After sitting down to type away, I hear a long drawing of breath from across the room.  What was he sniffing at?  Did the dog have an accident in the house?  Did MissV hide some food somewhere that is now rotting?  Then, the inevitable, he opens his mouth to say something...  Drats!  But, to my surprise his words brought a gentle smile instead of a deep eye-roll and a run for the paper towels. "It smells like popsicles over here!"

Isn't nature wonderful?  Yesterday I picked a delightful bouquet of colour from my gardens.  Who knew Snap Dragons smelled like popsicles!?  The flower picking brought back so many memories from my childhood, wandering the gardens with my Mom.  A sniff here, a gentle touch there, a little inspection to find the perfect bloom.  My  father's second wife, whom I call Mom as well as my birth Mother, was, and still is, a magnificent gardener.  On a visit last year she brought as her carry-on luggage a bag full of plants from her garden, ready to plant in mine!  Most of them survived, and my favourites of them are staples in my front garden - a beautiful blooming chive, two lilies, and low growing yellow sedum.

I find gardening a challenge and put myself in the inspiration category.  At times it may be peaceful, and other moments there may be some solace, but usually I have to wait until things are growing, blooming, and generally well on their way to their own perfection before I can stop and enjoy.  Silliness I know, since there is pretty much nothing I can do to arrive at a perfect garden - water, weed, and wait for the welcoming of blooms.

My favourite types of flowers are those with single blooms and the ones with very tiny blooms.  Single blooms are so divine and inspire so many different aspects of a crafter's creative life.  Look at "You've Got Mail" starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks; daisies were her favourite.  Cone flowers are found frequently in applique, colourful blooms are a great addition to knitted and crocheted projects, and scrapbooks are littered with stickers, papers, and die-cuts of wonderful blooms in every imaginable colour.  Royal Doulton knows what they are doing too, delicate forget-me-nots grace the  slender rim of one of my favourite patterns from their fine china collections - Memory Lane.

In passing over so many of Mother Nature's designer creations to create my dining table bouquet, I am reminded of entering similar petalled plants in bunches of glory into our town fair each year.  The category was usually loaded with beautiful blooms, and the chances of winning a ribbon were sometimes few.  However, Mom being the backyard botanist that she is, usually brought home some satin.  It was always so fun to wander around the fair grounds building looking at all the winning entries and searching for your own to see if you got the glory that year.

All of this to say, aren't flowers from your own garden divine?  I think there are some beautiful pictures in my albums from this year's blossoming wonders that may find themselves into an applique quilting project or two over the years.  I'm off to sleep now, and I think I'll take my sweet smelling vase to the bedroom and enjoy the fragrance in the morning.

Happy stitching and gardening too!