“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in–what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

 

During the month of May and the first half of June, the weather blew into Ohio in hot gusts, dry enough to wither the normally green summer grass to a crispy brown. In evenings for weeks at a time, the sound outside on my street was not lawn mowers, but the puffs of rotary sprinklers. We had no rain for weeks. However, that all changed about two weeks ago, when the heavenly faucet turned back on.

In a week’s time, the grass is green, and the flowers bloom in profusion. Two years ago, I dug out and planted flowers along the deck in the back of our house — an improvement over the non-landscaped sparse grass (link back to how it looked before — wow, it’s changed!). And now, this third summer, the garden is filling in, lush and vibrant. Paradise, for me.

The past couple of days, in splashes of sunshine, I’ve taken my camera out with me into the yard to capture what I see…

“Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“In all things in nature, there is something of the marvelous.” — Aristotle

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” — John Keats

“I like light, color, luminosity. I like things full of color and vibrant.” — Oscar de la Renta

“A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy.” — Luis Barragan

One of my favorite quotes from Still Alice by Lisa Genova: “She liked being reminded of butterflies. She remembered being six or seven and crying over the fates of the butterflies in her yard after learning that they lived for only a few days. Her mother had comforted her and told her not to be sad for the butterflies, that just because their lives were short didn’t mean they were tragic. Watching them flying in the warm sun among the daisies in their garden, her mother had said to her, see, they have a beautiful life. Alice liked remembering that.”
― Lisa Genova, Still Alice