GARDENING – Page 7 – Skelton Sketches

There are poppies and there are POPPIES…

Posted on June 27, 2014April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

We were going away and still they hadn’t opened…

Now I’ve seen poppies bloom before…lots of red ones generally. These are blooming in my garden now:

Some more exotic than others…

My old neighbor used to shake her head and wonder why I wanted to grow weeds. Poppies were the undesirables back in the farm fields of Italy.

I have always loved them…They’re so delicate, like tissue wrapping paper and every year a fresh set volunteer…

But this year an extra jumbo plant arose in the hot west-facing tomato bed and grew like Jack’s beanstalk! I hadn’t planted it, at least not intentionally, but there it was, with the biggest buds ever, just waiting to burst.

And we had to leave on our trip before she delivered… (sigh) I was afraid I’d miss all her blooms before we got back to see…

A wedding intervened, and a 5th birthday for Grandson #1 and 3,000 kilometers of highway (more on that next time) before we could get home again to have a look…

First thing in the morning I scampered out with my camera to see how the garden had fared.

The roses were lovely

The Cranesbill Geranium blooms profuse

But the Poppies were outrageous!

Extravagant tousle-headed beauties still blooming in profusion.

Now those are POPPIES! I love it!

–LS

On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. Ps.145:5

The best days…

Posted on June 6, 2014April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

The best days begin with quiet spaces in quiet places–being still to let the Creator’s voice be the first voice I hear in the morning…
It’s all the better if the sun is warm and the quiet space is outside tucked under the leafy canopy of a big leaf maple….

And the best days are adorned with beauty
and the pauses necessary to really see it–

( I love Irises in general, and this variety in particular! It blooms out back largely hidden from view so I’ve taken to cutting blooms to bring the beauty near)
(my new Columbine!)
And a best day is made better when it is shared with someone you love…

–LS
“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Ps118:24
“On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate…”Ps.145:5

And now the waiting…

Posted on May 22, 2014April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

The time for the planting of gardens has come. In our climes the “May long weekend” (Victoria Day) is that moment. Seeds are covered in earth–pole beans and zucchini, pumpkins and peas.

Tomato plants are set out to flourish… (or fail), as the weather dictates.

and the waiting begins.

A garden thus begun doesn’t look like much, except in its maker’s eyes. Only he/she knows the grunt work that preceded this simple dropping of seeds into dirt—the weeding, the turning, the amending of soil. Only she knows the plan and holds the vision of what it all will come to, if all goes well…

In the meantime it’s just dirt and bean poles, mulch and hoses. Small beginnings.

God knows. He planted a garden once*.

His was designed to perfection, the tree of life its crowning centerpiece. There wasn’t a weed to be seen and the irrigation system was all tucked away underground.

Into this fledgling garden He brought the man He had breathed into being, to ‘work it and keep it’. What more blissful pastime could there be? And then He brought her a woman for his very own, and the garden was complete ( :

God set in motion His glorious plan for mankind with the planting of a garden. Only He could see down through the ages to the culmination of His hopes—a bride for His Son and the summing up of all things in Jesus, to the praise of His glorious grace.

In the meantime there was dirt and there were wee plants sprouting, and there was a gardener…

So, for the record I’ve snapped photos of my messy garden’s beginnings this week. The digging and weeding and composting and planning are behind. The planting is done. And now for the waiting to see the plan unveil its glory!

The strawberries are gaining ground despite the hungry deer.

Poppies have volunteered in the tomato bed, but never mind, I can’t wait to see them bloom!

Ugly overgrown tubs of ivy have given ground to a slender young lilac and a pot of petunias not yet filling their spaces…

The steps need replacing but the pansies don’t mind…

And all about the house are flowers tucked in every available container…

while the bees go a-BUM-bling

And the elegant columbines dance for joy!

Ah… and my new heirloom snowball bush is bursting out in its first baby snowflakes ( :

–LS

“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good…Gen.1:31

“…making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and thing on earth.

“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory!” Eph.1:10,11

———-

*Genesis 2:5-9