Summer Solstice, 2014

"A profusion of pink roses bending ragged in the rain speaks to me of all gentleness and its enduring." ~The Collected Later Poems of William Carlos Williams

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With the official advent of Summer (Summer Solstice, Saturday, June 21), I've decided to share a few of my flower photos.  I lost a ton of potted plants due to the snow (my Angel Wing Begonias!)  We had four or five snowfalls here...unheard of!  But my flowers in the ground seem to have thrived from the snow.  Go figure.  I lost my beloved Willow tree (that's about the 5th one), but will plant another one next Spring. 

My Dinner Plate Hibiscus, which I thought were all kaput, came back with dozens of blooms.  Happy, happy, joy, joy.  My Lemongrass died...and my sweet son-in-law, the farmer, gave me some cuttings from his, so I'm back with Lemongrass.  The Mints are growing like the weeds they are, just more luscious this year, as is the Yarrow, Comfrey, Lemon Balm and the 5 kinds of Mint.  And on and on.  Here's a few pics from the past week and a Mary Oliver poem.  Enjoy!!!  xo, Marion

See the tiny grasshopper on the left?  Sneaky bug!

 

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The Summer Day

By Mary Oliver

 

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

 

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I call this one my "Blushing Hibiscus".  I love the pink with the red...

 

I planted ONE Spearmint plant by this birdbath and now it's all over the patio.  Total aromatherapy!

 



You can see why they're called "Dinner Plate Hibiscus".  Round and big as a plate.   Gorgeous!  I got them in every color I could find a couple of years ago.

 

Pink Hibiscus, glowing...

 

Red Hibiscus.  Unfortunately, grasshoppers love the leaves!!

 

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"Flowers don't worry about how they're going to bloom. They just open up and turn toward the light and that makes them beautiful." ~Jim Carrey

 

The only thing that smells better than a Gardenia is a Magnolia.  Delicious!

 

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"Against a dark sky all flowers look like fireworks. There is something strange about them, at once vivid and secret, like flowers traced in fire in the phantasmal garden of a witch." ~G.K. Chesterton, Alarms and Discursions, "The Glory of Grey"

 

The Passionflower who planted herself.  Now it's miles long wrapped around my cast iron posts on my carport.  Still smells like grape kool-aid.  The stem is fat as my big toe.  :-)

 

Bottle Brush Bush's flower.

 

The tiny white flowers of the ancient Yarrow herb.  I grew my own Yarrow, dried it, and made my own Yarrow sticks to throw when learning the I Ching.  I think that's the only way to get your soul into your sticks...grow your own.  ;-)

 

I have Daylilies lining my wooden fence. 

 

"When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other." ~Chinese Proverb

 

 

Morning Glory leaf on white Hibiscus.  I love flowers & leaves...

 

A hungry bee having breakfast at Chez Blushing Hibiscus.

 

Orange Canna.  I also have yellow, peach and red ones.

 

Datura Moonflowers beginning to open one evening.

Datura Moonflower, the Luna Princess of the flower kingdom...

 

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"Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into." ~Henry Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858

 

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