The Healing Power of Flowers

I got the most wonderful envelope of flower advertising from a plant nursery a few days ago and they just screamed for me to glue them into my art journal. So here they are with a few added words and twirls and ink. Summer fun!!!

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"People from a planet without flowers would think we must be

mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us." ~Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat

A late cloudy afternoon and one of my backyard Moonflowers on the verge of unfurling. They only live one single night, by morning they are dead.


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"A flower's appeal is in its contradictions - so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect." ~Adabella Radici

A set of silky, wrinkly Moonflower twins in my front yard around my dirty ironwork. They're so fragile, freshly opened with their delicate petals and heavenly scent. The scent is like a drug---I can't keep my nose out of them! They remind me of the sand dollars we used to find on the beach. I saw my first pink and black Sphinx Moths the night of the full moon but they were too elusive to be captured in photos. One even bumped my arm as if to push me out of the way on her way to the intoxicating Moonflower nectar.

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"I know that if odour were visible, as colour is,

I'd see the summer garden in rainbow clouds." ~Robert Bridges, "Testament of Beauty"

This flower blooms in a little globe (I forget the name!) but it's not an Allium. The last few afternoon rains got her to finally bloom for me this year!

My sassy, pink Pansies have really outdone themselves. I just can't pass one by without snapping a photo.

Sunflowers are nature's enigma. They bloom early with their bright yellow, smiling faces, then bend their heads as if sorrow is weighing them down. I had to change this one to black and white because it just fit better. Doesn't she look forlorn? But the happy part is that she makes seeds and feeds the birds even as she is drying and dying.....

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"Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock." ~Henry Ward Beecher, Star Papers: A Discourse of Flowers

Oh, the Zinnias, like rabbits they multiply! Just when I think they're done blooming, here comes another one in a color I've never seen before. These orange ones are blooming under the Sunflowers.

My backyard Zinna patch by my Tomatoes. They've been loaded with baby bumble bees ever since spring. Every spring I go to Dollar Tree and buy 10 packs of Zinnias for a dollar. So far, I've only planted 4 packs. I'm staggering them now every few weeks so I'll have their company until frost. I recently made a flower bed around my mailbox and mixed Zinnia seeds with Daisies and Purple Coneflowers. They're about 3 inches high. They'll make my mailman happy, bless his old heart. He told me the other day (when I have a package he honks the horn for me because he knows how I love my books and don't want to drive to the P.O. to pick them up) that I didn't look a day over 35. I told him I think he needs glasses. LOL!

"The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life." ~Jean Giraudoux

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Blessings, Peace & Happiness,

~*~Marion~*~

What I Been Up To The Past Few Weeks

I'm so happy, happy, happy to have my computer back up and running as of today! Hooray! My hanging baskets are overflowering with the Pansies and Begonias I planted in them in early Spring. My yard is exploding with bright, vivid, vibrant colors. Along the fence, my yellow Daylilies are blooming like there's no tomorrow. Tee-Hee. Which there isn't if you're a Daylily.

'The whole of life lies in the verb seeing." ~Teilhard De Chardin

This past weekend we went to the annual Melrose Plantation Arts & Crafts Festival near Natchitoches.

http://www.caneriverheritage.org/main_file.php/melrose.php/

(Kelly, Pammy & Quid, it's close to where we stayed along Cane River last year.) This beautiful lady is Ms. Alma, a retired school teacher from Minden, Louisiana who is a fabulous primitive artist. We bought one of her paintings of an angel with a dove on her shoulder. She was kind enough to pose for me and tell me how her friend made that amazing dress for her although she did the intricate handwork herself. We lived a few years in Minden and she may have taught one of my daughters. She had a joie de vivre like no one I've met in a long time. I really admired her for wearing that period costume because it got into the mid-90's by noon!



One of my favorite parts of the festival is re-visiting the magnificent old trees which provide much appreciated shade. If this one could talk, I'm sure it would sprout stories as numerous as its leaves!


This is a partial shot of the front of the plantation. That's Taylor, April and Ray posing for me. I always forget to get a pic of myself. Ha-Ha!


I acquired a new kitten last week. This is Romeo (see the cool little soul-patch on this chin) hanging with Cody. The very day April gave him to me, he immediately took to Cody. God bless that dog. Surely, he was a cat in a past life. He just loves kittens and they worship him right back. Romeo has no tail---well, it's a nub of a tail. He's a bobtailed cat. I named him Romeo because the minute I picked him up at April's house, he began purring very loudly and shamelessly flirting with me. She wouldn't let me have him, but later changed her mind and brought him to my house. Just what I need, another cat!

One of my showy Sunflowers. They're almost bloomed out now, but I'm planting more seeds today. We planted an Orange tree a few weeks ago and it already has tiny oranges on it. I hope it survives. I've been babying it and giving it lots of water, compost and love.

The snowy, tiny, white Yarrow flower with it's feathery green leaves. One of my favorite herbs to grow. I made my own Yarrow sticks for practicing the I Ching one year. Yarrow flowers have long, sturdy stems.

"The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware---joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware." ~Henry Miller

And I leave you with a photo of April's latest work of art. It's a large painting of her sitting with pages from her favorite books and comic art (Emily the Strange) decoupaged onto the canvas. She's so talented! See you all again soon. I've got to go read blogs now and get caught up!!!

Hugs, Blessings and Love,

~Marion

"The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair." ~Walker Percy

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"Why tell animals living in the water to drink?"

--West African Proverb