Moon Talk and Spring Talk

Okay, I'm a moon person...and it's no wonder...I was born in the sign of Moonchild on the full moon, slap in the middle of hurricane season.  Yes, these lunar facts have shaped my personality. I'm not a superstitious person...not very superstitious, that is.  I plant by the moon phases, but that's nature.

  This is a little piñata I bought from an Etsy shop.  I had to have this creative little moon...

I don't/can't sleep much when the moon is full.  I watch the moonbeams and moonlight as it softly glows through my gauzy curtains onto the floor.  I inevitably get up and stand at the window and search the bright night sky until I spot the Moonlady, and only then do I feel comforted and lie back down to doze.

Ah, my Angel Trumpets feed my soul...sweetly scented night bloomers...

As Summer nears and Spring winds down, I marvel at creation and nature:  the Moon, seeds, flowers, the weather, and the joyous, perfect synchronicity of it all.  When the frogs start croaking and singing in the middle of a cloudless, warm afternoon, I know it'll be raining soon.  Frogs don't lie.  It's clouding up right now and I heard the toads/frogs talking to me just this morning.

I've been outside a lot this week watering my container garden, planting kale and lettuce, meeting turtles, listening to frogs and communing with the dragonflies.  I will always be in awe of these creatures of water, earth and air.  Dragonflies are born and then live a year under water before climbing out to earth to spread their wings and fly.  It's magical.

It took 15 shots to get this picture today. He patiently waited....

                         My Siberian and Red Russiak Kale was up in 2 days!!!

                 Same with my Queen Lime Red Zinnias.  I'll be transplanting these...

Found an old garden journal from 1997.  Every herb I planted is still thriving 19 YEARS later!

Red Dinner Plate Hibiscus, so easy to grow & returns every year!

New Hibiscus, grown from last year's seeds. 🌱💚

My first Early Girl tomato lives up to her name...

Moonflowers are climbing up, up, up toward the sun...

I made a seed trade with a lady I met on Instagram.  Planted two days ago & it's already sprouting!

..and, of course, some beautiful words to inspire from poet C. D. Wright's "Deepstep Comes Shining".

Indigo Blu (Blythe) arrived from Hong Kong with that amazing blue hair!

                My new favorite coloring book...

                        Colored with gel pens...

Dragonfly love---colored with gel pens & Prismacolor pencils.

xo,

~Marion~

Do something you love that brings you joy!  Gardening feeds the body and the soul! 🌱💚🌱💚

Some Jack Gilbert

I've been knee deep in the poetry of Jack Gilbert this week.  I went through my poetry books (no small task as I have over 300 books of poetry) and found two of Mr. Gilbert's.  I haven't been able to put them down since stumbling upon them...metaphorically and literally.  Below are two of my favorite poems out of hundreds of favorites. 

(August has sashayed into Louisiana hot, humid and steamy.  She always was a sultry, sizzling bitch and continues to live up to her bad reputation.  But the dragonflies and hummingbirds are plenteous and the tomatoes still giving freely of their fruit.  I pluck them from the plant and eat them like apples, juice dripping down my chin. My shirts are stained. I can think of no finer luxury in this life.)  xo

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Older Women
By Jack Gilbert

Each farmer on the island conceals
his hive far up on the mountain,
knowing it will otherwise be plundered.
When they die, or can no longer make
the hard climb, the lost combs year
after year grow heavier with honey.
And the sweetness has more and more
acutely the taste of that wilderness.

from:  "Jack Gilbert:  Collected Poems", page 173

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The Danger of Wisdom
By Jack Gilbert

We learn to live without passion.
To be reasonable. We go hungry
amid the giant granaries
this world is. We store up plenty
for when we are old and mild.
It is our strength that deprives us.
Like Keats listening to the doctor
who said the best thing for
tuberculosis was to eat only one
slice of bread and a fragment
of fish each day. Keats starved
himself to death because he yearned
so desperately to feast on Fanny Brawne.
Emerson and his wife decided to make
love sparingly in order to accumulate
his passion. We are taught to be
moderate. To live intelligently.

from:  "Jack Gilbert:  Collected Poems", page 330

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