A Good Day For Healing

I was sick all last week, and about the time my fever broke, so did the weather. Fortified with antibiotics and steroids, I was able to poke my head out the door for the first time on Friday. The sultry, oppressive heat was gone! Warm still, but bearable with a pleasant breeze, and the sky was lovely with puffy clouds. 

I got a book, my camera, and a glass of ice water and settled onto the patio for some outdoor therapy. I didn't get much reading done as I soaked in the sounds and sights that refreshed my spirit and body. I wasn't up to wandering the yard, but there was plenty going on nearby to catch my attention.

There was the view through the rose arch:

The Zephirine Drouhin rose on the right has been cut back and is not blooming now. It will put out more blooms as the weather cools. The larger plant that is taking over the arch is jasmine. The purplish tree seen through the middle of the arch is a Japanese maple growing on the other side of the front lawn.

I noticed how much the rosemary has grown. This plant loves where I have put it, near a concrete walk, so that some of the lime leeches into the soil there, counteracting our normally acid soil. The little Christmas tree in the middle is a dwarf Alberta spruce, growing in a pot:

Here are a few flowers blooming near the patio:Clockwise from top: Knockout roses have bloomed through the summer heat; caryopteris, also called bluebeard; a plant that looks like a perennial hibiscus but is not.(I have forgotten its name!); cosmos

I was delighted to see this beautiful tiger swallowtail butterfly:

There were lots of hummingbirds, but their arial maneuvers were too fast for me to capture. However, my dog Lily was happy to cooperate for a photo.Matted and wet, Lily was glad to see me and wanted to climb in my lap. We have had some rain, and she had been rolling in the mud. She is collie mixed with some sort of mountain dog, and she really belongs in Alaska or Canada. Although her fur was cut very short at the beginning of summer, already it is growing long. The stuff was thick and warm and sticky. Poor Lily. She sheds almost year round and needs constant grooming.

I sat on the patio for several hours, until the sun began to set behind the chimney.The sky was layered with black and gold and rosy clouds.  

Can you see the two cloud people dancing in one of the photos above? The day came to a close, and I was feeling better.

Summer Skies

I like to watch the sky. Summer skies can be crystal blue or gray or white hot, and sometimes all in the same day. I can get lost in the clouds, dreaming of heavenly worlds or mystical creatures that float above the earth. Sometimes I search for angels. I have never seen one, but I know a man who says he once did.

As a gardener, it's one of the first things I do every day: open the door and look up to evaluate the weather. The summer sky is ever shifting, and as the day progresses, I watch the horizon.

Will it rain today? Is the hazy sky a prelude to afternoon thunderstorms? Will those black clouds bring hail and high winds?

Here in Helena we get about sixty inches of rain each year. Last week we had a fierce storm which brought down a large dead limb from an oak tree. I had eyed that limb before. It was up very high, and I knew someday it would come crashing to earth. It was about twenty feet long, and it landed in the middle of a path, just missing all the nearby hydrangea shrubs.

The days are long now, but around eight o'clock in the evening a pink and golden glow begins to spread from the west. It shines over the garden and house, tinting the world in rosy tones, a gentle hint at first, then more fervently painting the end of day.I like to walk in the garden then, listening to the rise and fall of cricket song and watching the lightening bugs twinkle in the fading light. Soon it will be time to go inside, to prepare for another day.

May beautiful skies shine over you and bring blessings to your land.   Deborah