I have taken to eating every meal I can out in our garden. This morning the chairs and benches were too wet, so I sat on a dry brick step at the top of a covered porch. By lunchtime everything was dry, so I sat in a wooden chair to eat and look around.
With all of the rain this year the oakleaf hydrangeas, planted last year, have taken off.
The leucothoes I thought were dead after the brutal winter are full of new green leaves.
Unmistakable chittering of new baby wrens came from the wren house in the cherry tree.
Then something pink caught my eye. What was that? Not one of the pink ribbons had tied to the deer netting, so we would not walk into it. No. The other day I’d switched the ribbons to white to make them more subtle. From a distance it seemed as if one of the amaryllis plants my sister’s given me over the years was blooming. In July? I stood up and walked to the spot by the sunporch where I keep the collection in summer.
Yes! A leafy, long-stalked amaryllis with two frilly peppermint striped blooms. That particular plant had not bloomed this year probably because of something I’d failed to do, like put it in a sunny window at the right time or water it at the right time. No matter, it is beautiful in summer.
We are short on cut flowers at the moment, so now, at the end of July, it graces the living room where it might have stood this winter. A surprise gift is welcomed at any season.
