Fresh Air AND Flowers

After a very busy week, I finally have a few minutes to post again. We've had overnight guests and daytime company and several visits to the doctor to get immunizations for Kate, one of my twin daughters. She's getting ready to go to South Africa for a month and has needed a few unusual things. The immunizations are pretty standard, but the typhoid immunization and anti-malaria pills are something we don't see very often in North Dakota. Not that that has anything to do with my garden. Oh well.

Anyway, today's topic is one of my favorite perks of gardening. Besides fitness and fresh air and finding time to think, we get ....... cut flowers.

I planted a lovely healthy foxglove this spring and, as soon as it flowered, I snipped off the blooms and brought them in the house to enjoy. My enormous columbine was flowering at the same time and they make a lovely combination. I've had nothing but compliments on the foxglove and can hardly wait till they make more flowers. They do have more unopened buds that I left on the plant. I've put them right beside my daisies and they make another wonderful pair.

Now I've got a peony just opening up that I'll bring inside, although I will leave a few buds outside for the neighbors to enjoy too. And soon the baby's breath will be ready to tuck into every bouquet I gather. My dahlias, big and small, are covered with buds, and the cosmos, four-o'clocks, and snap dragons should bloom all summer long to enjoy inside and out.

It seems to me that gardening is the perfect antidote to my regular life in ND. I have to slow down, be patient and take a few deep breaths. The garden is one place where hurrying simply doesn't work. Hallelujah.

More later,

b