GARDEN BLOGGERS' MUSE DAY

"Wisteria woke me this morning,

And there was all June in the garden;

I felt them, early, warning

Lest I miss any part of the day.

Straight I walked to the trellis vine.

Wisteria touched a lifted nostril:

Feelings of beauty diffused, to entwine

My spirit with June's own aura."

- Ann McGough, Summons

 

 

Written by Carolyngail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago All rights reserved

GARDEN BLOGGERS' MUSE DAY

Dear March -- Come in --

How glad I am --

I hoped for you before --

Put down your Hat --

You must have walked --

How out of Breath you are --

Dear March, Come right up the stairs with me --

I have so much to tell --

I got your Letter, and the Birds --

The Maples never knew that you were coming -- till I called

I declare -- how Red their Faces grew --

But March, forgive me -- and

All those Hills you left for me to Hue --

There was no Purple suitable --

You took it all with you --

Who knocks? That April.

Lock the Door --

I will not be pursued --

He stayed away a Year to call

When I am occupied --

But trifles look so trivial

As soon as you have come

That Blame is just as dear as Praise

And Praise as mere as Blame --

-Emily Dickinson

Written by Carolyngail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago All rights reserved

Garden Bloggers' Muse Day

"Farewell, thy destiny is done,

Thy ebbing sands we tell,

Blended and set with centuries gone -

Thou dying year, farewell.


Gifts from thy hand - Spring's joyous leaves,

And Summer's breathing flowers,

Autumn's bright fruit and bursting sheaves -

These blessings have been ours.


They pass with thee and now they seem

Like gifts from fairy spells

Or like some sweet remembered dream -

We bid those gifts farewell."


- Mrs. Jones, Thou Dying Year, Farewell


Montreal Vindicator, January 6, 1829

Garden Bloggers' Muse Day

                            

  Wintry View from my Window by yours truly

"How like a winter hath my absence been

From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!

What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!

What old December’s bareness every where!

And yet this time remov’d was summer’s time;

The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,

Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,

Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease:

Yet this abundant issue seem’d to me

But hope of orphans and unfather’d fruit;

For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,

And, thou away, the very birds are mute:

Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer,

That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near."

- William Shakespeare, 

Just like Willy I don't look forward to winter and I am certainly beginning to feel " dreading the winter's near. "   Hurry, May ! 



GARDEN BLOGGERS' MUSE DAY

"If it is true that one of the greatest pleasures of gardening lies in looking forward, then the planning of next year's beds and borders must be one of the most agreeable occupations in the gardener's calendar. This should make October and November particularly pleasant months, for then we may begin to clear our borders, to cut down those sodden and untidy stalks, to dig up and increase our plants, and to move them to other positions where they will show up to greater effect. People who are not gardeners always say that the bare beds of winter are uninteresting; gardeners know better, and take even a certain pleasure in the neatness of the newly dug, bare, brown earth."



- Vita Sackville-West

November is not an idle month in the garden - cutting down the "sodden and untidy stalks ",  dividing and transplanting overgrown perennials, mulching, weeding , planting bulbs , moving plants indoors and of course, the best part as Vita said is planning next years beds and borders.

Garden Bloggers Muse Day -From Sweet Carolina

" Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning ... "  except maybe when its pouring rain ?   But because of the record breaking heat and drought it's most welcome . There was a gentle but steady rain all night long.  When I went out for my morning walk I saw puddles of water everywhere that the soil didn't absorb.   Oh, no, don't tell me -clay?! Why should I be surprised?

  I feel a close connection to this beautiful state as the first documented record of my Irish ancestors show they purchased 150 acres in Mecklenburg County, ( near Charlotte, hometown of Elizabeth Lawrence )  North Carolina in 1773 for the sum of 80 pounds, a good amount in those days.  Now that's my idea of a country estate.

My daughter and her family are re-locating to the Tarheel state and of course Mawmaw had to go along to make sure her Little Sweetpea, Lea, is well taken care of.   There'll be a lot of adjustments to make but one thing they've already discovered is that its easy to like the polite manners and hospitality of neighbors and the locals . 

Meanwhile I'm looking forward to meeting fellow garden bloggers and visiting some of Carolina's finer gardens.

Leaving you with a video of one of North Carolina's most famous sons and America's country boy from Mt.Airy , Andy Griffith :










 









Written by Carolyngail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago All rights reserved

Garden Bloggers' Muse Day

"It is a sad moment when the first phlox appears. It is the amber light indicating the end

of the great burst of  early summer and suggesting that we must now start looking

forward to autumn. Not that I have any objection to autumn as a season, full of its own

beauty; but I just cannot bear to see another summer go, and I recoil

from what the first hint of autumn means."

- Vita Sackville-West

Vita and I are in complete agreement on our feelings about the first signs of autumn.  Even though this summer has been one for the record books, both in the amount of rainfall in early summer and the lack of it in August, combined with consistently hot days, we still hate to see it go.

Early this morning a gentle rain began falling . September's song is welcomed by gardeners everywhere.

 









Written by Carolyngail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago All rights reserved

GARDEN BLOGGERS' MUSE DAY

"Let me enjoy

this late-summer day of my heart

while the leaves are still green

and I won't look so close

as to see that first tint

of pale yellow slowly creep in.

I will cease endless running

and then look to the sky

ask the sun to embrace me

and then hope she won't tell

of tomorrows less long than today.

Let me spend just this time

in the slow-cooling glow

of warm afternoon light

and I'd think

I will still have the strength

for just one more

last fling of my heart."

- John Bohrn, Late August

Written by Carolyngail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago All rights reserved

GARDEN BLOGGERS' MUSE DAY

 Wisteria woke me this morning,

And there was all June in the garden;

I felt them, early, warning

Lest I miss any part of the day.

Straight I walked to the trellis vine.

Wisteria touched a lifted nostril:

Feelings of beauty diffused, to entwine

My spirit with June's own aura.

-Ann McGough

Written by Carolyngail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago All rights reserved

GARDEN BLOGGERS' MUSE DAY

Playing with Paintbrush

Can't believe I created this with a mouse!

You must wake and call me early Mother dear

Tomorrow will be the happiest time of the year, of all the glad new year

Of all the glad new year, Mother, the maddest, merriest day

For I'm to be the Queen o' the May, Mother,

I'm to be the Queen o' the May

-Alfred Lord Tennyson

And in honor of her Majesty's birthday she has selected the King of the May, born on the very same day, to honor her with his beautiful new song.  Happy Birthday to me and to King Tim :-)  Happy Muse Day and Happy May Day.

GARDEN BLOGGERS' MUSE DAY

FIRST CROCUS

This morning, flowers cracked open

the earth’s brown shell. Spring

leaves spilled everywhere

though winter’s stern hand

could come down again at any moment

to break the delicate yolk

of a new bloom.

The crocus don’t see this as they chatter

beneath a cheerful petal of spring sky.

They ignore the air’s brisk arm

as they peer at their fresh stems, step

on the leftover fragments

of old leaves.

When the night wind twists them to pieces,

they will die like this: laughing,

tossing their brilliant heads

in the bitter air."

- Christine Klocek-Lim

Note :  Christine is the Editor of Autumn Sky Poetry and won the 2009 Ellen LaForge memorial Prize in Poetry.  She has generously allowed permission to use her poem here for our Muse Day.






Written by Carolyngail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago
All rights reserved

Garden Bloggers' Muse Day

Dreaming of May in March

MARCH

Through all the frozen winter

My nose has grown most lonely

For lovely, lovely, colored smells

That come in springtime only.

The purple smell of lilacs,

The yellow smell that blows

Across the air of meadows

Where bright forsythia grows.

The tall pink smell of peach trees,

The low white smell of clover,

And everywhere the great green smell

Of grass the whole world over.- Kathryn Worth, Smells

Written by Carolyngail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago
All rights reserved

GARDEN BLOGGERS' MUSE DAY

An Arrangement for Jason
by Moi

The Garden in Winter


by Lucy Maud Montgomery


Frosty-white and cold it lies Underneath the fretful skies;
Snowflakes flutter where the red Banners of the poppies spread,

And the drifts are wide and deep Where the lilies fell asleep.
But the sunsets o'er it throw Flame-like splendor, lucent glow,

And the moonshine makes it gleam Like a wonderland of dream,
And the sharp winds all the day Pipe and whistle shrilly gay.Safe beneath the snowdrifts lie Rainbow buds of by-and-by;

In the long, sweet days of spring Music of bluebells shall ring,
And its faintly golden cup Many a primrose will hold up.

Though the winds are keen and chill Roses' hearts are beating still,
And the garden tranquilly Dreams of happy hours to be­

In the summer days of blue All its dreamings will come true.

Garden Bloggers' Muse Day

Autumn moon

Leaves of gold and red

welcome October.


-Carolyn Choi

Garden Bloggers' Muse Day - September 1

September ;

it was the most beautiful of words he'd always felt

evoking orange flowers

swallows and regrets


-Alexander Therough

GARDEN BLOGGERS' MUSE DAY

August Sun by Moi

The brilliant poppy flaunts her head

amidst the ripening grain

and adds her voice to sell the song

That August is here again.

-Helen Windslow

Garden Bloggers' Muse Day

What do you sing when you garden? I guess it depends on the songs you grew up with, at least it was for me. Growing up in the sunny south we'd garden to such songs as " In Them Old Cotton Fields Back Home ", " Walking in High Cotton, " "Papa Won't Sell the Farm " and the " Green , Green Grass of Home ", to name a few.

I ran across an interesting site today titled Garden Humour website whose author, garden writer David Hobson of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada ran a contest titled Songs and Music to Garden By. He received an incredible response. I never realized there were so many songs about gardening and nature.

Many of the songs are familiar to most of us :

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
Tiptoe Through the Tulips
Home Grown Tomatoes
Green Grow the Lilacs
Roses are Red, my Love
I'm a Lonely Little Petunia in the Onion Patch
I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover
The Yellow Rose of Texas
Strawberry Fields

These are but a few of the huge response he received. Visit his website for the complete list and many more amusing stories and jokes.

In the meantime, here's one of my all-time favorite singers with the Garden Song :

GARDEN BLOGGERS' MUSE DAY

Welcome, June ! I used to have a Chinese wisteria standard ( shown above ) but last year I had to dig it up and move it to another location. Unfortunately it didn't make it.

This Spring I noticed a vine winding its way up my fence from my neighbor's yard. When I looked closely I saw that it was the Wisteria that had sent up a shoot from its root. Instead of staying on that side of the fence it had come home.

I love wisteria and last year I planted the American variety which is more reliable -Kentucky blue moon. I'm happy to report that it has two fat flower buds on it right now.

It's raining again in Chicago. This is the rainiest Spring since the 1920's. We are due for some nice warm sunshine.

GARDEN BLOGGERS' MUSE DAY

The Gardener
by Moi
Acrylic on Canvas

More eloquent than the art of poets or musicians are the actions of millions of ordinary mortals who immerse themselves more and more in their gardens for the only peace they know. Only in their gardens are they taken out of themselves, beyond themselves, above themselves, in their earthly paradise.

-Lucinda Lambton
Good riddance March, Welcome April !

GARDEN BLOGGERS' MUSE DAY

"..When Irish eyes are smiling sure it's like a morn in Spring . .. "
( My little Irish Lassie Lea )

March not only marks the beginning of Spring but is also Irish American Heritage month. More than 40 million Americans are of Irish descent, 10 times more than the population of the Emerald Isle.

I have a lot to celebrate this month, especially on St. Patrick's Day. My first ancestor from Ireland arrived in America and couldn't wait to join the American revolution so he could fight the Brits for the freedom of his new homeland. His grave, in White Plains, Georgia, is marked by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Since my daughter married an Irishman from County Cork and produced our first grandchild Lea we have even more reason to celebrate as our ties to Ireland have grown. Lea's already visited her grandparents in Ireland and they will be visiting here as well and I look forward to someday taking her there to visit her Father's homeland.

So for this Muse Day I give you a traditional Irish blessing :

May the rains sweep gently across your fields
may the sun warm the land
May every good seed you have planted bear fruit
and late summer find you standing in fields of plenty.

Happy Spring and Erin Go Bragh !