Welcome to this walk in the garden.
On a beautiful spring day.
Come with me as we walk down the driveway and see where the seats are set up.
There's a soft gossamer screen protecting the seedlings.
And they've just grown their seed leaves.
And are starting to pop out the real leaves for each plant.
They're very delicate.
You touch one with your forefinger and feel like it's the most delicate thing you've seen in a long time.
Indeed,
It is.
We look to our left and we see the bright white cosmos,
The flowers brightening our day in the moment we look at them.
And we smell a scent that smells so good and reminds us a little of our childhood with little kiddle dolls.
It's a sweet pea flower.
They're in purples,
Burgundies,
And the prettiest pinks.
The shapes look like angel wings.
But new shapes,
New shapes of angel wings.
And a smell that is so beautiful.
Mixed in with this smell is the smell of the Meyer lemon tree.
With its flowers,
Making new lemons for the year.
Oh it's a heavenly smell.
And you can just see if you take a look the little tiny lemons forming where some of the flowers have fallen off.
Starting their next cycle.
And we notice to our left.
The most unique color,
Bougainvillea.
And I'm noticing the flowers of the bougainvillea have somewhat of a similar shape to the sweet pea flowers.
But when the bougainvilleas dry they hold their shape and become paper thin and just a little less color.
These bougainvillea flowers aren't close to going dry yet.
They are fresh,
Light pink and white.
The lightest pink we've ever seen in a bougainvillea flower.
And the buds are plentiful.
This bougainvillea.
Has really spread its wings since it got moved to a new spot with more air and space around it.
We take note from the garden.
Sometimes we just need to change the environment a little and things grow.
Let's walk down the steps to the main part of the yard.
And before us we see.
.
.
A trellis with billows of puffy pink-white Sally Holmes roses.
Like clouds over this trellis of the brightest,
Most beautiful sort.
And on either side of the trellis is an orange tree.
The orange blossoms smelled heavenly also,
But they have fallen off and given way to oranges adorning the entire trees.
Last year there weren't many oranges but this year it looks like there will be a lot.
We walk over the grass.
Down a little path to a secret garden.
There's little anemone leaves that are going to eventually grow beautiful anemone flowers at the end of the summer.
They'll be very tall.
And inside of this secret garden.
Are roses,
Roughly and smooth,
Yellow,
Pink,
White.
The yellow bush is covered with yellow roses.
And they're all perfectly beautiful.
Surrounding these rose bushes are fox gloves.
Tall spires of bell-like flowers.
Different colors,
Freckled with spots.
And a few purple and blue delphinium growing as well.
We walk a little further down the path and we see deep pink rhododendron leaves.
Spheres of rhododendron leaves,
So bright.
And where the rhododendron flowers have started to wilt,
New growth is already coming for next year.
And we see the white camellia behind the rhododendron.
The gardenia to the left.
The azalea which just finished blooming,
And we turn a corner between the boxwoods.
And we come to the back garden.
Where the phlox and the gladiola are all leafed out and ready for their flowers,
Big puffy white on the phlox and tall spires of pink.
We'll come back and visit those later when they come out.
There's also a Mr.
Lincoln Roses.
More yellow,
Pink,
Pink and white.
And dahlias galore all over the place.
Sprouting their leaves,
Growing by the day.
Starting to make buzz The leaves look similar now,
But when the buds and the flowers open,
They'll all be different.
We'll come back and visit those later as well.
Let's just walk back through the snapdragons.
And the parsley.
Crossing the grass.
And sitting down.
And just taking a look.
And soaking in all we've just seen.
You may have had a little rose petal in your hand and you're using your forefinger and your thumb rubbing back and forth on the rose petal and feeling how smooth that is.
And there's a tender leaf.
You might have taken a little tender leaf on the walk.
And notice that it has moisture in it still.
Not waxy and polished like some of the other leaves of the Camellia plant for example.
But it's just so tender.
More resistance when you rub it back and forth.
So just breathe in and imagine your face.
And your chest expanding like a bud filling out on its way to a bloom.
With each breath in,
Expanding,
And with each breath out,
Contracting back down.
The dahlias bloom by expanding and contracting.
Slow motion video shows this.
And so we can imagine that as we expand and contract with our breath,
Imagining the flowers.
We are also growing.
Sometimes it seems like we take a step back.
But it's all in the service of growing.
Growing,
Learning,
Evolving.
So as we take a last breath in and just looking around the garden,
We feel so appreciative for the Zinnia seeds we saw in the beginning and looking forward to seeing how they develop.
To the roses in bloom,
To the snapdragons.
Fox Glove The sweet peas.
The Phlox,
Gladiola,
The Dahlias.
Thank you,
Nature.
Thank you,
Nature,
For providing such wonderment for us.
And thank you for coming on this garden walk with me.
I look forward to seeing you next time.
