A Little Bend in the Road

Things have really slowed down. Slow not by choice but because the healing process has to be allowed to take place. This has turned into a very unexpected and interesting bend in my road.

The fracture is in the radial head - the inside bone that goes up the arm. 40% of the top part is cracked and slipped down. But reports are good that it's healing well. And each day it's a little less painful.

It was really the third day when I finally mentally complied and gave up my spring plans--except for the honey bees that is.

It was really hard to accept that my plans were being changed for me, like it or not. So, no gardening this spring--it's just too hard to do it properly with one arm, and the left at that.

So I took some time on nice days to sit on the swing and read and I made a mental shift to this thing called "relaxation". I hadn't done that for so long I realized I had forgetten how.

So somehow this broken arm has turned into a kind of gift. It slowed me down. I realize now that I needed to slow down a little. Yes, I stopped to view the flowers, but I wasn't hanging around long enough to enjoy their fragrance. A big important part of life - the enjoying it part - was getting away from me. The garden was getting away from me too.

It's happened before. Years ago there were busy or difficult springs and I didn't get in the garden and you know what? It survived without me. Unlike grass which demands to be cut, the garden can often forgive you if you can't get in it.I rely heavily on wood chips to keep weeds down and I adopt the concept that the more tightly packed the plants, the less weeds will grow.

On those occasions when I culled plants to create space I found weeds would quickly move in, despite the wood chips. I do still cull plants but not too severely.I feel I've now refocused and I'm looking forward to more relaxing days. Of course it's always easier to enjoy when the weather is great.

The garden is exploding this time of year. It rained the other night and I swear the next morning all the plants had grown more than an inch!

All that life and energy in the plants is just bursting to be set free.

It's a wonderful time of year. I think spring is my favourite time. Why? I believe it's seeing the beauty come up from all the deadness, seeing life spring forth from what looks so utterly dead and hopeless.

I took photos of the front yard every few days to try to create a time lapse effect. I planned on doing a slide show but that got interrupted with the arm thing, but I did manage a few photos.

In early spring the garden is scary. There's no better word for it - it's just ugly. People walk by and those who are new to seeing it look digusted. It looks like a trash heap. But what they don't know is that there's life there, under the surface and it's about to come forth.

In fact, I always thought that if I could take a couple months off work, I'd choose to be off in May and June.

That's when the garden is the most fun as it takes off and plants bloom.

You can also enjoy the outdoors then too because it isn't too hot yet.I always tour the garden every day to see what new plants are blooming.

I especially love watching poppies and peonies flowers crack open from their buds.

At the moment, bleeding hearts, Siberian Bulgoss, Candy Tuft, phlox and a few irises are in bloom along with tulips.

The Kings Solomon's seal are in bloom but the bells haven't opened up yet. I've been watching the bumble bees as they try to get inside. The weather's been cold the last couple days too - too cold for honey bees I think.

I consider my garden to be a cottage garden. My interpretation of that is that people take their divided plants to their cottage where they plant them and then they're ignored after that and allowed to grow naturally. My garden is much like that. Not a lot of control, just a bit of tweaking here and there. Sometimes I think it looks like a tossed salad.

I've put off getting my honey bees until June which will give me a couple more precious weeks to heal.

Let's hope the sun comes out soon so I can watch the bees in my garden while I'm relaxing on my swing.