This morning we started our spring yard work. Today’s tasks were raking the pine needles and picking up pine cones and gum balls from the Sweet Gum trees. If you happen to follow me on social media, you’ll know that my neighbors keep chopping down their trees because they’re tired of the yard work. Today, my fella and I went out around 10am and just came in around 3pm. Trees take a bit of work and the ornamentals certainly do cost money in maintenance but we believe they are worth it and no one will ever be able to convince us otherwise (except if a tree kills one of us but now I’m just being extreme). For each pine cone, gum ball, and pile of needles, I thanked the garden and the trees. Pine needles are nature’s mulch! But today was the time for cleanup.
Within the last week, the garden has come to life and I have felt myself come alive. It has been an emotional week for many of us. Today is the one-year anniversary of our last trip out of the house prior to the pandemic. We do not leave our home much. My fella and I have both had a few trips to the doctor, some annual check-ups and health maintenance. I have been to isolated cemeteries and socially distanced at my parent’s house and my best friend’s house a few times. Other than that, we enjoy our home time. The tension has mostly been worrying about my parents who have finally received their vaccines this week. Sigh.Of.Relief. We probably will not be able to get the vaccine for a month or so but we’re fine waiting. We’re patient. I am more anxious about returning out into the world than I ever was being told to stay in my own world. I acknowledge our many privileges regarding this—food security, home security, job security, and relationship security to name a few. Plus, we’re introverts and becoming more hermit-focused each and every day.
This week the early bloomers are all out including the winter Daphne (Daphne odora), which is the best fragrance ever. She is divine. And, some of the black hellebores have finally bloomed! I understand that it takes about three years. I bought these at a plant show in May 2019 so I am thrilled my patience paid off. They are stunning! And, I may still have their official names in the ground but I would have to go dig around to look. I really should keep my labels in one place.
Other lovelies that are returning—the flowering quince and the forsythia. And, today I also pruned roses—mostly the ones that came with the house, which I have moved around a bit. The roses from cemeteries are still small-ish although they have all bloomed since I put them in the ground.
Spring is coming. Today we lose an hour with Daylight Savings time beginning but there is much to gain as spring slowly moves in. I hope you’re all safe and healthy.
We've passed the one year mark of rigorously self-isolating by a few days at this point, too.
ReplyDeleteIt is a year that feels like ten, like no other (in our lifetime), like a shadow of the way life was.
We're very fortunate that, in some respects, many of the day-to-day going-ons of our lives have been able to remain much the same. We both worked primarily from home prior to the pandemic, I've always been an introvert and a homebody (though, that said, I do adore travelling), and being a multi-chronic illness warrior for almost two decades now has meant I have a lot of experience with often not leaving my home for very long swaths of time.
However, like most people, we've experienced challenges and the ongoing sense that comes from knowing the world as a whole is suffering and severely out of sorts. Personally, the most difficult element so far has been not seeing my family (a lot of which lives within a three hour radius). We're a small, very close bunch who used to gather as often as possible. To go a year and counting without doing so has been both challenging and surreal. It is for the safest and best though of course, so we plow onward, ever hopeful that by this time next year, get-togethers will be safely feasible again.
A wish and hope shared, no doubt, by billions the world over.
Autumn Zenith �� Witchcrafted Life
I am glad that gardening is so meditative for you! It is great for you to have a garden to occupy yourself this past year!
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