Our gardens, poems, and the gardens of others

 

I think gardens and poems fit naturally together. Above is a bouquet from my garden.

Here is a quote I agree with: "I'd rather have roses in my garden than diamonds on my neck." Emma Goldman 1869-1940

"Bless the gardener who believes great things grow from small beginnings

appreciates sunshine and rain and the rhythm of the seasons

plows through troubles willing to get hands and knees dirty

remains grounded but keeps an eye on the sky

plants extra for birds to eat their fill

and never leaves us hungry." Mary Kolada Scott

Remember that you don't have to have a garden to enjoy flowers. I enjoy seeing my neighbors' flowers and shrubs change with the seasons and the years and I get gardening ideas when I visit gardens via your blogs.

Sweet Banquets

"You don't have to own 

your neighbor's garden

to enjoy its flowers 

and even the eyes of strangers

may feast upon the sweet banquets

of someone else's work." Hilda Lachney Sanderson

Neighborhood bits and bobs, ocean, hawk nesting platform

 

Look closely and you can see the nesting platform below the star on the roof of my neighbors' home. They must be great people, they put this platform on the roof of their house, and I have seen what looks like a hawk sitting on the star. It is two blocks from the ocean, perhaps it is a nest for ospreys or other ocean birds.

A closeup of the wisteria at my favorite coffee shop patio set in expansive church gardens across the street from the ocean.

The above rose in my garden is named Julia Child, a great name don't you think? I took this photo this week as it is in full bloom again. I likely share a photo of it here each year; it looks like a bouquet and is six feet tall and five feet wide. There is a lot of work I do to get it to bloom so profusely, mainly earlier this year I removed 1,000 or more spent flowers one by one which is called dead heading.

I took this photo recently, I must have accidentally selected black and white on my cell phone camera. It shows the cliffs and the ocean near my home. Are you enjoying this month of May and finding beauty around you?

Mysterious Moment in My Night Garden and the Full Moon

 

At Christmas my oldest son gave me some solar floodlights for my garden. Above is on a night with the full moon. The lights illuminate just a few small areas, and turn off at about midnight. As you can see, most of the garden remains pitch black. I think it gives my gardens a romantic mood. Can you see the two metal peacocks flanking the birdbath? Behind it is my pink rose bush, not in bloom yet.

Above you can see the peacock friends more clearly and below is one of my peacock sculptures in the day time.

When we had our winery on land in the country I was intrigued to get some live peacocks but I realized they do a lot of loud cries and shrieks which would be disconcerting to our neighbors. Once for an anniversary treat we went to a rural motel in our area and they had lots of free roaming peacocks that had acclimated quite well to California.