On Learning Patience

Oh to be a patient person!

My entire life, I have been an impatient sort - my mind a constant whirligig of quick thoughts and fast pronunciations.  I am the early person, circling the neighbourhood, anxious to be the first person at the party, the dinner, school, my job, you name it.

Having children taught me a modicum of patience.  Not as much as I would have wanted to have, mind you, by a modicum of it - you can't hurry a child and when you do, the results are often disastrous for all concerned.

Learning to bake taught me a modicum of patience.  You must follow the measurements and instructions exactly, or the results are less than edible.

How many times did I make "spoon" fudge in my life?

But I must tell you, what has really taught me patience is learning to garden.


Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.
May Sarton 


When I began to garden, I knew NOTHING about gardening.  And neither did the people who owned the house before us, as there were two lonely cedar shrubs and that was it.  So I read and read and did trial by error.  Some things I had to dig out and move, some things died, some things still die.  It can be sad and frustrating and a tad embarrassing, but then it can be awe-inspiring.  Everything starts to come up and then you are in countdown mode for the whole thing to wake up and grow dammit (no, i don't speak to my plants like that!)

Right now, there is a lot of green, but not much in the way of flowers, so the snowball bush is my great delight!

and I wander around the garden and stare at all the plants in awe and a bit of hope.  Imagine that one of the most beautiful flowers in the world is hidden within this hard ball...

or that very soon these zucchini will be climbing their trellis..

But mostly right now, I must enjoy the green, because the colour show doesn't begin for at least a couple of weeks...

I'll leave you today with a picture of my Sweet William, which is just beginning to bloom.  I think that Sweet William is just about my favourite plant name, surpassed perhaps only by Hollyhock or Foxglove.    They are such old fashioned names and they make me think of all of the gardeners who came before me and the people who named these flowers once upon a time...

Even their faces look cheerful, don't they?

Well today is prom day - we are going to hope that the rain holds off for the key moments.  After prom we will be over run by about 5 couples, who are coming here to swim and watch movies all night.  Ah to be 18 again...

Have a great day and stay safe out there!