We’ve been gone. Did you miss me? We went to visit family, and we returned to so much bloom as to take my breath.
If anyone knows what shrub this is, please let me know. It has a heavenly, sweet scent, much like honeysuckle.
Another mystery flower. I have these spikes coming up many places, like surprises of joy.
Violets! Violets everywhere! I adore them. They are so small but make an enormous contribution of loveliness.
In the backyard, I turned and saw the length and breadth of it.
Once you have a book under way, everything is relevant. Everything is grist. Ideas come. Connections become apparent. ~Jack M. Bickham
So many small things go into making a garden, and into any piece of writing. Some things that pop out as we write may seem so very mysterious. We wonder if they even fit. Other things that come to us in writing seem small and inconsequential. But later, when we get enough together and take a minute to look from a distance, we see that all the pieces come together to make a grand whole.
How does a garden grow? Leaf by leaf. How does a novel grow? Word by word. And frankly, it does so with little conscious help. The writing comes forth, when I sit and focus on a project, in the same way that blooms come forth, eventually, from the plant.
Trust the process.
Curtiss Ann Matlock 
Pingback: Jen Nadol » Blog Archive » The Garden
Your orange mystery flower is a native Azalea.
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Your flower pictures are stunning. I like your Jack Bickham quote. I feel that way about my blog. Once I started it, everything in my life is grist for the blog. I have to control myself at times.
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The flowers are beautiful!
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Yes, the second one is byzantine gladiolus. Nola got here before me. 🙂 I don’t know the first one. If you go to Old House Garden bulbs, you’ll find a description of your glad which is an heirloom. Word by word, heartbeat by heartbeat. Thinking of you today.~~Dee
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How lucky are you! These flowers would really be a nice surprise and a wonderful welcome when you arrived. Good to be home. It seems, plants grow randomly in your garden and most of them are surprises.
I like the analogy of writing a novel and planting in your garden 🙂 It is a beautiful picture you have made with regards to the process 🙂
Mizpah,
Li
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What a breathtaking garden!! I picture you in it.
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Such Gorgeous colors and a lovely layout! (Trying no to be envious… Trying not to be envious… lol) And I agree that those are Gladiola’s. Beautiful post (the photo’s and words).
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Oh, you lucky girl! That second photo is wild gladiolas! To be precise, they are Byzantine gladiolus. They are one of those old, old flowers that bloom all over the south; you often see them in the country where houses used to be! I love them because of their bright color and low maintenance. Make that NO maintenance, you really don’t have to do anything and they will multiply and return yearly. They are heirlooms, hang onto them!
I’ll bet you’ll find all sorts of surprises in your garden left by previous occupants. I’m getting dizzy, I’m so excited for you, gardening in a new space!
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Oh, dear, dear Miss Nola–thank you soooo very much, Miss Master Gardener, for teaching me about wild gladiolas. I am excited now to learn more and more. I am in an amazing learning part of my life. 🙂
CA
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