Gardens through the seasons

10 Jan '07 3:07 am

First, thanks to Pumpkin for the nice compliment. They're two of my favorites also.

To Gordonf, I will definitely try the delphiniums. I do have a drip irrigation system in place in this garden so I can water during exceptionally dry periods. I will let you know how the delphiniums turn out.

12 Jan '07 1:03 am

Dear Faith

For months I've been neglecting your post, but I have just gone through it all again from page 1 (and saved them all to my Moosey folder!) and what a lovely story it all makes - I feel great kinship with you in so many ways: memorial gardens, birds, autumn colour, winter traceries... - but I DO envy you and your hubby's carpentry skills and your vege garden. Much as I would love one, I know it is impractical as long as I spend my days at the school...

Thanks for sharing, and keep writing and photographing - even (especially?) the little daily moments in the garden. And post them hummer pics! (How do they catch them? With nets strung between poles? That is how the bird ringers with whom I spend time on the Limpopo do it.)

wishing you gardening joy, as your days start to lengthen and mine shorten.

12 Jan '07 2:25 am

Thanks again for reading my posts Jack. I am very flattered that someone with your obvious garden design skills should find my efforts notable.

As for the hummingbird pictures, I haven't received them yet. The bird studier promised to send them to me, however, he was using a 35mm camera to take them, which could explain the delay. He may be waiting to fill a complete roll of film before having it developed. Or, he could just be too busy to follow through very quickly. He travels to all states in the U.S. to band birds and conducts bird banding workshops in several different locations. I am just as anxious to see them as anyone, so I will post them as soon as possible.

I was very curious as to how he would capture the bird as well. He had a large cage that he set up on a table just beneath where my feeder hangs. He then moved the feeder inside the cage and sat several yards away where he could observe the feeder. When the bird flew into the cage to get at the feeder, he simply pulled a string closing the trap door on the cage. I guess if you capture and band thousands of birds, you learn the most efficient way to do this.

I had thought the bird had moved on since I had not been able to spot him for the last few days; however, the day before yesterday I had the idea to hang a second feeder outside the large windows in my den and lo and behold, he appeared that morning and again yesterday evening.

I know this post is growing very long, but I wanted to add just a little note about my daughter Cathy, who died in 1998. She had just completed her Masters in Zoology in 1997 and her thesis was written on House Finches and how thier mating patterns were related to their diet. Stringing nets between trees was exactly how she captured her study subjects. I know she would be so interested in this little episode with the hummingbird. I really wished I could have shared this with her. It is nice to have such a wonderful extended group of friends to share it with instead.

12 Jan '07 2:59 am

What a bitter-sweet story, Faith. I can only imagine how much more special this made this already very special occasion for you...

I've been meaning to ask about your rose berms: are they purely decorative design features giving a greater sense of enclosure to the seat, or is it a practical step in your climate to improve drainage? Or do you believe it helps to capture the scent better?

12 Jan '07 3:11 am

What an interesting job that man has! What a lucky person (although I'm sure he worked hard to become so knowledgeable on his subject).

I'm sure your beloved daughter is sharing this experience with you, dear Faith, and delighting in your enjoyment of it. She would have been another great addition to our little community by the sounds of it, but she is definitely a part of you so we all know her through you.

12 Jan '07 3:59 am

Dear Faith, my love..It is the second time I hear about your beloved , talented child... I just feel inside,that she was right close to you while that blessed incident took place, and that deep down you know it very well.. Coincidence does NOT exist, remember? And real Life is full of wonders -- if we only let them flow ...within...(I have this feeling I'm telling you the same thing with our Bambi...)

12 Jan '07 5:35 am

Thank you all for being so kind. I do know that my daughter shares in all my experiences everyday, I just sometimes miss the connection we had on this plane of existence. I will try to be more upbeat in my posts.

To answer Jack's question about the berms, yes to all. The berms do give better drainage and were a much easier way to prepare a bed for roses than the laborious old fashioned double digging. Roses like good deep beds and I have read that five foot depth is optimal. I am at heart a lazy gardener, so I decided it was easier to build up than to dig down. The other thing is that our front yard faces onto a busy highway, so the berms give more a feeling of privacy and enclosure to the front garden. I don't know if they will help so much with appreciation of the fragrance since as I mentioned before it is a somewhat windy site. All our winter storms seem to blow in from the Northwest and this site is on that side of our property. I did notice on still evenings last summer, the rose fragrance seemed to linger in the air more. We shall see this coming summer whether that holds true.

12 Jan '07 10:48 am

Faith, I need to say good-night to you before going to bed tonight.. Maybe, because you are a beloved girl's mama/close friend , like myself..

I share deeply your need of physical/mental motherly contact with her...If you could think , like, she lives normally and creatively somewhere very far away from you...here on Earth, but it is practically impossible to meet her in flesh, would that help? I had the chance to meet this French mama/writer, with a similar story with yours.. She wrote together with her husband (their true professions not being writers), this wonderful book -- great success in France! -- after the tragedy.. They described the devastating feelings at the beginning, and the wondrous events afterwards...They were/are ordinary, very serious, educated, down to earth people , living happily with their only daughter/best friend, until the sudden separation struck their lives like a thunder...Car accident..They were/are not practising very traditionally their religion, just plainly - but truly - believing ( I guess, like myself..). And Religion (or any sort of dogmas/beliefs) in fact is of NO importance here, since we talk of a UNIVERSAL human tragedy..

Reading very good things about this book in a serious magazine, I decided to buy it from Amazon/France. I was astounded... I read it about three times, and finally I wrote to the writers expressing my gratitude..They invited me to a seminar in a French city (Lille) two years ago..We felt very close and became friends...We were exchanging e-mails for several months. They live in Nice/France now. Many ...wondrous things had happened to me those days, while I was simply thinking of them and sweet Karine, their daughter,...with utmost Love and tenderness...Life is amazing...

Maryvonne, the mama, so often used to tell me, how often she misses the physical presence of her child, although "her daughter never leaves her alone"!! The book -- after the devastation of the beginning-- made me laugh loudly at times! Because it is a pure message of Life, Love and Joy! Written in a beautiful French language, is a pure bliss of French Literature, apart from the rest of its joyful elements..This is the only book they wrote. They told me, they had to.. They travelled all over the world , in order to meet certain people before they start writing. Now they give seminars all over the world about the facts described in the book. The audience is always full of parents having lost their children. By now, all of them are convinced, that their children exist happily in another "plane of existence" (or level of reality), as you said, dear Faith...

The book is called, " Karine, apres la vie" (: Karine, after life), by Yvon and Maryvonne
Dray - presente, par Didier van Cauwelaert.

P.S.
I have to underline , that my intention is to pass a joyful message and not to announce a new book. Therefore, I have nothing more to comment on any details pertaining to the story of the book ( which is published only in the French language as far as I know, by the editor Albin Michel).

Even more, there are certain -- sacred -- things of our Lives-Within, that are impossible to be described/expressed by ..plain human words of Without...

13 Jan '07 2:26 am

Wow, Liza, you have expressed it so well, and what a sad but in the end, positive story your dear friends must have to tell.

I hope I do not speak out of turn when I tell you all the following, but it seems to fit in some way. I do not for a second wish to make our dear Faith's loss seem less than it is, but I think I understand your missing Cathy's physical presence because when I went down to Devon to see my parents, my Mum kept telling me how wonderful it was to be in the same room with me, and she even asked me to write the labels for the sweet peas that we sowed, just so she could have something physical of me when I left (she had done the same with my sister a few weeks previously too).

So, although we are always at the other end of the phone, I think my Mum feels a little of what you do, dear Faith.

15 Jan '07 8:49 am

To Liza and Bambi, thank you both for understanding. I wish I could read the book you mentioned Liza. I have read many other books on the subject of life after death, but there is always one more story to hear. Unfortunately, my high school French is not good enough to read a book written in that language. I had many occurances after Cathy's passing that I believe were her attempts to let me know she still existed and was okay. But as Bambi pointed out, mothers miss the physical presence of their children even if they just live across the country. I did not have any digital images of Cathy, but I tried scanning the picture that was taken the day before her fatal accident. The scan is not too sharp, but does I think show how happy she was. It was taken at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington, where she was on staff.

Gardens through the seasons

Wet winter, dry summer gardens

Playing catch-up!

Hummingbirds

Bitter Sweet

Hummingbird blessing..

Good friends

Thinking of you..

Thanks for understanding