Happy Memory CHALLENGE! Challenge 15: Gardens
         

Watercolor of our house on Taylor Avenue.




I remember a day when I was working in the garden and Jane surprised me by standing on the porch railing (a space that evokes the big window in Peter Pan) and sang “Tender Shepherds.” I may have cried.

That Halloween she dressed as Wendy.
College aged me on our front stoop

I remember an earlier time when toddler Jane climbed on my back as I knelt to pull weeds. Like a mama gorilla and child.

Several autumns later when I was planting bulbs in the garden, Jane decided to be silly. She planted some crayons. Imaging her surprise when they came up in the spring!



The garden on TaylorThe garden on TaylorThe garden on Taylor


That garden helped me through a time of depression. I remember a day when I didn’t think I could get up from the sofa but made myself go out and do some gardening, and I realized that it helped. And I remember standing in the middle of the flowers asking myself what, at a fundamental level, did I want? The answer came to me: peace. And I have been blessed to have mostly attained it.


After 20 years I sold the house and moved into a condominium. I remember the meeting when the association's garden committee approved a plan that meant I could take care of part of our courtyard. I can pretty much do whatever I have the ambition to do.

   My courtyard in bloom Roses and clematis

 
     
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