Thursday, April 03, 2008

In Bloom, Dragonflies & Bloomin' Monkeys

So after we returned home last weekend from our trip, I was thrilled to find Spring had arrived in our garden. Look, flowers! Kaffir Lilies, Azaleas, Ajuga "Chocolate Chip" Bungleweed, and some greenery that I have no idea of the name (It just grows...Like magic!). Sorry.

Okay, full disclosure here. I can't even take credit for the blooming garden. I'm fantastic at killing the plants. Really...spot on. I can do it in two, maybe, three weeks flat. My husband, on the other hand, has a green thumb and the patience to go out in the back and pull weeds, tend to the plants and flowers, and make sure they have the proper nutrients. Me? Not so much. I'd tried it for years and years and the results are horrific. Those poor, poor little guys. May they rest in pieces.

In this house, we just don't talk about those times. Instead, we have a garden like this:



For the past couple of years we've had visits from butterflies, dragonflies, hummingbirds, lizards, ducks, and monkeys. Well, okay, no monkeys. I can't back that up.

But we did have one of these, a Great Egret, that flew in from the wetlands and landed in our water feature:


(photo credit: Frank Dutton, 2004. Courtesy: Northwoods Wilderness Recovery and Toledo-Bend.com)

The Egret flew away before I returned with my camera, so I don't have a pic of that exact bird.

Oh! But I can attest to the wild pack of Chihuahua-Corgis roaming through the jungle in the back. (Just the one, really...caught me again.)



I always say I'm going to sit outside, enjoy the view and write. But then I get distracted by EVERYTHING. Yes, I have issues. I need my quiet space, with my writing music playing low in the background, in order to settle down and dig into a story, to lose myself in the fictional world. If something flies overhead or a dog barks or I think I see a monkey out of the corner of my eye, I'm instantly pulled out of the story and it'll take me too long to forget about the real world again.

How about you? Can you write at the beach, at the park, in your garden? Are you looking forward to Spring?

Take Care,

Michele

P.S. A video of another visitor to our garden: the largest Dragonfly we'd ever seen.
Music: "Wish I Would See You Again"
By Philip Glass from The Illusionist Motion Picture Soundtrack.


Visitor from eric cwiertny on Vimeo.