Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Anybody Home?









Good title for a blog entry that is so late! I've actually been missing blogging, and getting to read all my friends' blogs. By the time I get school done with the kids, if we ever get a halfway decent day in this rainy Oregon spring (I should say rainy-er than usual), we have to get back outside to start all the mowing and weedeating all over again. Don't get me wrong, I love my country life, I love the beautiful green, all that. I just wish that after we got it done, it could stay sunny a few days so I could go outside and sit and enjoy it a little while. Lately, we've been weeding and mowing between cloudbursts, I'm not even kidding. But life is like that sometimes.
Before I go further, no, these pictures aren't my yard. I just went with my daughter one day on a ride within a several mile radius, to some places that I knew were deserted homes. As I had been weeding in my flower beds, and finding flowers hiding down in the weeds, I started thinking about homes I've seen that are lonely and uncared for. Sometimes you come across an old run-down dilapidated home, and the grass may be 3 feet tall, and over in the corner, you may see some daffodils popping out. Or an old tree or shrub that had once been planted by someone who loved their home. I can't imagine planting flowers at any time if I didn't enjoy my home, or have some hope that, although it may not be much, you are working at making it into a wonderful home. So, when I see flowers in an old deserted place, I imagine the woman who had once lived there. What would she say if she saw her beautiful lawn now? What happens to make someone give up and abandon a place? I do know these kinds of places seem like secret gardens. They need help. But they make you think a little.
Then, if you're like me, you get home and try to get some more done before your own place looks just like it! Will all the hard work I put into my yard, though it may not be anything to a lot of people, be one day neglected? I sincerely hope not! But I do know that while it's mine and while I can work with my hands, I want to be a good steward of what I have.
Last week, I finally got my seeds in my garden. I haven't even had a chance to get out there between showers to see if I'm going to have to start all over again. Seriously, it's been wet, but I'm hoping my poor vegetables will make it.