Earth Day

Easter tables all over the Northeast held brilliant bouquets pronouncing the return of Spring. Ours was picked with care and brought much delight to all who circled around. Truly, an easy delight for any and all after months of a black and white landscape. Today there is yellow and orange, pink and red and all those in between hues of daffodil, tulip and ranunculus in every stage of bloom. Today is the start of a world overcome by this joyous return.

Every year on April 22, Earth Day is celebrated by 1 billion people in more than 193 countries. It marks the anniversary of the beginning of the modern environmental movement that started in 1970, but is also a day to show support for the Earth and raise awareness of environmental issues,” says Google. As I stroll through gardens bursting with Spring it seems the least we can do is support this beautiful planet that has given us so very much, our every nourishment in fact. Today I am drinking in all those rich gifts.

Is there anything more spectacular than finding purple and green where yesterday there was only brown and gray? I find myself drawn like a bee just going from flower to flower to nourish me after this long winter. Eye candy. Sweet delight. All for free to gaze.

#investinourplanet is the Earth Day 2022 theme. How simple to hashtag a concept, yet so difficult to shift a world bent on destruction. Today I focus on all the easy beauty. So very grateful that it is indeed as easy as blooms on the trees and along the garden paths. How fortunate we have been for so many decades, millenniums even. Perhaps not so for those who will come after us, but for this day, with the blue sky, the fat robin hopping along the lawn, and the buzz of the bee chasing down each bloom, I will rejoice on this Earth Day.

And take in all She has gifted us. What a treasure to watch each April, life resurfacing like a goddess from the Underworld, this Persephone made visible, this hope realized once more.

 

garden tour

There are plenty of reasons to be angry these days, as the inane Jim Crow voting restrictions are in play once again, along with equally archaic restrictions on a woman’s right to choose. Of course there is the Big Lie still being shouted by the last President to throngs of frighteningly delusional crowds, while the Senators in his pocket want us to ignore the largest attack on our Capital in history as they are culpable in its making. There are the heat waves rippling across our continent, most notably this summer in our Northwest, that overwhelming affects our brown and black neighborhoods far more than the suburbs of white Americans (listen to The Daily to hear about these measured temperature ratings). This cruel aspect of climate change is here to stay, ahead of even more destruction to our planet. The list of inequities is too long for me to even cover a fraction while the bridge between truth and untruth seemingly unbuildable now, as so many Americans aren’t willing to see the clear horizon ahead.

In my home, we are, with the deliberate intention of finding some joy, absorbing the tranquility of our backyard gardens. Blooms everywhere are making that decision an easy delight. Normally my blog is filled with 9 cents worth of advice, neatly placed between photos, but mid-July, I’ll allow you to saunter through the post, take in the lush abundance of color and shape, let the crazy world roll away and consider this day’s good flower news.

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June Living

Welcome to our favorite morning spot. With early sunshine and warm breeze, we watch the hummingbirds visit the fuchsia and the robins find their worm, chat about the day ahead and sip our brew. Everything feels easy while outside on a June day. And right about now, as the US of A is beginning to open back up, perhaps we can let go some of the fear and stress of the last 15 months. Easy is all that I need.

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