The clouds were beautiful today.
The winds continued into the late afternoon.
Once again I felt energized.
I trimmed the dead off the hydrangeas. They will not bloom this year.
Perhaps next year. They have new growth so I am pleased.
The Witch Hazels also have new growth. It will be a few years before they come into their own, but they survived.
I talked with a friend this afternoon.
She thought I might make a list of all the different plants that died this spring.
When I am ready she will listen to the roll call. We will give a moment of silence, together. We will honour my plants that died.
I will plan a ritual for the Rosemary. It is hard for me to talk about the Rosemary.
I had a large hedge. I have been propagating for many years. I will not replant. I have ideas on how to use the Rosemary roots and dead stems.
I will do this on New Moon Day. I am grieving for my lost plants.
She understands.
I am a plant person.
She is a wolf woman.
She knows my gardens are my refuge and my strength.
I cried today. I miss so many of my plant friends.
It felt good to share this loss.
As I clean up each growing area and remove the dead plants I am being respectful.
I am saying my, "Thank yous and my goodbyes."
I am okay now. I have lost many plants before. Trees and bushes and shrubs have died. This year the loss was perennials. Plants I have had for many, many years.
Plants with stories. Plants with names.
I needed to cry.
10 comments:
Hello Sherry. The cloud pics are beautiful. Clouds never fail to amaze me, you probably will never see two the same:-) I am so sorry about your garden but it will come back! Even without your care Mother Nature would eventually take it over and grow her own choice of plantings :-) Please don't be despondent. You have so many beautiful pics on this blog already and on corner as well. You have the touch, the green fingers. Grieve for your garden and then replant :-) Please!
I enjoy visiting 'Q's corner' so much that I 'forgot' about 'Walking In Beauty' :-(
Much has happened - but like your clouds, there will be room for sunshine again. We lost many plants this year as well - sadly, some were planted in memory of beloved pets (Jacobs ladder for our budgie Jacob). "Plants with Stories" as you called them - I loved that ...
Dear Chris,
Thank you so very for your care.
Being able to share my feelings here has been wonderful. I keep much inside. I try to express but I find feelings are sometimes too deep, too powerful for words. I do my expressing with the photos.
I will replant and I will grieve and I will make beautiful once again.
No worries!
Love,
Sherry
Dear Deb,
LOL!! Corner is fun and pretty.
I like going too. Walking in Beauty is an inner walk I am sharing. I am so happy you are here.
I shall honor your lost plants too. Jacob's ladder is very pretty. I have added it to the Roll Call. My gardens are story gardens, sounds as if your are too.
This loss was so silent that for many of us we had no place to turn.
I am so grateful we have a place we can come to and share our inner selves.
Thank you for your friendship.
Sherry
Beautiful photographs, as always. But oh sooooo beautiful, of clouds.
I admit I'm not a plant person. Although my husband would be.
I'm very interested in why your friend feels that she is a wolf woman. I've loved wolves for years, but never thought of being a wolf woman.
Would you please tell her, that I commented this? Please and thank you.
Mari-Nanci
Dear Nari-Nanci,
My friend, Sandi, will be so pleased that you love the wolves. She has had a wolf companion for many years. When her wolf, Mountain, died it was a huge loss for her. Mountain was also my friend. He had come to my house many times. I can still recall his smell.
Being a plant or a wolf or a cat person really means the way in which we connect. I seem to "hear" a plant.. my son "hears" the rocks.
The energy of the wolf is part of who my friend is.
Her husband had a baby wolf flown in after Mountain died, to be with my friend. At first it was hard for her to care for a young wolf. Now Tiwa is a couple years old and is a great companion.
How each of us connects to the natural world is so interesting to me. I have a friend who is connected to the Owl and to the Cat.
In Native American Lore and spirituality this connect is known as a totem.
If I were to make totem poles I would have hundreds! There are lots of plants!
Your interest is amzing...
Thank you,
Walking with you is fun and insightful.
Sherry
*****
Dear Sherry Love,
I 'know' that you have been suffering so. I am with you.
Your roll call tribute is such a wondrous and beautiful way to honor those that we love.
All of life is precious, and to honor the cycles of life is a gift that so many have not been able to give 'voice' to.
Knowing that you have found words, and can give 'voice' to your grief will help with the healing.
Being a wounded healer, is part the destiny that abounds in us. It "IS' the essence of that knowing and acting force that propels you forward to become more of who you truly are.
You are a healer, my love!
Love you with all my heart,
*Sprite
Dear Sprite,
In many ways I am a healer. I heal broken hearts often.
It is through loving, I think, we become healers.
You are a healer too.
You have healed my broken heart many times. I love easily and thus I cry often. It is okay with me as long as you are near to cry with.
Thank you,
Sherry
*****
Dear Sherry,
I will always be near you, with you, and beside you through this life. I promise. My shoulders are always here, to assist in bearing any burden that has become to heavy for you to bear alone. We give freely to each other, with no expectations, save compassion and listening with an open heart and soul.
The essence of true friendship is to be present in thought and spirit, if not in physical - for those that we love and cherish. To be a friend is to be loyal, loving and truthful, and to have faith and courage for the other when the other cannot have faith nor courage for them self. We pick each other up, when we have fallen, and hold each other up when we cannot stand alone. Though these times may be often or not, it only takes once to perceive the depth of true camaraderie.
I think of you daily with love in my heart, and light filled joy in my soul. I remember lemonade, and laughter, joy and tears. I remember walks in the gardens of life, a well-worn path of endless talks and creative sharing. We have journeyed and journaled together and I am thankful to experience a deep and wondrous friendship. I have such delight in being present with you through your musings and sharing’s of nature and it’s creature wonders.
I know you. To know you is to love you.
Beyond the stars,
*Sprite
Dear Sprite,
Your words touched me deeply.
I just watched a fawn get hit by a car. Some dogs were chasing it across the meadow of the cemetery and it leaped the fence and was hit. The driver was okay and went on. A lady in another car stopped and a man in another car stopped. The deer has three broken legs and massive bleeding. Together they moved the Fawn onto my neighbor's driveway. I started to cry. A collision of human and wild life again. So many deer have been hit on my street.
I had just read your words about friendship, about caring, about our journey together..
I have tender feelings for life.
Thank you for honoring those feelings and for feeling them with me.
Life often is so sad.
I bless the deer and the people.
Kind souls that care enough to stop their day and show kindness.
So often people are too busy to care.
Thank you for never being too busy.
Sherry
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