Let Me Show You My Flowers...

My mother has the greenest thumb I know.  My entire life is full of memories of her tending the beautiful flowers in her yard.  She could literally take a small cutting from any plant and in no time at all it was a mature, blossoming plant that she would have for years to come.  As she has grown older, lost most of her eyesight and her body has begun to fail, she has been able to get out less and less to not only tend but enjoy walking in her yard to enjoy her flowers.  This past week while visiting her, she was having a good day and joined me on a walk outside.  As we would walk slowly through trails of blooming spring flowers showing off for us, she would say, "Let me show you my flowers..."  And so, take a walk with me in springtime through my mother's yard...

 This is the house that I grew up in.  My parents built it when I was only three years old and my mother has lived in it ever since.  Originally set on ten acres, most of that land has now been divided between my sister and me and the house presently sits on about one acre.  One acre of the most beautiful flowers in a naturally wooded landscape one might ever see.

                       Mama leads the way for the annual springtime tour of her flower gardens.

You can see here that her azaleas are beginning to bloom.  She has them in every color and they really put on a colorful show each year.

As we continued our walk, Mama pointed out how her Flox were popping up everywhere and insisted on pulling some up for me to "stick in the ground" at my house.  She assured me that they will come up every year and I can't kill them.  We will see about that.  But I agreed because I do so love those little purple flowers!

And if there is anything she loves more than flowers, it is birds.  My mother's yard is a bird sanctuary.  When her sight was much better, she and my step-father would sit inside their living room and watch from the glass door the most enormous and diverse group of birds descend at different time of the day and year to feed on the seed they had left for them.  My mother still spends a great deal of time feeding "her" birds and little bird houses and feeders can be seen scattered throughout her property...

And as we continued to walk, I reminisced about my childhood here in the country.  I couldn't help but snap a couple of photos that reminded me of those days long gone...

See those little white flowers sticking their heads out of the clover?  Those little wildflowers were a pretty big part of my childhood.  I can remember sitting and creating crowns, necklaces, bracelets and rings out of them to adorn myself with.

And who can forget searching for that "Lucky Four Leaf Clover'?  I don't recall ever finding one, but much time was spent searching.  As we noticed these my mother also thought of an old song about searching for a four leaf clover that she sang for me:
                                   "I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover"
                                                (originally by Art Mooney)

                                             I'm looking over a four leaf clover
                                             I overlooked before
                                            One leaf is sunshine, the second is rain
                                           Third is the roses that grow in the lane

                                           No need explaining
                                           The one remaining is somebody I adore
                                           I'm looking over a four leaf clover
                                           I overlooked before

                                          I'm looking over a four leaf clover
                                          I overlooked before
                                         One leaf is sunshine, the second is rain
                                         Third is the roses that grow in the lane

                                         No need explaining
                                        The one remaining is somebody I adore
                                        I'm looking over a four leaf clover
                                        I overlooked before

 

"Let me show you my flowers..."  And show me she did.  Taking a walk through these gardens always brings back happy memories of living the simple life in the country as a child.  There was no cable television, Internet or even computer for that matter.  I would open a book, sit with my little dog and play out in this wonderful yard.  This yard filled with so many beautiful flowers that my mother spent a lifetime tending.