This is my favorite time of year in the garden. The irises, cranesbill geranium and columbine are all in bloom, and I love all of the shades of purples together.
I am prepping for curbing around my flower beds. I chopped down the pussy willow, which, after reading up on pruning, I should have cut back years ago. It had turned into a bush with four or five sizeable trunks. I always wanted long stem of catkins for my sweetheart to cut for me in the spring, and instead my bush had turned into a sickly large shrub with very short branches of catkins. To get the long catkins, I should have been cutting it back to 6 - 12" each year. I had completely chopped down the forsythia a couple of years ago, but this year several branches of the forsythia grew out of my cranberry bush. The cranberry bush, forsythia and all, will have to be trimmed drastically to make room for the curbing crew. One of my lilac bushes will also need to be trimmed out of the way. Fortunately, the lilac season is coming to an end. The lilacs, too, are supposed to have one fourth of the oldest canes removed each year, so that will come to little harm. We have already banked up the area next to the chimney where the rain water bucket sits. That spot has been a point of contention between me and Arthur since I put in the water bucket. We both hope the extra soil will aid drainage away from the wall of the house and prevent seepage into the basement. Next year we will purchase a new, larger container for holding rain water. The last job is to finish digging out the limestone rock in the front of the house and to fill that area with compost. We are blessed to have friends who want the rock so that we do not have to pay to dispose of it.
I spent yesterday afternoon shopping for plants for the gardens at St. John Cantius and for my two patio pots here. I went to six different nursery and plant centers before I found everything that I needed. I found none of my sky blue petunias, my signature flower. Today I get to plant and weed. I get to prune rose bushes, too, in preparation for the Corpus Christi procession on Sunday.
Over the weekend I was at a Mothers Leadership Conference at Schoenstatt in Waukesha, Wisconsin. I went with the intention that I would get some oomph into my Schoenstatt Covenant life at home. I did not come home with a spiritual "high". I did come home with the need to ask the Blessed Mother to put all that I heard into my heart in a way that I can understand it. I was feeling very overwhelmed by the time the weekend was over. I had cried during confession, which is not exactly unusual for me. I also cried during the closing mass. I am embarrassed by the tears, but I am learning to accept them as part of my melancholic temperament. I had asked the Blessed Mother to help me to know what books I should bring home, and through the help of my Schoenstatt sisters that request was fulfilled. I also plan to follow a suggestion given by Sister Marie Day. A simple method to experience God's love for me personally is to write down one way that God has touched me each day, such as a smile from someone. After many recordings, I can look back and see all of the ways He has shown His love for me, and thus be able to internalize that love.
