On our morning walk Buddy and I pass by a beautiful piece of land. In the midst of house after house, there is a corner lot that is a beautiful iris garden. We walk by every day and I always wondered whose garden it was. This is no small piece of land - it is large and beautiful and visited by birds and rabbits. Every once in awhile we would see bags stacked along the curb for pick up - bags of trimmings and clippings - evidence of someone tending to this beautiful place. On Tuesday, Buddy and I were coming upon this wonderful place and there was a woman who looked like she was being eaten up by the ground! She was on her knees and her whole torso was against the earth and her arm was reaching into the ground! I wasn't quite sure what I was seeing! As we came up closer we could see that there was a hole in the ground - the place where the controls for the irrigation system live - and we stopped to chat. It turns out that the woman was one of the daughters who grew up in the home. Sadly, her mother passed away in January and the family is not able to continue to support the home. Someday soon, the property - including the 1940's house - will be put up for sale. It was sad for her to share - and sad for me to hear. Thinking about how much love her mother put into that garden. Thinking about the likelihood that the land will be sold and the garden unearthed and new homes built in its stead. She mentioned that they had thought about donating the land to the city, but really couldn't afford to do that. It made me wonder what it would take to raise enough money to buy the land to preserve this piece of heaven in the midst of city sprawl. And then a part of me wondered how long you can really control what happens to land. For if I was able to raise the money and purchase it - what would happen to it when I was gone? Maybe what we need to focus on is how we can tend to nature while nature is in our care. Focusing on the present moment and our impact on what we appreciate. We walked by the property again today - this time it was blanketed in fresh snow. We looked even more carefully this time - realizing that what we love may one day no longer be there.
Today's card focused on colors that are retiring - only here until they are gone. Bashful Blue and River Rock. Funny how sometimes we begin to appreciate things only after they are disappearing - I don't think I had ever put these 2 colors together, but I love the way they look! I stamped the feather from Fine Feathers and then added the sentiment from Loving Thoughts using Early Espresso ink. So simple. I hope you like it!
1 comment:
Those colors do look wonderful together. The feathers really look like they're floating. Maybe a local gardening club can rescue the plantings if it comes to demolition there. There was an old home down the road from us when we first moved here about 30 years ago and it was falling to disrepair having been abandoned, but there were still some lovely plants, perennials, that were unaffected by the neglect. We weren't the only ones who did some rescuing before the machines took over.
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