Slowing Down Smelling (and Seeing) the Flowers Part 1

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Jul 7, 2000

People are always telling me to stop and smell the flowers - when in truth I spend more time stopping, sniffing and snapping flowers than most people. But it is true that a slow wander through the yard with my camera is often more about framing shots than about enjoying nature.

But now, with a heart patient recovering from surgery in my care, we take a slow amble or two around the yard each day. It's a good thing that I am used to stopping to see what's new - or my husband, even though he had his chest cut wide open only a week ago, would probably drag me through the yard at a fast clip. He seems to think that going fast will speed his recovery. But I slow him down by forcing him to admire each and every new sprout, shoot and bloom I find - and we have enough garden to find lots of those.

I also force him to take a stop midway, to lie down on the wicker chaise and just feel sun on his face and sniff the roses and listen to the birds singing. (That's when I do my usual routine of sitting down, spotting a weed and jumping up, then sitting down, seeing something that needs deadheading and jumping up again. He stays on the chaise more peacefully if I go away.)

And then we continue the amble to the gazebo/pond area and around it, once again checking every new bloom and bud. Since this is peak season in the garden a walk can take a very long time. And in fact, the stopping, looking and noticing is rewarding - sometimes even surprising. I'd like you to take that walk with me, to see all the little things that I am now noticing, by trying to slow my husband down.

We start out on the terrace - on which there is absolutely nothing to see but broken flagstone and moss. It will be a Japanese sort of garden some day but we haven't got there yet. And as we pass the unfinished greenhouse I try to point out something lovely in the opposite direction - he's mightily frustrated about that greenhouse - after all, it's been five years!

But then we reach the shade garden at the edge of the woods, where hostas and blue geraniums tangle with ferns. The geranium, 'Brookside' acts more like a vine this year than a shrubby plant, and weaves together an assortment of smaller geraniums, hostas and the start of a rhododendron-lined path that goes down into the woods. This is my job to accomplish, so we pause as I decide whether to move the third rhododendron a bit to the right, and to wonder whether I'll ever have the energy to attack all the greater celandine that clogs the other side of the path. I have 6 white Rhododendron chinoides waiting for me to get rid of the celandine.

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2. Jul 15, 2000 11:20 AM
I guess most of my seats are lies, too. I have benches tucked into several different places that never get used. In fact, one makes a rather awkward stepping stone to let me get further into the garde ...

-- posted by CarolWallace

1. Jul 14, 2000 10:44 PM
Carol,
I loved the stroll in your garden. I love gardening, and sometimes it is hard to find the time to enjoy the fruits of our labor. It quite often doesn't happen until you are for some reason for ...

-- posted by CrabApple

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