It was meant to be!

  The cleaning and building continues here on the Bayou.  Michael is hard at work constructing the much desired greenhouse!  It is beginning to take shape nicely!  For someone who has never done anything of this magnitude on his own before, he is doing a remarkable job.  He told me that this greenhouse is going to be my birthday gift....and Mother's Day gift and next year's Christmas gift (and perhaps even the following year's!)  I do not mind.  I AM getting a greenhouse after all!  I raked and cleared the trash pile where limbs have been stacked while awaiting to be burned.  It was under that pile of limbs and rotten boards that I found treasure!

  Years and years ago, I bought a child-sized bench for the garden.  It sort of matched the iron bench that my oldest son, Mark, had gotten for me the previous year.  I really had no need for a child-sized bench but the tiny thing's price was marked down ridiculously low due to several missing bolts.  I literally felt that I could not pass up this bargain!  So, I toted the thing home after handing the cashier my three dollars!  Then came Hurricane Katrina.  Although I moved both benches right up against the house, the storm waters carried them away.  We found the both the large and small benches battered and broken.  The large one was beyond repair as the cast iron legs were crushed under a huge pine tree that had fallen.  The child-sized one had a few slats broken but was repairable.  With more pressing things to do, the bench was set aside with grand intentions of mending it.  That never happened.  Years went by and the bench was soon covered over with this and that until it was forgotten.  When I uncovered it today, a small oak sapling had grown through the scrollwork of the legs.  I could not remove the tree roots no matter how much I twisted and turned them.  Michael took a break from his building project long enough to chop out the roots.  The poor little bench had seen better days for sure!  The slat seat and back had completely rotted and the iron legs were quite rusted.

  After a good cleaning with a wire brush, the tiny bench legs seem to be as good as new.  Tomorrow, I will paint the legs and once Michael has time, he will replace the seat and back.  This little bench will find a special place in the garden so that my sweet granddaughter can use it.  The little bench so needs a precious little girl to call it her own!  I am thinking that a violet garden might be just the right place for this little bench.  Mary Ruth can have a secret garden at MawMaw's house!  Now I know why I bought this little bench so many, many years ago.  It was meant to be!