Bright and Early!

Finally!  Finally, we had a sunny day!  Our weather has been what is the norm for February on the Bayou..rainy and grey.  I was up with the birds this morning in anticipation of a work-filled day...and what a work-filled day it was!  My first chore of the day was to transplant some of the Blackberry vines into the row.  I had put up a fence wire for them to climb on one day last week but had yet to put the vines in place.  With my trusty shovel in hand, I proceeded to dig up fifteen or so clumps and move them to the row.  After filling the new row and replacing a few in the older two rows, I started weaving some of the stray vines up over the fences.  This was no easy task as these things are wicked!  Their thorns will grab ahold to anything that they can and will penetrate clothing and skin alike!  I look like I tangled with a bobcat!  But the job needed doing and, well, I suppose the old adage about "if you want something done right..do it yourself" came into play.  I admit that I am sort of picky about how my rows should be planted since I am the one that will be picking all of the berries!

While I was wrangling the briers, I noticed that the sun was shining directly through the few remaining Blackberry leaves.  With the warm winter, not all of the leaves dropped off.  These few were the most beautiful colors!  The morning sun was at the perfect angle to make the leaves literally glow!  I could not help but take a dozen or so pictures with the hopes that my daughter would paint their likeness on canvas!  She is highly talented and can make light seem to just radiate from her paintings.  So...photograph after photograph of leaves took precedence over work!

After a bit, I decided that I had better tackle some more of those chores!  The entire east fence of the rose garden was to come down and be moved back about ten or so feet.  This move is to allow for an herb garden to be created within the fenced area.  My roses are not doing well so I figure that I need to make better use of the space.  Since I use masses of herbs and have always dreamed of having a large garden filled with the plants, my Rose Garden will be transformed into an Herb Garden!  Removing fencing and posts is not an easy job, either!  No..there were no briers other than one prolific wild rose but those fence posts seem to have taken root!  I dug, shoved, pulled and prodded.  I heaved, kicked, mumbled and grumbled.  Finally, after much strenuous labor, the posts and fence are down!  Now..the next sunny day will see me digging holes and putting the posts and fence back in place!  Seems sort of redundant but in a good way!  All of this work will give me an extra garden space of ten feet by forty feet!!  That should grow a lot of herbs! So...all in all..it was a bright day..bright sun, bright leaves and a bright outlook for my garden!

Simple things...

Have you ever pondered just how lovely simplicity is?  I am beginning to believe there is a lot of truth in that old adage "Simpler is better."  I was out meandering about the hillside when Ms. Ez decided to gallop off after a squirrel.  Lickety-split she headed around back of the house!  Well, I guess my hike needed to change directions and head north instead of down the pier.  I had to go find that dog before she wound up in the next county!  Once I was around back, I noticed that the sun was trying to break through the clouds and send a few beams of light down upon the garden.  The hedgerow of blackberries looked a mess!  I really need to get out there and do some trimming!  I have hesitated in doing this as the birds take refuge in the briers.  It is there that they can feel safe from the critters that would stalk them each night.  Smart birds!  At least, that was my excuse for the hedgerow looking as messy as it did!  I was helping the birds!

As I tried to coax Ezzy away from the treed squirrel, a bright flicker caught my eye. Something red and green literally glowed in the elusive sunbeam!  I was pleasantly surprised to find a single leaf still hanging on to the blackberry vines.  How ironic was it that the single sunbeam hit a single leaf?   Simplicity at its best!  A thing of beauty entirely because of this simplicity!  I thought of my procrastination regarding the trimming of the hedgerow.  It was that procrastination that had given me the opportunity to be awed by a leaf! It was that awe that made me smile.  It was that smile that made me realize that I had found delight in simplicity.  And..it was that simplicity that made it all worth while. Yep, simpler is better!