Spring Shadow and Light

  Of all my gardens, I think I get the most pleasure from my shady garden.  Everyone thinks gardening in shade is a challenge, but the reality is, if you plant the right stuff, it's a charm.

Ferns Unfurling ©Barbara Kaufmann 2013

 My tiny shady garden is best enjoyed by strolling through it, looking for tiny treasures since many of the woodland flowers that bloom there are tiny and can  best be appreciated up close.

Ferns 

  My shady area is underneath my weeping cherry, which itself can be planted under taller trees.  I added some shade shrubs that grow wild in the woods in the Northeast, like andromeda and rhododendron. 

Delicate Epimedium.....

   Next I put in ferns, lots and lots of ferns.  These lovely plants, although shy and retiring, can show off the dappled light that filters to the floor of the garden.

.....also comes in pink

 Some of my favorites shady perennials are  are dicentra, epimedium, lobelia, wild geranium, lady's mantle, anemone, daffodils,  astilbe, primrose and lenten rose.

Daphne scents the whole garden

  Some of the best shrubs to plant in the shade include the above mentioned andromeda, rhodos, daphne, viburnum, red- twigged dogwood and hydrangea.

Viburnum just opening

Jonquils- these late bloomers light up the spring shady garden

Lenten Rose starts to bloom in March and is still going strong!

Solomon's seal with vareigated leaves looks great in shade

    The flowers and flowering shrubs, light up the dark corners all spring and summer  and into the fall.

  This selection, along with the ferns and hostas, give the shady garden interest in every season. (And best of all, the weeds are not very aggressive in the shade!

  The other morning, as I watched the sun slowly begin to awaken my garden, this poem arrived unbidden:

*****

Spring Light

the Light begins

 to move

 across the sky

slowly it creeps north

awakening my soul,

opening my sleepy eyes 

after the dark night of winter,

the sun's warmth

soaks into my bones,

lighting the way,

 the earth begins to hum

with budding potential,

green unfurls its tiny flags

and then my heart

opens to new possibilities,

take me, 

spring Light.

*****

Thought for today:  Gardening in the shade can be rewarding and inspiring!

Fractured

<<  >>

a tiny bird 

circles an empty sky

after the storm

<<  >>

Today I am holding, in my thoughts and prayers, all those neighbors, friends and strangers who are displaced and still struggling to recover from the storms.

Two Crazy Old Birds

    A bit of  serendipity at work on this one!   September 23rd  marks my 45th wedding anniversary.  Today's  humble attempt at haiku/senyru  is the result of a poetic collaboration with my soulmate and  favorite pun-meister.

######

not swans but still
 mated for life.....  miracle
 or just a pair o' ducks ?

######

   The marriage has been a lot like the poem. Equal parts corny jokes and miracles. It hasn't all been a walk in the park but we managed to hold on tight and make each other laugh ..... often.

   Hope you get a chuckle too!

                                                     

still crazy after all these years

  

    Today's prompt at HAIKU HEIGHTS is 'paradox.'

Hallelujah!

****

a piece of sky

blooms on a trellis

morning glory

****

 HAIKU HEIGHTS is hosting a wonderful haiku  challenge for the month of September.  Today's prompt is 'glory.'

Reeds

'''''''''''

Only the wind sings
in black bird's abandoned home-
on-stilts


''''''''''''

     The red-winged blackbird, a common summer resident along the shore and marshes in the Northeast, is a true harbinger of spring.  It arrives in February and a walk in the wintry preserve will bring hope to the heart of cold- weary northerners.  The bird has a distinctive call, heard here at Bird Jam and can be found wherever there are cattails, reeds and other marshland grasses growing.

    They nest among the tall grasses and are usually gone from my area by late August.  During nesting season they are known to be quite aggressive. On a number of hiking trips,  I have  been chased by  a  fearless  red-wing when I  veered too close to a nest!

   The sound of the wind in the reeds in autumn and winter  is one I am familiar with and have written about before, in prose and poetry.  This marsh grass, so much a part of my home all year round, seems to contain an echo of the birds who only come for a brief visit.

     My next project is to learn how to get my words onto my image, a computer skill I am not privy to at present.  Perhaps I need a program to accomplish this.

       Today's prompt for Haiku Heights is 'grass.'

 

 

  

Holy Ground

 Prairie grass

beneath a traveler's feet

cut-glass above.

***

Spring journey

burnished clouds....straw sandals

intimate guides

                                                     

Looking East toward the Great Plains

     I love this photo.  It was taken toward the end of a vacation  spent hiking in the Rocky Mountains.  In the last few days of our trip,  we took a short drive east of Colorado Springs to a park on the edge of the Front Range.

 After several weeks of stunning mountain vistas and  rugged western outdoors, I snapped this photo looking east.  There the flatness of the Great Plains came as a stunning shock to my eyes.

 The incomparable Colorado sky  seemed to embrace the golden grasslands. Both  the sky and the reeds seemed to be pointing the way  home. It felt like holy ground.



Today I am sharing my photo with At Home with Books  and my poem with  Haiku Heights.   The  prompt for the poem is the word gloss




  

Poetry Party

  Writing poetry has given me a new pleasure in my life.  Although I've written poetry off and on for many years, I have been penning many more poems recently and it feels like a new part of me has opened up to both receive the world around me, the sun, the sky and the flowers and offer it  back to the universe in my own words.

   Poetry, both the reading and  the writing of it,  with its economy, its passion, its immediacy and its rhythms, fills a need in me that prose never did.

   This poem was  inspired in part by my recent vacation in the mountains and by Abbey of the Arts Poetry Party where is is posted. If you like to write poetry, join the party!

                                                   

                                                          

Mid-Summer

August, full of hazy smog,

 holds its breath,

 heavy blossom scent

  hangs in the airless air,

  leaning on my chest.

I escape for a  week

 to the cool Catskills, 

flush with sky blue

and deep green woods,

I breathe mountain air.

When I return

 I find  the garden

 worked overtime 

in the thick August heat

while I hiked  foot hills.

  Garden bounty on display,

 bonanza of beans, 

  plethora of peppers,

 basket full of basil.

I barely breathe, 

waiting for the front

to storm across the island

and rinse away sultry air.

I search the sky for mountain blue

knowing  it will return

to the coast,

filling  me with gratitude

for summer joys.

A midsummer sigh

 August exhales

 my soul expands.

Today's Thought -  Reading and writing poetry can be a way to unlock secret treasures in my heart and soul.

Photo Shoot

  Here's my contribution to the Saturday Photo Party, a weekly meme hosted by Alyce at :At Home With Books   Check it out!

      I took a series of photos of this older woman wading in the shallows along the rocky coast of Massachusetts. The hat, the long loose skirt, her stance, the sparkling water and the rocks captured my imagination.  It was a portrait waiting to be painted!

       After the vacation was over, I  played with the  photo  in my editing program, something I've never done before.

      This is the result:

 




Have you ever "photoshopped"  a picture in this way?  Did you like the results?

City Peacock

   We observed this fellow in Prospect Park a few weeks ago.

Looking for attention

Ritual

He stands soundless

in jeweled raiment

dripping

green and blue

following the rhythm

left sway right

right sway left

two-step peacock

looking for a partner.

                               

                                                                         

                                             

Impressive even from the back.

                                                   
           There was no peafowl in sight.