little joys
I feel inspired to share a pictorial series of what has brought me joy over the past few months. In past years, I blogged a lot about our gardens. This year was not a big garden year. However, the few things that I did decide to grow and cultivate brought me a lot of joy. Here’s to small gardens in an unexpected urban place.
I bought a miniature rose bush at a farmer’s market in May. Watching it bloom all summer was fabulous. So are the wild flowers and flowers growing through cracks in the sidewalk that my children pick.
For mother’s day I got to go Figaro’s on Victoria Drive and pick some plants. Instead of going for utility and production, I just got a few things that I would just enjoy. These are the flowers that grew from the “vision in red” astilbe bush, which I chose to grow in a poorly lit corner of my concrete patio. I also got a lavender bush. Early in the season, when asking my daughter to cut some purple chive flowers, she accidentally cut the lavender. Oh well!
Some of you have asked about our blue bin garden that we did last year. We only did one blue bin this year. It grew the perennial sage and chives.
My little cayenne pepper plant! It grew from the stray rays of light it could get from my basement window sill. It got some summer sun outside too. Just a few days ago I harvested 6 mature red peppers. They were so good! A friend told me about how fun it was to watch peppers grow and she was right.
It is still a wonder to me that one seed can produce such amazing things. My daughter and I planted 2 sunflower seeds in an old wooden toy chest. The seeds were also old but one of them sprouted into this huge sunflower! When it started to droop and look totally dead we almost cut it down but now we can see the whole centre forming hundreds of sunflower seeds.
I’ve always had a fascination with hummingbirds. In our last place, when I finally attracted hummingbirds to our feeder, we had to move. After almost 2 years in this place I see a hummingbird almost every day. It is sheer delight!
Moving indoors for a moment, this bookshelf brings me joy. My husband brought these home from my dad’s library. I love these old books. Some of them used to belong to my Grandpa. I even started reading one of them. In a house geared toward nurturing children, I find this adult nook very calming. The painting in the background is by Heidi.
Please enjoy this last photo featuring my favourite colour turquoise in a province very dear to me, Alberta. We were on a road trip and I jumped out of the van and ran down a small path to find this breathtaking view.
Thank you God for little joys.
