Plant Promises

The gusting wind woke me and kept me from sleep.  It was well below freezing, and I, right there in the middle of the night,  promised my Daphne that I would cover them from the harsh wind first of the Things I get to do today come morning.  Their tender little flower buds were already fat and pink, the fragrance still concealed tightly inside.






But when morning came, the flower buds looks browned and "burnt" from the cold and low humidity. It seemed too late. I thanked them for trying.  There would be other flowers.  There would be other years with less harsh winters.

But now this morning, two weeks later, the snows and ices all melted, the smallest flash of a flower caught my eye over breakfast. Was it really possible that the Daphne kept its promise of blossoms and fragrance and bliss though it was too late for me to keep mine?

Best of the Beets

Best of the beets

My nose carries me away.  Over and over a sweet fragrance in the garden derails all the other Things I get to do today. How could one know that this innocent, dark red vegetable, wintered over and going to seed, was part of the conspiracy to make me forget the task at hand? 

One garden bed still held the remains of last season.  For weeks I'd promised the "Fortex" pole beans that it was their turn to be planted.  But their ground space was full of wheat and beets gone to bolt.  Reaching down to pull them out brought me to realize that the honeysuckle-like scent was just an ordinary beet putting on its best.

Elegant as well as fragrant

Angel Boas

The tree was supposed to be eight feet tall at the most. It's a Baby Curly Black Locust.  It had other plans.  Over the years the slender trunk reached up and up--15 feet, 20 feet, 25 feet, 30 feet.  It takes virtually no space on the ground, and yet its dappled canopy of leaves create blessed shade about 2:30 every afternoon that it is needed.





And in the Spring, oh the spenders of it all, in the Spring it piles mounds of fragrant, pea-type blossoms along its slender arms.

If Angels dressed up, they would wear these around their shoulders.

When I was finished with all the Things I get to do today, I looked up and understood.  The tree is reaching to the Angels--eight feet won't do for a moment--extending it luscious flower boas to drape the Angels.