Garden

Rhododendrons on Memorial Day
In early afternoon, inspiration: public garden
In middle afternoon, aspiration*: local nursery
In late afternoon, perspiration: carving hole out of soggy Ohio clay for Zepherine Drouhin rootball

*After almost eight years around medical staff, therapists, and mothers of children with special needs, I had to double-check myself on this use of the word "aspiration." :-)

To the former stewards of our land: 1

To the former stewards of our land, who have moved to Connecticut: Saturday I mulched the plants you left behind.

The cherry weeps; the phlox creeps; their blooms are past. The lilacs peaked and are starting to fade. I have been curious about the weigela, since reading Cassandra Danz's Mrs. Greenthumbs, and was glad to meet yours, at the corner. The daisies and dianthus are in full bloom. The hemerocallis lilies are budding, the asiatics gaining height. I gave the hostas at our last house away, but will let yours remain. The roses along the front sidewalk survived, with only a few inches of winterkill. The climber by the mailbox did not. I have planted tomatoes along the back of the house, where you left a few volunteers.

Just thought you might want to know.

Recommended reading: Mrs. Greenthumbs, by Cassandra Danz

Beagle framed by lilacs

Beagle framed by lilacs
You may buy your house in winter, and be surprised to find lilacs blooming in spring.
You may photograph them Sunday morning, and be surprised to find a beagle gazing back Sunday afternoon.*

*(Yes, the beagle recently returned by neighbor girls, after escaping through the door left open as I was repotting my grandmother's African violets, after my son knocked them onto the floor this afternoon. That beagle.)

Invitation

When you Give a Luncheon OR a dinner partY,

don'T invite yOur friends or your brothers or relations or wealthy

neiGhbors, for the chances are they will invite yOu back, anD

you wIll be fully repaid. No, when you give a

parTy, invite tHE poor, the lame, the crippled, and the blind. That way lies real happiness for you. They
Have no means of repayInG you, but you will be repaid wHen

good men are rewarded-- at thE reSurrecTion.
Luke 14:12-14 (Phillips)
Recommended Reading: Dancing with Disabilites: Opening the Church to All God's Children, by Brett Webb-Mitchell

Zepherine Drouhin

Zepherine Drouhin
A Jackson & Perkins treasure left behind.

Introductions and Invitations

Two weeks ago I attended a first-grade boy's birthday party with my son. He receives few invitations, so that pizza in the bowling alley was one I'll not soon forget.

When I heard Bill Gaventa speak at the Christian Council on Disabilities conference last year, he said that one of his goals for cognitively impaired people was for them to have the problem he had: too many introductions and invitations. I have heard several mothers bemoan the fact that their children with Down syndrome have not gotten invited to playgroups like their typical children did. When I hear this, I wonder how the Christian community can be so blind in this area.

This morning our son headed straight from the bath tub toward the sound of high-pitched friction in the guest room, where my husband, surrounded by tarps, rollers, and paint trays, was attacking the Winnie the Pooh border left by the previous homeowner with a Wall Claw.* Our son, along with our beagle, wanted to be where the action was. Since he began walking last summer, it has been fun to see him choosing where he wants to be. Evidently, it is in the center of things.

*Device for punching holes in wallpaper prior to spreading a liquid gel that aids in its removal (trademark name).

Recommended reading: Unexpected Guests at God's Banquet, by Brett Webb-Mitchell