It has been a long while since I've been in the garden, and it shows. This winter hasn't exactly been kind to the plants. We had a hard frost early in the season that killed all of the fall color and turned most of the plants into blackened mush. I haven't felt like being out here at all but it's time to start getting motivated and ready for the early spring planting ahead. I thought I'd take a little stroll through the garden to see what was happening. The answer is not much at all.
I did my best to find the beauty in what was here. In the dampness and the decay, there is always something. There might be just two things, or maybe only one thing, but that's something. There is always something.
I didn't trim anything back this fall. I told myself I was experimenting but I'm pretty sure I was just being lazy. Lazy is okay sometimes.
And as I made my way through the wreckage of last year's blooms, I stumbled upon the buds on the branches of the plum tree, and I was once again surprised and delighted by the world and its ability to keep growing and surviving, by its determination to live another year. It's January and people are saying and doing stupid and horrible things but the plants keep living. And living and living.
