Sunday, June 21, 2009

My secret place.

I follow a wonderful blog by Cielo, called The House in the Roses. If you click on this link, it will take you to her post about her secret place. It inspired me to create a post about my secret place. My garden is smack dab in the middle of a bustling city, but lately it has become my oasis from the unpleasant things of life. This year I dug out a strip of earth, and planted red geraniums and blue lobelia along with white allysum. It was hard work for me, but well worth the result! I can see this little bit of vibrant colour from my back sliding door. My Mom gave me the steel hanging rod so this year I decided I should use it. My new motto is if I don't use it, it is given away. I bought two planters of petunias, and after feeding them twice with plant food, this is the pretty result! Underneath is a clay pot with impatiens and fuchsia. Another first for my garden is a passion flower. I found this on Wikipedia: The pointed tips of the leaves were taken to represent the Holy Lance. The tendrils represent the whips used in the Flagellation of Christ. The ten petals and sepals represent the ten faithful apostles (less St. Peter the denier and Judas Iscariot the betrayer). The flower's radial filaments, which can number more than a hundred and vary from flower to flower, represent the Crown of Thorns. The chalice-shaped ovary with its receptacle represents a hammer or the Holy Grail. The 3 stigmata represent the 3 nails and the 5 anthers below them the 5 wounds (four by the nails and one by the lance). The blue and white colors of many species' flowers represent Heaven and Purity. The passion flower is planted amongst my pansy garden, which represents "heart's ease". Now don't you think it just belongs there? And look who's resting on the back porch stoop!
Maybe I should have cropped the above photo!
(bathing suits are drying from our recent trip to California)
My garden is not large, but having added more plants this year, I'm pleased with the result and each year I'll add a little more. I sit on this chair morning, afternoon and evening, and enjoy the different cast of the light on my little secret place.
"Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out."
Song of Solomon 4:16

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello again :-)

Flowers do make a difference! Just look at the little girl so pleased :-) And how cool is that passion flower. That's a first for me. So thanks for the interesting fact.

Cath's Pennies Designs said...

What a lovely haven! I love to look at my own flower garden when I'm relaxing on the porch. I see lots of weeds today though!
I don't even mind the weeds so much though because after they're pulled, the garden always look so much nicer.
Cathy