We’ve come (finally!) to the time of year when all the gardens, in a brilliance of greens and tender spring blossoms, flash back only beauty and promise. No pests, no droughts nor floods, no diseases have yet appeared to divert our belief that this will be the best summer ever for a perfection of blooms and abundance.
Sweet friends have returned to Full Moon Cottage, annual visitors who bless our days and inaugurate a new season of life as the year rolls round her journey.
There is no better time to celebrate life, is there? Last week, my colleagues came to Full Moon Cottage to toast the end of another school year, and my husband’s staff will be here next week to do the same. It’s grand to have guests, and motivating as well. Nothing like scheduled company to get us out to re-design, weed, plant, thin, and clean the gardens!
In July, family and friends will come to help us celebrate our wedding anniversary, so we’re looking at projects indoors and out, that may or may not come to fruition, given the time and money necessary to accomplish them. I’m an inveterate list-maker and recovering perfectionist. I’ve noticed age has helped me better—and sooner—identify the borders between desire and reality. How good it can feel to welcome the loosening, letting go, and blessed release of expectations to allow what will happen to happen. I don’t always manage this with grace, but I can say I’m better than I used to be. I can even manage a “whatever,” once in a while, and mean it. At least some of the time, I’m able to suspend my definition of perfection and see what’s already perfectly perfect.
More importantly, we’re excited to be taking time to gather with people we love. When you reflect on parties and festivities you’ve attended, what do you recall in their afterglow? Not the hours of work and attention to detail that went into planning and organizing them, but the time spent sharing, listening, laughing, relaxing, affirming love and being affirmed as a valuable and integral part of other lives.
It’s such a lovely time of year to recognize, toast, and encourage creation and recreation. Two years ago, we suffered through a devastating drought, and its effects continue to unfold. Our maples let loose an impossible number of seeds last autumn, in part a response to the prior year’s drought. A flurry of rebellious possibility rained down to establish life before drought could again assail the right to regenerate that is claimed by every living thing.
The behaviors and choices of humans and their leaders so often deny Nature this right. In spring, her resounding Yes-always-yes-to-life, and the reminder she will likely outlast our stupidity and short-sightedness is both illuminating and humbling.
And worth celebrating, as we glide into another summer and its green possibilities for creativity, for gathering, for affirming life, for knowing when to allow what will happen to happen, and for the gift of entering it with gratitude, knowing too, that the impulse to regenerate never dies.
May you be blessed with long, happy days of recreation and the company of loved ones to share them.
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THE DAILY ROUND 
Oh my Kitty….You capture such beautiful wildlife shots.What kind of camera? The young foxes are a real treat! I was just standing on my porch watching a pair of Baltimore Oriels. Their vibrant color is almost dayglo orange. Just amazing. Such joy watching this next season come to life at long last leaving behind the sleepiness of winter. Everything is alive and popping! Thanks as always for sharing your life and Full Moon Cottage. You guys make a handsome couple. Enjoy your summer ahead….Love and Hugs….VK
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Hugs backatcha, Hollis! We were so happy the foxes returned to the birthing den this spring. They’ve already moved on, but were so delightful to watch while we could.
I agree that orioles are amazing. I love their song, too. And the grosbeaks’.
It’s been an odd, but so far, lovely and welcome spring. i guess “odd” is the new normal, given climate change. Enjoying what we can as we can. So happy to hear your corner of the world is shining and bright, too. 🙂
My camera is an old Fujifilm (HS30 EXR). Great color, and enough bells and whistles for the price. Wish it had a stronger zoom, but I get a lot of the shots I’d like…I appreciate your kind comments.
Joy to your heart and gentle peace as your summer journeys on. 🙂
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Hi Kitty….
So nice to see a post from you…
Always a delight to enjoy your photography and stories….
I feed the Orioles at my summer cottage…such beautiful birds…
Spring took its time, but we are certainly glowing now!
Enjoy your company…and your anniversary♥️
Don’t take so long to post again…..
Cheers!
Linda :o)
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Thank you so much, Linda: your cottage sounds heavenly! So busy wrapping up the school year that writing time diminished; hoping for more this summer. 🙂 Glad yours is greenly underway. Gentle Peace.
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Oh how I would love to go walking with the wind around your gardens….to be able to see some of these birds would be a treat I would never forget! I just LOVE those fox cubs, how lovely that they bred in the same place again….aren’t they just delightful!!!
Ooooohhhh….so many wonderful gathering and so many more to come. How very exciting to be planning a party, now here’s the thing, every time I ever have a big party I go mad and clean and sort house and garden, then as the people pile in it gets all messed up….so these days I hardly worry and just enjoy myself, naughty I know, but housework and I have fallen out of favour. Your garden looks so beautiful
it’s perfect as it is. Tell you what, if I was coming to your party I’d nab that chair in the border! Oh yes!!!
Good luck with the party, you two look so happy together I can see why you have stayed together. Good luck and lots of love to you both.
A wonderful post as always.xxx
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Thank you, Dina…hope you’d let me and a couple glasses of wine join you and the wind on your walk around the garden. 🙂 The one with the bench was new last year; you can tell it’s still growing into itself, but we’re happy with the flow and colors. All those lovely birds seem to like it as well.
I agree about relaxing more re: the cleaning and party prep. I do like to cook and bake, so that part of it is fun for me.
We’re both looking forward to the gathering, that’s for sure. Of course, in case you and your wonderful husband just happen to be in WI in July: know the invitation extends to you! 🙂
Great joy to you and your summer adventures. Love to Sam, Annie and the various menagerie, too!
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Ahhh….wine, the wind and good company while meandering around your grounds….admiring the wildlife with your pups for company….what a wonderful picture!
I shall attend your party in spirit and raise a toast to you both….
Right….I’ll let you get back to the baking…..xxx
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🙂 Know that I’ll raise a toast backatcha! 🙂
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Your photos are exquisite, Kitty. And this post is truly a celebration of the awakening of nature’s living creatures and plant life after a long winter. Happy to hear that family and friends are joining you in marking your wedding anniversary. The picture of the two of you warms my heart. Wishing you both a season of joy. Perfection is a very human concept. I am sure you know well that the appreciation of the world around us is definitely the path the happiness. With best wishes always.
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Thank you, Shimon: a “season of joy” sounds beautiful! I so appreciate your visits and the time you take to offer considered and authentic responses. Perfection as a helpmate can help me do my best, but you’re so right: as a quest, it’s deadly…I’ve learned, as you say, that the human imposition of “perfection” upon what is already perfect, because it is what it is, is dispiriting.
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Lovely, as always.
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Thank you, dear one, and Happy June!
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Wonderful pictures and thoughts!
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Thank you! It’s so kind of you to visit. Hope your Ohio summer is starting well, too. 🙂
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Kitty, what an extraordinary collection of images! The light through the columbine, the ants on the peony blossom, and the fox kits! Just fantastic! And of course, your reflections wrap around each image and bring a context to everything. Have a very happy anniversary this month and enjoy your beautiful garden.
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Ah! So nice of you to visit and so very good to hear your kind compliments and voice, Lynn! Thank you…good to have you back. 🙂
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