June in the Raggedy Garden

          Welcome to June in the Raggedy Garden. Come on in and stay awhile. Its way too lovely not to share......

        The Raggedy Garden sundial reads eleven o'clock. I don't know why I am amazed that it is so accurate, after all, they used sundials long before clocks came along!

          At eleven o'clock the solar fountain splashes merrily. I love its happy soothing sound in the morning stillness. A robin comes here for his daily ablutions. My how he makes the water fly! He dips his head, fans his wings, does a little dance around the ring, then hops over to the fence to shake himself dry.

            It has rained for days. The peonies are so water logged, they have bowed down to the ground. These peonies are so lovely, and they  have a story! Warren was an older gentleman who came  every day into the restaurant where I cooked breakfast. Faithfully every June he would bring me in this beautiful bouquet . Delicate pastel pink surrounding the pure white  center, just barely tinged with yellow. Finally one year I asked him, "What are they called? I really want some for my garden." I have peonies, but none so beautiful as these.Warren is courtly, tall, slender, alittle stooped, soft spoken. He tells me they have no name. His grandfather grew them on Cape Cod, where he grew up. Every time Warren has moved, which I gather is many, he has dug up some of them and they have moved along with him. They are a part of him, a remnant of his heritage. He promises to dig some up for me in the fall. Marion, his wife, drives a harder bargain, she wants me to dig up some of mine for them in trade, a color they don't have. So we trade, and now the years have passed so swiftly. My bush is now huge, and looks like it has been there for a long time. Warren and Marion are gone, but I remember them . I remember them in June when the peonies bloom. I think of all the traveling these lovely flowers have done, moving across the land, bringing beauty to many different places, and the original one is no doubt blooming even now at some Cape Cod cottage by the sea. It's a treasure that I hold dear.

          The home of the Raggedy Garden Bluebirds. They have nested here for many years now, raising two or three batches of babies every summer. Industrious, faithful, working hard to feed the hungry children, they flit back and forth, back and forth, all day with juicy green bugs. Father bluebird still finds a few moments here and there to sit on top the swing set and sing to his lady. Such a soft twittering, once you hear it, you will never forget it.  We live out here in the summer, eat all our meals here, play, visit, entertain, it's our summer living room. They don't seem to mind at all, just go about their duties as we do ours.

               Lady's Mantle. Chartreuse flowers rising up from velvety green cupped leaves. In the dewey mornings each cup holds these glistening  dew drops. Legend has it... collect the dew and use it to wash your face, and you will be beautiful. Worth a try? You have to get up early, before the sun dries up the dew, but just think how cool and clean and silken it would feel on your skin!

               These two friends have played here among the catmint for years. I think its shady, and the water is near and the old bricks hold the warmth of the sun. Oh, the boats that have sailed in this sea, and the buckets that have dipped and doused, and the babies that have looked around quickly to make sure no grown up was watching and then jumped in! The lemon balm grows behind it, and the thyme spreads out from the corner, and it is all together a most lovely place.

        A collection of birds nests in the garden house. My friends all find them and bring them for me. They are so amazingly made, some seem way to fragile to have withstood raising babies, but each is unique and has its own features and embellishments.

             The potting sink in the garden house. It very ancientness, its rusty, chipped, stained edges, speak for them selves. They speak about usefullness and comfort and how there is beauty in every thing.

           I love how the morning sun shines in the blue shuttered window, making even old rusty tools of the gardener shimmer with a magical light.

          The Raggedy Garden Fairy smiles sweetly from her shelf. She sits high up over the garden, with her verdigris wings. Shes watches it all happening, from the morning dew to the starry nights. Thanks for joining me! Come again, any time!