Thursday 1 May 2014

dreams and reality …

Last night I had a dream ...I dreamed of my fifteen year old self ...Golden-haired, eyes closed tight, face lifted to the sun.

More beautiful than I ever was in reality - dreams are like that.

I dreamed of my first job ... The cream and green walls ... Institution colours. I dreamed of the man I used to work for ... Handsome John Henry ...I had a crush on this middle-aged man ... He brought me perfume back from his trips abroad ‘Worth’ ... I left it in my desk drawer overnight … the next morning it was gone … stolen.

Why does your sleeping brain take you so far back, the memories so clear - When you can hardly remember what happened -  Yesterday.

The dream unsettled me ...

I woke early ... just as dawn was breaking. I slipped quietly from my bed and opened the window ...The birds were waking and the dawn chorus began ... Echoing all around the fields and valleys ...The glorious sounds of nature unleashed.

I wanted to go out into the garden and walk barefoot over the dew-sprinkled grass .. .

But I didn't - I went back to bed - and sleep found me - Again.

I regret this already.

The garden is poised - in transition. Lilac blooms are slowly unfolding, the last of the spring bulbs are shedding their petals. Everything I have sown and planted is biding its time in the greenhouse or under cloches - waiting for the last frost to have passed. Tomatoes have been potted on and brassicas are hardening off.

Squeezing things in - juggling them around. Makeshift tables erected as containers multiply …

Waiting for the last frost before setting out all the plants-in-waiting.

When will it be. The plants wait – more patient than I.

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Lilac trying hard to bloom

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Goodbye all too soon to the tulips – over for another year

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the last of the tulips picked for the house

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beautiful as they open

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the garden – last day of April

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strawberries forming – dahlias sprouting new leaves

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oh so many pots of transplanted seedlings

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pelargoniums for the container garden

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a tumbling tom for the hanging garden

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a mini-greenhouse erected over the potato pots

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french beans, broad beans and climbing beans in their  temporary home

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flourishing radish under mushroom crate protection

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everything – waiting patiently.

The start of another month – the year flies by so fast.

49 comments:

  1. Hello Elaine,
    It is a National Holiday here today so all around it is quiet and peaceful, none of the usual daily rush to work or school. And, how well this mood is taken up by your post of today. Everything is calm and patient, waiting for something but who knows what.

    Your garden looks delightful. So much work has been done already with the seedlings now poised before making their final run to maturity. Your greenhouse looks so wonderfully ordered and what culinary delights await your fortunate guests when things freshly picked can be added to the menu of the day.

    Dreams are often made of what you have in reality. How lovely is that!

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    1. I love this time of year in the garden when everything is so lush and green - I have no room yet for all my seedlings to go in - forget-me-nots fill in every little gap to be had - but things change daily as gardens do - I just have to be patient a little longer.

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  2. Hi Elaine,

    Dreams can be unsettling.......I understand. They can also, I believe, have meaning..........

    You have been so busy.....so much waiting for the impatient gardener :)
    Your garden is so very pretty, a country garden, most charming.

    I love the dawn chorus. I heard a bird singing at 3.00 am last night, I did not recognise the song. I wonder.........

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    1. It isn't often that I remember my dreams - this one was so vivid it stayed with me. Thank you for your compliments on my garden I am reasonably happy with it this year but there is always room for improvement.

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  3. I can't even grow radishes this year! Total failure in the greenhouse too. Your work is very impressive to see. I am full of admiration. How clever to use plastic cups for seedlings.

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    1. As simple as they appear to be I always have problems with radishes so you aren't on your own. I used to plastic cup method last year very successfully and they only cost pennies to buy.

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  4. We seem to be in a holding pattern waiting for the weather to warm and the winds to quiet so that we can get outside to get some work done. Today just might be that day. You have so many plants that you are nurturing. How do you keep up with it all? Green houses here are not so practical or popular, but in would still like to have one. We have a lot to anticipate, don't we?

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    1. I work in the greenhouse when the weather isn't so good - so get plenty of opportunity. Couldn't you find a nice sheltered spot to put a greenhouse - they are worth their weight in gold.

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  5. That was a beautiful post, I loved it. Really nice to see a full view of your garden layout from the photograph taken upstairs too. Just lovely.

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  6. Beautiful post - to me, conveying anticipation. Funny, I've been dreaming a lot more than usual lately. Perhaps it's the season. You have a beautiful garden and quite a lot awaiting planting.

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  7. You had me wondering what happened when you went back to sleep? Lovely time of year if only today's weather realised it.

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    1. I slept on - dreamless. The rain seems to have passed us by this time even though it was forecast.

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  8. It is all too fleeting isn't it? And yet so much more to come - as underlined by all that promise under glass and plastic. D

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    1. Waiting for the next flush of flowers - missing the colour of the spring bulbs already.

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  9. Lovely post, starting with your dream and than the moment´s reality of your garden. So many happy looking plants waiting for planting in your garden. The overview of your garden is so pretty and I can imagine how it looks fully packed with newly planted seedlings, beautiful!

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    1. Thanks Janneke - I'm not sure where I am going to find the space to put them all - but then, I say that every year, and always manage it somehow.

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  10. Love your garden - still a lot of work ahead for you with planting out all those seedlings.

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    1. Thanks Susan - planting them out is the easy bit.

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  11. That story of your dream enchanted me....I often do this, dreams of the past...maybe they tell us that we are missing something that we need in our life :)

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    1. I love dreaming - if only I could remember it all in the morning - but they fade quickly don't they.

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  12. I can not get over all of your goodness in your garden! And those waiting veggies are just wonderful! Look at them all!!! Pure heaven! And as for that dream...I'm not sure why the mind does that but this happens to me as well....trying to tell us something maybe?!?! All I can say is awesome! Nicole xoxo

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    1. The anticipation of all the good things to come is the best bit - the reality of crop failures, bad weather and everything being eaten by slugs is not so good.

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  13. Gosh, you're so well organised. You put me to shame!

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  14. How tidy your end-of-April garden looks. And for all your non-gardening moods, you certainly have prepared for beautiful flowers and plentiful food.

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    1. During the winter I often wonder if I have lost my gardening mojo then spring comes around and my mojo comes back miraculously.

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  15. Elaine, you have just described my garden and me xx waiting...

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    1. I am running of space - how about you?

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  16. A rather wistful post and lovely photos, a good combination. Flighty xx

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    1. It wasn't meant to be wistful but maybe you are right

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  17. Hi lovely Elaine! Your beautiful garden sure should be featured in magazine! Its that beautiful! Thanks for your lovely comment! Appreciate it lots!!! And wishing you a lovely weekend too!

    Debbie

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  18. There is nothing like walking on the dew soaked grass in the early morning! I was away for one night this week and the garden seems to have changed so much in those 24 hours. Your garden an lilac look fantastic. Sarah x

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    1. I agree the garden changes so quickly at this time of year

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  19. Lush, that's the best word to describe your garden...green, growing, and lush. Sigh.

    Jen

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    1. Yes green very green waiting for the next batch of colour

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  20. Some lovely photos of your garden and its colour. I wish I was awake at dawn more; it's such a magical time of year and it is passing too quickly - the bluebells are fading already.

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    1. We miss so much whilst we sleep don't we

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  21. Lush and productive, the perfect combination. I love that shot of your garden from above, it all looks so calm and serene, concealing a hive of frantic activity with all those seedlings and pots!

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    1. I like taking a full view shot it's amazing how it changes from month to month

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  22. I really enjoyed seeing the birds eye view of your garden Elaine. Spring is the most wonderful time of year, everything is so fresh and new life springing up everywhere.The amazing thing though is how quickly everything seems to shoot up and spread out.
    I wonder what your dream meant? There are people who believe dreams signify things arent there?

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    1. I have stopped trying to fathom what my dreams mean they are just so mixed up.

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  23. You really do have the most beautiful garden, it must take hours and hours of work to keep it looking so good.

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    1. Thanks Annie I suppose it does take quite a lot of work but it is something I enjoy so I don't count the hours

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  24. I love to see all the plants waiting....and you have so many! Your garden is looking wonderful.
    I wander the garden at dawn sometimes, it's an incredibly mystical thing to do, you feel as though you are part of nature rather than just being in it.
    The mind is a funny old thing, the things it throws out eh....xxx

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  25. I am dreading pulling out all the forget-me-nots they have managed to fill in all the gaps - it will look so bare when they are gone - it's going to be a busy time planting everything. I agree about early rising - a special time of day.

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