The Craftiest Workshop

My garden is not just the place where I plant vegetables, trees and flowers. Going out to water, weed or harvest is more than just about the task at hand. There are certain things in my garden that make me think of certain people, some who have passed on and some who are still alive but that I don’t get to see often.

We have two items in our garden area from Chris’s Auntie Margaret. She was a crafty person and did a lot of tole painting. She gave us this insect hotel and we have finally got it hanging somewhere.

As you can see, I made a cute sign to add to it.

The second item is a mailbox. We used this mailbox at one of our Ontario homes when we had mail delivered to our door. Now we get our mail five miles away and a community mailbox. I am going to keep it in the green house to store garden gloves and other small tools I might need.

I have this statue in my garden that has moved around with us from house to house.
It was a Mother’s Day gift from my mom.

This metal bird stake was given to us by Chris’s parents. I love how you can see the shape so well against the clear blue sky.

I planted flowers in our wooden chest in the spring on May long weekend. I had seeds everywhere and there was some confusion on my part what flowers actually got planted in the chest. I thought that I planted Forget Me Nots that had been given out at my Matante Georgette’s funeral. The greens became quite bushy and I noticed pink flowers poking through. I thought maybe they were Chinese Forget Me Nots which apparently can be pink. They started to bloom on July 25, Georgette’s birthday, which I thought was wonderful. Turns out that even though I didn’t forget my aunt, the flowers were not Forget Me Nots but Lavatera. These were seeds that my mom had passed on to me. I know so little about flowers but I am slowly learning.

Flowers, in general remind me of my Paternal grandmother. I have planted more flowers this year in the garden and outside the garden that no remind me of her. The flowers also make me think of my mom as many of the flowers are from seed she has given me.

My grandmother had many flowers planted around their yard. She would tend to her flowers while wearing these homemade Javex bottle hats held together by crocheting. I have one of her hats and wear it from time to time on hot days. Lucky for me, she had a larger head like I have.

So, for me, the garden is a place for me to pray for those that I think about as I pass the different things I see. Sentimental objects definitely provoke my memory.