Oregano makes a pretty flower

Tags

azalea, patience, postaday2016

I didn’t know the oregano herb had such cute little flowers, to be honest I had forgotten all about it. Last year I had planted my oregano plant in between two lilies with Black-eyed Susans popping up all around, so I completely forgot about it this year, that is until I noticed flowers that I had never had seen before in that spot. I had a hard time getting the flowers in focus with the other flowers in the background, I lucked out with the closeup however.

My azalea, the one I was mourning, albeit prematurely, came back pretty nicely. It gave me two flowers even though its leaves were missing, it looked so pitiful back in the spring, now it looks much healthier. My other azalea is doing better but it hasn’t recovered as beautifully as this one.

Patience is a constant when it comes to gardening, it also goes a long way in life.

Bluebells are in bloom!

Tags

garden, patience, postaday2015

        

I’m not sure if Bluebells is the correct name for the plant with the pretty pink and blue flowers, my mother-in-law called them Bluebells and it stuck in my head; I always deferred to her in gardening matters. The purple crocus like flowers, I thought, looked striking rising up amongst the dead leaves, I had to take a picture, I’ll clean the leaves away later.

I was excited to see the chives once again, I missed them a lot during the winter. I hadn’t realized just how often I used them until they were gone. Now all I have to do is pop out in the back with a pair of scissors, snip, snip and presto I have either a garnish or an ingredient. The flowers are pretty as well, a light purple ball a top a delicate green stem, I wouldn’t necessarily add them to a bouquet, I like them swaying in the summer breeze out back.

   

       

Everything else, for the most part in the back, is still slumbering; everything except for the bane of my existence, the bamboo. I captured the tiny red heads of the bamboo shoot peeking up through the soil, if I can’t count on anything  else, I can surely count on them coming up year, after year, expanding their territory, just to thwart me. At least it gives me something to do and keeps me on my toes with maintenance.

   

     

It’s extraordinary to me even after all these years, how dramatically different the back yard looks in April from the way it looks during the month of June. The rejuvenating powers of Mother Nature are indeed incredible. Even if I did nothing, the lilies we see in the pictures are coming back, my forsythia is still dormant, but give it a few weeks and those yellow blossoms will be photographed for everyone to see, trust me on that.

My curiosity will be getting the better of me as time passes because I am dying to see what survived and what didn’t; there is the lavender, the newest azaleas (they don’t look too hot right now) and the dianthus, so I may get frustrated every now and again in the next two weeks, just because Blandford lags behind everybody else.

Patience is a virtue and a necessity for gardeners, I must remember that.

Daily prompt: The terminal

Tags

airport, patience, postaday2014, waiting, writing

You’re at the airport, your flight is delayed for six more hours, and none of your electronic devices is working. How do you pass the time?

Welcome to the past. I have been traveling since I was a little girl so I know what it means to have to while away the seemingly endless hours in an airport. Actually six hours isn’t that long; airports have always had boutiques so that is an excellent way to use your time, browsing can be fun. There are so many different little places to sit to have coffee, tea or even a drink or two. You might be a little hungry and there are always some local specialties offered wherever you might be visiting.

I find it amazing and a little sad that the mere thought of not having access to electronics would cause such panic in some. There was a time when we knew how to entertain ourselves with daydreams, window shopping, walking, striking up friendly conversations and patience. I would argue that teenagers aren’t the only ones who go a little crazy when left without their cell phones.

I have thought about what I would do if the Internet would one day disappear, in regards to my writing and the instant gratification of people reading, liking and commenting on my posts. I have to admit that the instantaneous response is so very gratifying and it does validate and pump up the desire to write and share. Would I still write on a daily basis without the feedback? It would be a very difficult adjustment and I hope that I would find it within me to go beyond the spontaneous feedback and continue writing just for the passion that I feel about writing. I would miss the easy contact with my friends, but we still have letter writing and postage. The ties needn’t be lost, where there is a will, there is a way with everything in life.

A teaching moment

Tags

children, class, little ones, patience, postday2013, teaching

You’ve been asked to do a five minute presentation to a group of young schoolchildren on the topic of your choice. Describe your presentation.

I have had experience doing this and I can happily say that I had fun doing it. When I taught French to the little ones for seven years, I occasionally went up to the upper grades to do a guest teaching stint and as you may well guess older kids, the pre-teens, need more from a teacher. They need to be persuaded that what you have to say has value either by establishing an instant authority or convincing them that they will really enjoy listening. I was able to establish instant rapports with all the grades when I would visit the upper classes because they knew that I was the French lady, so there was curiosity and many of the older children had younger siblings who talked about their daily encounter with Madam and what we did in class together, so the ice was already broken for many in the class.

I would teach them about Greek mythology, history, math or basic French vocabulary and whichever subject we were dealing with, I made a point of telling it through a story like lesson. My intent with the story was to personalize the lesson to their experience to make them see how applicable the lesson could be in their own life.

I remember that Greek mythology was a definite favorite amongst the upper grades, I was talking about cooking, French cuisine, spices and I mentioned the laurel leaf which I believe is another word for bay leaf. I told the story of how the laurel leaf was part of a story in Greek mythology. The God of music, beauty and light was Apollo, he was wandering along in a meadow and spied a beauty young nymph who was gathering flowers. Apollo started towards her and she was very shy so she ran, Apollo forgetting his manners, started running after her calling out for her to stop, but he had never introduced himself properly, so she didn’t know what his intentions were and being frightened she kept going. Nymphs just happen to children of River Gods, fiercely loyal and over protective of their beautiful daughters plus equipped with a sizable pair of sharp horns, our poor frightened nymph called out for her father’s help and since he was too far away to physically defend her, he could only use his powers to transform her into a laurel tree, safe from the hands and lips of the god Apollo. Apollo when he at last caught her, he found himself hugging the tree, no longer a nymph, Apollo kissed the bark of the tree and made a wreath with the leaves proclaiming the laurel leaf to be special and all future heroes would be awarded the laurel wreath upon victory. The kids always appreciated stories like that, they learned why past Greek athletes and Roman emperors and statesmen wore laurel wreaths; the god Apollo had blessed them with their significance.

I did really enjoy teaching those kids for those special classes, since I didn’t have them all day long, I had a fresh take on the whole dynamic. Make no mistake I was friendly with all of the teachers and I saw first hand how challenging and exhausting being a full-time teacher is, those kids will run you ragged, all the while surprising you at the craziest times. However, each teacher to the one, will say that teaching is their only choice as profession. It truly is a calling.

What did you do before the Internet?

Tags

children, dial up, internet, patience, postaday2012

• Remember the days before you got the Internet at home?

• July 2, 2012

• Before the Internet
• internet explorer

  Before the Internet, my two children were small so I was more than busy with taking care of them, watching over them and running after them. They are exactly two and a half years apart so I was never bored, did I mention that we also had a puppy at the same time when my daughter was nine months and my son had just turned three. There wasn’t any time for the Internet. When we did get it, it was dial up and that was when they were in school so it wasn’t as gratifying as it is nowadays with DSL. Back then during the days of dial up, I didn’t have the patience to wait for the slow connection, I had only so much time to do everything that I needed to do while the kids were at school. Now that the kids don’t need me as much, I enjoy having the Internet because it provides a great vehicle for my writing, Plinky and WordPress.

What are your five strengths?

Tags

optimism, patience, postaday2012, relationships, strengths, writing

List your top five strengths.

June 12, 2012

My Top 5 Strengths

chirping birds

I would have to say optimism, patience, kindness, tenacity and discipline. The tenacity and discipline have served me with my writing and the rest have helped me with my relationships and life in general.

Who is the most patient person you know?

Tags

children, marriage, patience, pets, postaday2011

C’est moi. I am the most patient person I know. Why do I think that, you ask. Well, since you are curious, I will tell you. Have I always been patient? Growing up, I had the capability to be patient, I don’t think that I had to make it a daily occurrence because growing up, I had really, only myself to think of and my chores to do. Life was mostly about school, part-time jobs, socializing and getting along with family and friends. I know that I did learn patience and waiting my turn during the summers in France, when we all shared on bathroom and the we, meant that there were at least ten of us.

I got married at 23 years old and had our son at 24 years old. That was when patience and a lot of it were required, was I always capable back then of expressing patience? I know that there were days when patience walked out of the apartment and stayed away for a few hours, luckily those days were fairly rare. I would be so tired and feel so alone that I would cry. Those days were mainly caused by sleep deprivation. My baby boy was a non-stop breast feeder, I didn’t sleep a solid nights sleep for at least 8 months. I was exhausted and stupid by the time he was nine months.

On a side note, I just came back from picking up my seventeen year old daughter from school this evening. I told her about today’s topic and asked her who she thought was the most patient person that she knew. She said “well, it certainly isn’t Papa, and it is definitely not you”. I said, calmly, “really, you don’t think that I am the most patient person” She said “what! you are not patient with me, Papa or Bob”. I said “well I started writing that I am the most patient person I know” and I left it at that. I didn’t get hurt or indignant. If the conversation had happened between my mother and myself, she would have said a few choice things to me, along the vein that she deserved a medal for putting up with me as a teenager. I let it go with my daughter, I don’t know what my son would say, I take that back, I do know because I called him for research purposes and he said that I am the most patient person he knows. Back to my daughter, I can let it go because she has the right to her opinion, and she is probably thinking of the times when I do get exasperated after asking her at least 4 or 5 times to do something and I get a retort instead.

Where was I? Oh, yes the early days of parenthood. Instead of giving you the step by step inaugural pathway to patience, I’ll give you my ideas of why it grew through the years. I think that I have become more patient because I don’t see or feel the need to have everything exactly the way I want it to be. I have gotten very accommodating over the years and it has been a blessing. When I find myself getting annoyed by something small, I try to step back and ask myself “is it really worth it?” More often than not, that question is quickly answered no and I can let whatever go. It is liberating and makes life easier.

I’ve noticed that patience sometimes has a negative connotation to it. The person who has it is considered either good and virtuous or put upon. However, that, in regards to human relationships, means that the other half of the relationship, the other person probably isn’t so very good, they might be a handful or high maintenance. When it comes to taking care of pets, than the person who is patient, is considered a good pet owner no matter how the pet behaves because pets are given more leeway than humans. The same can be determined for gardening, taking care of the home, cooking, many of these tasks require patience and time to be done correctly and that is easily seen as something to aspire to or at least admire.

It is when you throw people in the mix that feelings can get hurt. As in the example of my daughter, I could have lashed out because my feelings were hurt that she doesn’t think of me as a patient person. If I had, well maybe she would have been right. As I am still thinking if I have been a little impatient with her, it isn’t that I am losing my patience, I get nervous that she is not doing certain little things independently, such as making herself toast in the morning, or making herself lunch for school or getting herself something to eat after school. I do all these things for her but when I ask her if she can do it on occasion, she will start to complain and complain. So when I do lose my patience and I have explained it to my daughter, it is coming from a place of caring and worrying that I am not doing my job to make her as independent as she can be for a 17-year-old. There are times when that explanation isn’t good enough for my daughter and I try to be sensitive to her feelings and everything she is going through as a teenager.

So there you have it, at the very least after writing my thoughts on the subject, this topic will keep me and my patience in the forefront of my thoughts for the next few days.