From a Flower-Frilled/Filled Lesson Book

Ps.65:9-13 You []visit the earth and water it,You greatly enrich it;The river of God is full of water;You provide their grain,For so You have prepared it.10 You water its ridges abundantly,You settle its furrows;You make it soft with showers,You bless its growth. 11 You crown the year with Your goodness,And Your paths drip with abundance.12 They drop on the pastures of the wilderness,And the little hills rejoice on every side.13 The pastures are clothed with flocks;The valleys also are covered with grain;They shout for joy, they also sing. ***Gardening and life are a fine-tuned medleyof deep disappointment and darling delight! ***Today's post is a medley of garden photos and quotes...and a poem inspired by garden-blessings... Long after final fruit is pluckedAnd cobs are shucked and gourds are gleanedAnd herbs are hung to dry on rungsIndoors, and the last leaf is weaned Long after flower-stems are strippedAnd fronds are clipped and furrows turnedI will reflect, time and againOn garden-lessons I have learned ...of disappointment and delightFor such is life; wonder and woeLaughter, lament, beauty and blightPatience, (for plants take time to grow) …learning, that love is worth the yearsOf work, of Waiting‘s by-and-byThat gladness grows sweeter through tearsPerfection, more than meets the eye That it takes both the sun and rainTo make Growing Things flourish, ohThat life mingles pleasure and painInto love’s vintage afterglow ...that without the wise purpose ofThe careful, cruel pruning knifeThe plant will not be strong enoughTo bear the waiting weight of life  Long after kale's last curl is culledAnd frost, its temp’ring touch has wroughtI will remain humbly thankfulFor lessons that my garden taught ...not in some, brick-walled lecture hallBut in a sun and breeze-kissed nookWhere crickets cheep and petals fallFrom a flower-frilled lesson-book © Janet Martin