Wildflowers among the weeds.....

My neighbor lets us cut through her yard.  She has the most gorgeous yard, full of flowers of all kinds.  She kind of has a backlot though, that is full of weeds.  She used to have some garden boxes but I think it was all too much and she let it go for a while.  They've planted lots of fruit trees back there and I think it has become the orchard & not much else for now.. We can just make out the box borders with the overgrown foliage as we walk through foxtails and tall broad grass up to our knees in some places!  One box, this summer, has exploded in a mass of wildflowers.  I wonder if she experimented there and just scattered a packet of wildflower seeds to see if they could compete with the weeds.  They CAN!  Pink and purple and white; rising up from among the brown and Gold and green of the weeds. It made me think of the first wildflower bouquets I receive each spring.  Summer is in full swing now and there are no little purple and pink weed flowers or golden dandelions to pick but I receive bouquets every day during the blooming extravaganza of spring.  The wildflowers reminded me of some notes I had written down this spring....

April 13, 2008 we walked to church.  Samantha picked some tiny white flowers and a dandelion on our way.  She asked me to put them in her hair.  We slipped them into her barrettes holding back the top part of her hair.  We'd been sitting in our pew listening to the prelude music for a few moments when a sweet elderly sister leaned forward, teary-eyed, and whispered to Samantha "you look so lovely dear" Samantha smiled, enjoying the attention. The sister then turned her eyes to look into mine and said "They remind me of my little Jimmy who died when he was only 3 after an accident at a friends house.  He picked me a bouquet of dandelions just that day and I have saved them ever since to remember him by.  oh.. the yellow tufts have long since fallen off and all that is left are the greenish brown dried stems, but I keep them tucked into a vase of dried flowers to remember my little boy." Tears came to my eyes too and we maintained eye contact for some time crying together thinking of our children.  She, for the one she had lost so many years ago but can never forget and me for the blessing of having mine all around me in the house of God, knowing they are sealed to me always if I do my part and hoping, hoping, hoping that I never have to endure that pain.

                                                             

Rachel came in the house more than once this spring with a yellow nose and upper lip.  I would smile at her and say, "Been smelling dandelions?"  She would look a little "caught" lower her eyes and smile and mumble "yeah.." Since she was a wee thing she has loved dandelions. Every Dandelion season she has a perpetual yellow nose.  She has maintained for years she wants a Dandelion and weed wedding bouquet.  Can't you just see her? We would have to warn her to keep her nose out of the bouquet! She has always made such lovely bouquets for me out of interesting greenery, dandelions and the tiniest white and purple flowers. She really has an eye for wild beauty.  I wish dandelions didn't curl up and look ugly so quickly.  Anyone know a way of preserving them?  I dont' think she would look right holding lilies or roses or *gasp* the most unwildflower of all flowers.. the carnation.  Maybe she'll become a florist or a botanist and create a strain of dandelion that will last longer as a cut flower for bouquets.

One day in Early May I walked Mason over to his Friend Devan's house.  I sat down on the front step with Devan's mom, Margie and we visited while the boys played.  It had been such a cold spring and it was a rare sunny day and we were enjoying it.  Mason kept picking me dandelions and adding them to a bouquet in my hand.  He whispered in my ear after giving me a kiss, "these are true love mom".  Then he noticed some of the flowers with really short stems that I had discarded on the step next to me.  He was horrified.  "MOM!!!! what are you doing? These are true love too!!!! You have to keep them in your hand like this" and he smashed them in a pile into my palm, where they stayed until I was able to throw them away discreetly on our walk back.  It's true, I tossed "true love", without a second thought,  on my way home but  don't worry, I didnt' toss it all,  I held it's hand all the way home.

On another walk in the neighborhood in May with Mason we came upon a neighbors lawn completely infested with dandelions... and when I say infested... I mean more dandelion than lawn. Really. I found myself thinking "whoa.. maybe you need to get some weed killer friend!" and then I heard a hushed gasp at my side and my little man exclaimed "Look! Mom! This is GORGEOUS!  Look at all dese flowers" I wish you could have heard his voice. It expressed such wonder and awe. We stopped and looked & looked  and as I looked, my thoughts changed, I got out the squeeze cheese and put a smiley face on my plain ol' cracker. Seeing it through his eyes, it became beautiful to me.

                                             

April 23, 2008    One of my favorite spring sights in the plum tree outside my kitchen window.  When it blossoms out in it's springy white flowers it makes me happy while I wash dishes. I lOVE it!  When Mason looked out the window and first saw it blossoming all white and fluffy he said "Mom.... it's...it's....it's... I yooked out da window and whatuh I see... popcorn popping!!!!! It is mom, it is!!!! We talked about how it wasn't really popcorn but blossoms on a plum tree so we sang the song together & I changed the words to plum tree instead of apricot tree.  He looked at me sternly and said "mom you singing it wrong. It's apricot tree" I know Mason, but we're looking at a plum tree so that's why I sang it differently." to which he asked, unexpectedly, "so where do popcorn grow?"  "On a corncob" I said. "OOOhhhh!!! So dat's not really popcorn?" 

                                         

Later when the kids came home from school he took great pride in sharing his newfound knowledge.  "See dat?", pointing to the plum tree, "Dat is not really a popcorn tree, it is a plum tree, it just looks like a popcorn tree.  Popcorn really comes from the dirt."

May 1, 2008  This was a very cold spring and when that plum tree was in full bloom, we had a snowstorm.  I had a hard time reconciling those two events coexisting together. We were driving in the snowstorm out shopping and it was swirling around, making it hard to see the other cars on the road and Mason exclaimed happily "If it keeps snowing, it's TOTALLY gonna be Christmas!!!  

Well We didn't get cold enough for Christmas.. Summer finally came and we are living it now.  

Today We are going to 7 peaks water park to enjoy the sun and water slides and wave pool. It is Mason's first time.  I am also taking my neighbor, Donna's kids so she can stay home with her baby and tile her kitchen floor.  She's amazing.  She can tile a floor.  Wow! That's just about all I can say.  Wow!  Happy thought, however, she promised to come get Mason and take him to her house if he has had enough before the rest of us.  I think he'll do fine though, but it's nice to have a backup plan.