money and reilgion - thrift & star of bethlehem

Well, another scorcher of a hot day in the sun, too much sun for me but the plants sure love it! We planted all the Annual Flowers at the Monastery today. Yes, I’m two weeks late but the nuns didn’t mind – I give them a good deal for my labour, so me thinks they have little to complain about anyway you look at it! It was a very common commercial planting of Impatiens and some cutting flowers like Snapdragons, rather drab really. No money, no funny, and they lack the vision to see that with unlimited resources I could turn their Canadian Headquarters into a slice of paradise with Perennial Gardens. More work equals more money, equals threats of cheaper wetback otherwise slave landscapers to replace me. You know “blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth,” so be it, I give what I can and you’d be surprised what people will take. I always hoped to work for the Pope but I had visions of painting his ceilings. On the bright side, I at least get to cut his lawns, provide sustenance to his gardens and trees, even if that is not what I had envisioned. He pays the bills on time to, unlike me always trying to scratch up enough coin. All this talk about money and religion made me think back to living in The Netherlands, Dutch Thrift to be exact.

Armeria - Thrift, Sea Pink, Cliff Rose

This plant reminds me of my native homeland of Holland as it grows along the North Sea shoreline. Many times, I have walked the coastline of the North Sea and I very much love doing it. I also like the Northern Coastline of the Province of Gronnigen moving South-West towards the Wadenzee and Friesland.
America has many different colours and flowers from mid-spring to mid-fall. Not bad considering how long our winters are, brrrrrrr. I grow a few clusters as borders around our primary garden. This flower has given me some trouble documenting it – it keeps telling me to get an upgrade from my current Nikon Digital, to the newest model with a closer macro range. $1,000 dear me, I wish I had it but alas I do not and I am Dutch :)

Things are happening fast with flowers in the gardens and I’m running behind in all the images I have for you. I may spend the next few weeks just dumping images with fewer texts to catch up with the cornucopia of flowers in our gardens.

Suffice it to say when my loved ones and I go out for an evening walk, on the lawns and in the gardens, it brings calm as you stand before the wonder of such beauty as the Creator has provided. It surprises me not that life began in a garden and evolves into the City of God, Jerusalem.
What’s nice is that I live almost in the middle of the Forest City (London), fifteen minutes by bicycle from the downtown core. Yet, I have been blessed to have this marvelous forested garden because on these old inner city blocks the land parcels where all very large and some people still keep woodlots or forested backs like us and all but one of my neighbours, my next door neighbour.

I thought I’d leave you with this dainty little flower, it deserves to have so much more said about it. It’s tiny but it has a big and interesting storey dating back to before the Greeks, too big to blog here but if you’d like to read it then click here.

Thus the Dutch Thrift and the Star of Bethlehem – money and religion. My ode to the nuns of the monastery -- all that and a Dutch Gardener to boot just not to hard as it hurts.

Star of Bethlehem - Ornithogalum umbellatum