I’ll happily admit I’ve become obsessed with gardening this past few months. We moved here in summertime and I immediately set about creating flowerbeds, sourcing plants, and planning where we’d sit to enjoy it all the following spring.
Spring has arrived, but it’s often only on rainy days like today that I really pause and take time to reflect on any progress so far. Usually on a Saturday morning I’m pottering around in the garden: weeding, planting, plotting…! So the arrival of solid rainfall can be a real gift for someone like me, in that it teaches me a little about the art of stopping and being indoors for a time. And look what it brought me this morning…
I ordered some red geranium seedlings from a supermarket and had no idea how tiny they’d be when they arrived. A few weeks ago I planted three of them in this little pot, and in the past couple of days they’ve begun flowering. I’ve been amazed by quite how vivid the colour is, and how quickly they’re growing. Something about the rainy daylight today makes them stand out all the brighter on the windowsill and, while I look forward to planting them in a bigger pot outdoors, it’s worth stopping to enjoy how they look right now, just as they are. Soaking in that awe is surely what gardening is all about.
‘By taking care of the present you are doing all you can to assure a good future,’ said Thich Nhat Hanh in his book Work: How to find joy and meaning in each hour of the day. I’ve been reading this lately and am finding it a helpful reminder to slow down, take each moment and situation as it comes, and to breathe…so on that note, off I go back to the kitchen table to watch the rain and look at the geraniums in more detail 💓
Wishing you a restful weekend.
Until next time,
🌧 Katherine
P.S. later in the day I walked around the garden and took some quick snaps…I couldn’t resist getting out there and seeing what’s changed.
The strength of its stems really surprised me.
This is Clematis ‘Guernsey Cream’ and it has only been in the ground for a few weeks,
but seems to love clambering up the obelisk I put it under.
Cambridge Flower Journal 
Sometimes a rainy day is perfect time for stopping!
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