The Changes in the Woods...

Day before yesterday I was going through pictures of the gardens from last year. I started grumbling about the condition of my favorite place, the woods. Everything is so overgrown. Branches are hanging down with heavy new growth. Leaves are huge. Some things are completely covered with greenery. Weeds have sprouted up out of nowhere. From the house, I can't see my obelisk, which stands in the middle of the woods border. I was really feeling discouraged....after all the hours and money that I have spent on this area. I was even considering just letting Mother Nature take it back and just letting it go. Too much work anyway, I thought. I could bring the statues up to the house (I was even planning on where they would go) and put the trellis against the house for a new clematis, and using the obelisk in a new way. I went to bed with this on my mind. My heart was heavy and my brain was working overtime...would I still go and sit on my park bench and watch the birds...would I still see some of the flowers that I had planted...would I see color in the fall? This was the night of the big storm here and with things on my mind and the storm going on (all night it seemed) I didn't have a very restful night.
Yesterday, everything changed. I decided to take the bull by the horns, and go back there and see what I could do. After looking around, I saw that it wasn't quite as bad as I thought. I started pulling weeds out and cutting things down a section at a time. First the area around the trellis then around each statue. The flowers were still there. What really made me think, was the little Redbud tree that I had planted last year. Just a sprig at the time...now there it was just a growin in all the overgrown green matter. Telling me ...it wasn't giving up. As I started to uncover more things, I got a new outlook on the situation. I could live with this new look...after all it is a woods. I was trying to make it too much of a garden area. I worked until I was soaking wet...then came in to take a shower. I thought, maybe I could wait a couple of hours on the shower and go out later on and use my trusty weed whacker and really do a nice job. I rested and then got a burst of energy and took to the woods to do some trimming. When I was finished, I sat on the bench...some little wrens came flitting by and I saw my first nuthatch of the season on the tree. A brown creeper looked at me, upside down. Chipmunks were chasing around...like Chip and Dale. I stooped to pick off the dead lily flowers and checked on my drying Jack in the Pulpits behind the fence. My mood had changed drastically and I was pleased with how it all looked. Yes, the trees are over grown, the wooded area is getting larger and creeping toward my border. Someday it will win, but until then I'll keep plugging away and ripping things out of the way of my flowers and vines. I will sit on the bench and watch the wonderful natural beauty of this favorite spot.
Balisha