The Wood's Secret Garden

Since the rains have, for the most part, stopped; Michael and I decided to put our little balcony hide-away back in order.  It did not take us long, as we had done much of the prep work over the past several weekends.  I love our little balcony Hide-Away!  When you live in a tiny 540 square foot, one bedroom apartment, you truly appreciate the added living space. 

It was an exciting afternoon in the Secret Garden.  We have been waiting and watching our little garden patch of dirt, since building the planter box at the base of our stairway and sowing the wild flower seeds.  Since we bought them at Grocery Outlet (a discount store), my fear was that the seeds may have been old and would therefore never sprout.  It was a week ago tomorrow that we sowed them. Everyday this week, upon arriving home from work, I squat down near the edge of the walkway to get a ground level view where I can inspect the soil for any sign of life.  Yesterday, this was what we discovered: It may seem silly to get so excited about a tiny little green sprout!  But it is in these little things that we delight as we see in them the beauty of the creator of the Universe and the sign of new life coming from what would have been seen as a dead, dry, lifeless seed.  It is a picture of the "new birth" that we who are in Christ have experienc...

It was not our intention to spend time exploring the Secret Garden this afternoon--it was just a trip to check the mail.  However, I did grab my camera bag and slipped it over my shoulder before we left.  On the way back, we took the path that runs behind the apartment complex and, there to greet us, was a cat.  As we approached him, we noticed a most peculiar thing.  He had one green eye and one blue eye.  I had seen this on dogs, but never on a cat.  I sat down at the base of one of the stairways hoping to get a picture of those eyes.  I only had time to take three shots before the cat decided that he had had enough of our company. I was delighted that, out of just three shots, I got one where the stair railing ended up dividing his face right down the middle.  You couldn't plan a shot like that! As usual, Michael and I wanted to know what causes a cat to have eyes of different colors; so, we researched ...

About a week ago, Michael and I decided that we would look for a bag, box or canister of wild flower seeds and that we would scatter them all over the Secret Garden. We were not sure where exactly, or if they would even germinate; but, thought that it would be a lovely idea. While standing in line at the Grocery Outlet, Michael glanced over and there they were. A large box of mixed wild flower seeds. The box said that the seeds would cover up to 750 square feet. We knew roughly how large an area that would be since our one bedroom apartment is only 540 square feet. That's a lot of wild flowers for only $3.99. After getting the box home and reading the instructions, we realized that it was not going to be as easy as simply scattering them all around the Secret Garden. The instructions said you must 1) rid the soil of all other vegetation (well that wasn't going to happen); 2) break-up the soil (neither was that); 3) rack the soil (You gotta be kidding me); and, 4)  make sure...

It has been awhile since Michael and I have ventured out into the Secret Garden.  It's been almost a year since we moved into this magic place and we have seen the garden transformed with the passing of the seasons.  So much has changed.  The fruiting mulberry tree, that once reached passed the roof tops along the north side of our balcony is gone, cut down to save the cement walkway from its massive root structure.  The Giant Oak, that we watched fall--making a natural bridge across the creek in May 2010 as we were dining with a friend, is gone--chopped into pieces and drug away by the County's maintenance crew just a few months ago, leaving a huge, empty, stark space in the landscape on the western bank of the creek.  The cuttings from the Wandering Jew from North Carolina, that we had planted in three places along the banks of the creek, have all washed away during the winter storms. Our first year in the Garden was so mag...