#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

Hellebore in my garden

There are the edgy, tooth-leaved hellebores, my show girls, flaunting saucy flounces of creamy white, hot magenta. And oh, the Helleborus foetidus, the stinking hellebore. She's racy, and her flower bells are my favorite color, chartreuse.

I can guarantee that if you plant this drought tolerant, tough and leathery perennial, the hellebore, you will never be alone in early spring. And no matter what the state of your heart, you will have her charms.

~ Jacki Lyden, Excerpt from “As Spring Arrives, A Return to the Garden,” NPR

I passed them without noticing them, and did a double-take. I had just begun my walk this morning, was heading up the driveway to the river. Out of the corner of my eye, in the new shade garden I planted last early autumn, there they were in bloom. All the plants in this garden taken from my friend’s garden when she moved, a gift to me. I had no idea what early spring gems I set in the ground! I sent her a picture right away so she could see them in bloom too and know I was thinking of her. I kept walking; it was so sunny, but cool. I came across my first snake of the season, soaking up the sun. In the late afternoon I went into the yard with the Special One and saw him stop and smile and wave across the yard––at nothing. And, wave and smile again. At what? Nothing I could see. An imaginary friend? Then I saw the quick hop hop hop and the white tail of the brown bunny who lives in yard––a real friend, after all.