The end of August opens the door to a wave of Garden magic.

When monsoon Rain is still here, and flowers begin another spring.

The wildness of my garden is beyond words.

You'd have to stand in it to really understand the level of wild.

The winged creatures are treating it like a sanctuary, which I am so glad for.

The pumpkins are, well, they've taken over.

A sea of pumpkins.

I crouch down to see if there are babies...

And there are.

I'm not sure why pumpkins make me soooo happy, but they do.

It's time to pick some of them, but the rains have brought a wonderful wave of fresh ones.

I can't believe the stems on these.

It's a wild place, where I rest my mind and lose myself in the happenings of the moment.

It's like a dream.

In fact, my whole life I have dreamt of such a garden.

And while I've had a lovely garden at the country house for 20 years, it is open to rabbits and gophers.

The wildlife would gobble it so quickly, every day was another loss after so much work.

But this garden is safe to grow as big as it wishes, and it does.

Only winged creatures can fly in.

The yellow belly finches destroy zinnias, but that's about it.

The quail have learned that it is safe to be here, so they fly in just as the sun starts to go down.

They fill the trees, but if I so much as tiptoe in, they frantically panic and fly off.

So, I make sure to let them sleep in peace.

As I was picking my flowers I could hear them start to gather outside the fence.

I just smiled to myself, knowing they were there.

It comforts me greatly for some reason.

The dahlias have begun, which means summer really is almost over.

Of course, it will be hot here for a while, until Halloween.

But the dahlias know.

Rainy skies and rainbows.

The giant marigolds are blooming too.

They always show up for Dia de Los Muertos.

I meant to be here a couple days ago but I was dizzy.

And so, I took some time to be kind to myself.

I often forget to be kind to myself and just forge ahead as though I'm made of steel.

Yesterday afternoon a big storm rolled in and I ran up to the loggia to sit and enjoy it.

You know those breezes that are so perfectly delicious, that you close your eyes and absorb the moment, without even noticing you are doing it?

That was me yesterday.

The rains have brought a huge field of datura to the country house, so I like to be there to watch them open in the evening.

They're also know as moon flower, because they unfurl at night.

I was there just as they were opening night before last.

Those are the sort of magical moments that are so unbelievably wonderful.

I think I am going to make a blackberry cobbler again next.

It's a very quiet morning, I can hear Matty gently snoring.

We got up super early to turn off all the irrigations since there was so much rain yesterday.

There was this coolness in the air, it really took my breath away.

It's funny how when you are a gardener, the weather is your main topic :-)

I find myself checking the weather all the time, it's quite funny actually.

The rain has been such a tremendous gift this monsoon season.

It reminds me of huddling on the porch with my family as a child to watch it rain.

We had these long huge covered porches, and the rain would whip in from every direction.

Sometimes it would hail, and we'd jump for joy.

I can hear all the adults oohing and aahing about it in my mind, like it was just yesterday.

The voices of my grandparents and parents, saying regular things like, wow, look at all this rain, can you believe how it's puddling?

And on and on, only in Spanish.

Spanish is such a beautiful language, there are ways to express yourself with such description and depth that does not translate to English.

There are so many descriptive words, and words that have vast meaning in just one word, that English simply does not have.

Do you know more than one language?

I think languages are so fun, and it's great to teach children when they were young.

I learned how to play the piano when I was very young, and when I play sometimes now I think, how did I learn this?

The really interesting thing is how your fingers hold memory.

You could have totally forgotten the notes completely, but your fingers know what to do.

It's amazing the things you can learn when you are young, that seem almost impossible as we grow older.

The one thing that is not hard to learn, and that you can do at any age at all is, growing a garden.

See how it all comes back to soil and seeds with me?

I am just planning my Winter Garden.

Planting seeds in August is perfect for a winter garden, especially in warmer climates like mine.

And don't forgot to buy your poppy seeds and scatter them at the first sign of November rain.

I have mine bought and ready to go.

Well, I'm off to bake.

Thank you for stopping by, I'll be back very soon.

 

Love, Vanessa