Summer Garden

My garden gives me a lot of pleasure, especially when other things do not. For example, the kitchen light fixture in my old house needed to be replaced, and the new one couldn't be easily attached because the old electrical box wasn't a standard size. Then the ceiling got scuffed while we were trying to replace the fixture, and no paint matched, so now the entire ceiling needs repainting. And the new camera suddenly only took blurry pictures, when it was fine just two days ago... When these sorts of annoyances happen, my flowers give me some serenity.

The chair was purchased for $5 from a second hand shop, painted with acrylics and sealed with polyurethene. A friend with tools cut a hole in the seat that fit a pot, and now it is my garden planter. White begonias and asparagus fern are filling in nicely.

Out in the flower beds the firecracker red bee balm is attracting lots of attention from the hummingbirds. I usually hear them before I see them, a whirring thrum alerts me to the presence of hummers in the red blossoms. The lilies are all blooming too, the yellow stella de oro lilies, the bright orange tiger lilies, and the peach daylilies all lend their colors to the flower beds. The white and pink coral bells are blooming too, along with some of the hostas. When I was little my mother sang a little song about the coral bells, though then I had never seen one.

Sweet coral bells
Upon a slender stalk,
Lily of the valley lines my garden walk.
Oh how I wish
That I could hear them ring.
That will happen only
When the fairies sing.

UPDATE - The camera is fine. I took it to the shop where a patient man showed me a big fingerprint on the lens, made when I loaned the camera to a relative for a reunion shot. Serenity now.