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Gentle Giant Awakens
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Gunnera manicata awakens
like a slow volcano
not arousing any suspicion
of just how big you’ll be
Top gun of my garden
every summer
you amaze me
Though you sleep
so soundly
like a gentle giant
in winter’s slumber land
You spring forth
as earth warms
soaking up April showers
as air fills a balloon
Reaching higher
until you’re aloft
dwarfing all others
But tonight
heavy frost threatens
So I cut you down
stalk by stalk
Covering you
with blankets
made from
your expansive wings
Sleep gentle giant
until your volcano
erupts again
in spring!
Wendy/2012
When we bought our old house from a lady who had lived here and raised her children here for over 23 years, she advised me to cover up the Gunnera every fall. So I do. She lowered the price on this house, for us, once she realized that we loved the garden and would care for it. Developers have been very busy in our neighborhood ripping out trees and putting up more new homes. Not on our place, though. Not while I’m still awake…
Giant Blessings ~ Wendy
Thank you, Lord, for letting us enjoy this garden.
It looks so beautiful, why pull that sort of beauty down! x
It is sad to do, but otherwise it is left too vulnerable to the weather. The previous owner said she lost another one that used to be here. I’ve noticed that the city cuts theirs down , too, and covers them.
Blessings ~ Wendy
No no no! *laughing* I was meaning how people around your area are cutting everything down! Not you! *smiling* ……Paula x
That is too funny! I mix stuff up a lot, like that… glad we got a laugh out of it. 🙂
What a great story, Wendy–I learn more from you and Melody about gardens! God bless you.
Thank you, Caddo. I am continually learning things about gardening. It is one of my passions.
Blessings ~ Wendy
Ah, you are blessed! Can we deny a master Creator with the evidence of His creation around us? Who among us can do this? I love the way you capture the beauty with your eye and photos. You are His child.
Thank you,Gracie. Many times I thank him, right out in the middle of my garden, for the beauty and variety He has created!
Blessings ~ Wendy
You are blessed! What a beautiful garden. Thank you for sharing.
I am very thankful for our place! Thank you for visiting via my blog.
Blessings ~ Wendy
I’m going to share your blog on my Facebook. I have lots of gardening loving friends who I think will enjoy it!
Thank you. I love sharing our place. We fell in love with it before even getting inside the house. The house is rather humble inside, but it was the garden that grabbed our hearts.
Blessings ~ Wendy
My Mother (she has an apartment in our house) and I tend toward a natural garden rather than sculpted, though those are beautiful in their own way. Where I live the biggest I can grow is Elephant Ears, which really did well this year so next year when they get planted we will give them more room. My wife is not a gardener, but has taken on looking after the lawn on our big lot here in town.Our oldest Grandson has taken to gardening, but his Daddy likes it, too. Just glad you commented on a blog I follow and so I found you. Wonderful tribute to Creator.
I am glad to have found your blog, too! Thanks for visiting so that I could. Our favorite part of our garden is our woodland area where leaves and twigs fall and remain. I simply break up fallen branches and leave them there to add to the earth. It is a peaceful spot! Unpretentious and natural.
Blessings ~ Wendy
So nice to see and read about your love for nature! A fantastic poem, Wendy!!
Sometimes I think I was born with dirt under my nails…Thank you, Calee!
Blessings ~ Wendy
Our neighborhood is seeing a lot of new construction as well…our entire community abuts a preserve. We have seen so much wildlife in our backyard, and I am glad that at least the preserve area will not fill up with more houses. One of our favorite things about our house is that we are on a cul-de-sac, and our pie-shaped lot looks even larger because of the community land that leads out to the “lake” behind many of the houses. It’s a cookie cutter neighborhood in Suburbia, but having that much grass behind us, and the lake (where our son loves to fish), as well as the preserve to view from our upstairs windows all make us feel a little more connected to nature. As a non-green thumbed person, I love learning about different plants and flowers from gardeners like yourself, and as a fellow God-loving person, I love reading the bits you glean from what you see that point back to our Creator.
We have maybe a week’s worth of nights that bring frost down here, and we make sure to snuggle up our little trees and bushes that aren’t used to chilly temperatures!
That lake, you’ve mentioned, sounds awesome! I, too, am very grateful for park lands. We’re blessed with lots of them on our island.
Blessings ~ Wendy
“Our” lake is pretty neat–there are condos on the other side, but in the water are many fish, a handful of gators, flocks of ibis on the banks, and many other varieties of birds. I’ve also seen deer run by, snakes, armadillos, squirrels, and even a bald eagle once. We have a video of L. holding up the biggest fish he ever caught…what a proud, joyful smile he had. I’m glad we are making such good memories here as a family. God has led us to a good place.
I’ve never seen a real live alligator in person. How big are the ones you have there? A neighbor boy tricked me, when I was four, into believing they were in our local creek. I was terrified! He was not my favorite neighbor… 😉
There was something so beautiful about this, how you cover the plant with it’s own leaves! Really blessed me, Wendy! Thank you and God bless you!
Thank you, Debbie! Sometimes the things we need are right at our fingertips, if we’ll but look.
Blessings ~ Wendy