Forrest has created a lovely garden spot just outside our dining room window. The big red Buddha we bought from K-Mart (yes, that K-Mart) reminds me of Amitabha, the Buddha of Boundless Light, who is associated in the Vajrayana with the West, the color red, and discriminating wisdom.
The garden spot is looking a little peaked right now, though the rosemary is still doing well, the big aloe remains healthy, and the beautyberry is beginning to leaf out. Time will bring on the night-blooming jasmine we brought from my parents' house, as well as the lemongrass that seasons our meals. In the meantime, Forrest assures me that the mugwort has made it through another winter.
We used to have a big patch of mugwort at the old place we rented in Jonesville. I still remember how it blew all silvery on the underneath in the summer rainstorms, really a kind of magical plant.
The sundial is one I bought as a Christmas gift for my father one year when I was living in California. There was a big store called The Nature Company where I found the sundial and a rain gauge; we brought both of these with us when I sold my parents' house in 2005.
I'll post the same view of our garden spot throughout the year, so you can see how it changes with the seasons.
