This time of year the flowers around here are gorgeous!! Last year proved to be a very tenacious drought and a lot of our annuals took a dive. Thank goodness we had the knock-out roses to add some color! They are great bushes and withstand a lot!

This year I didn’t think we could grow many annuals in the ground because of the drought so I asked hubby if he wouldn’t mind getting me 4 very nice mandevilas for our containers around our swing. He flipped me $100.00 and I went skipping off to Lowe’s. Can you imagine me skipping? Ha! I felt like it, with $100.00 in my hand and flowers on the brain!

Anyway, I got to Lowe’s and they had several large mandevilas on hand that had been touched by the late frost. They weren’t blooming and had some yellow leaves. But I saw the bigger picture and instead of paying $27.00 each for 4 gorgeous blooming ones, I paid $7.00 for 9 what-would-be blooming gorgeous plants! It probably took an extra month but now we have a regular Flower Bower!!

Isn’t that the way with life?? We are impatient…. with ourselves, with our hubbies, with our children. It all takes time. Our Lord has to prune, take off the yellow leaves, fertilize, etc. And then, slowly, the blooms come.

As long as we are of good will, and try to please Him, He will meet us more than halfway! I am convinced of that and have seen it in our lives over and over again. So do not get discouraged when you are up against a brick wall. Those bricks can come tumbling down with prayer and patience!!

But back to flowers….I remember reading in My Prayer Book by Father Lasance (wish I had it on hand to quote from) that even in the poorest of neighborhoods, when there was a home that had flowers growing, you can be assured of a refinement of spirit, of a beauty of soul…

I thought that was very beautiful.

Here are photos of our yard. I love to go out in the morning and say my prayers amongst the flowers…..sometimes I am distracted by a hummingbird, sometimes by the dogs jumping up on me and the big green flying bugs hitting my face (real life, you know…can’t paint too good of a picture 🙂 )

Click on the first picture to view the gallery: