A short time later bulldozers plowed up the land and storage units were neighbor to the farmhouse, which became the business office. Fortunately the storage units didn't occupy the greater part of the field, but a muddy scar lay where lupine and other wild flowers once swayed.
This year, two years after the units appeared, the field has reseeded itself and a sea of lupine is now sharing space with storage units. Yesterday I stopped the car and got out to take pictures. Yes, and I was thinking of the lyrics to Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi: "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone." I know progress is part and parcel of life, but this June nature interjected and modernity and beauty exist side by side.
A book we read to our children when they were young was Miss Rumphius: written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney. The premise of the book was "...to do something to make the world more beautiful." I know in my own life, and that of my family's, flower gardens have always brought pleasure. Our flower garden is desperately in need of weeding right now, and there's bare spots where things have died out from a harsh winter, lack of sun, poor soil, or perhaps all three. Sad to say I'm a lover of flowers, but not the best of caretakers.
Whenever I pass houses I take notice of flower-filled pots on front steps, overflowing window boxes, a flower border, or pocket gardens--they're all a balm for passersby. Miss Rumphius would be pleased someone took the time to make the world more beautiful :)
Note: Illustration is from our copy of Barbarba Cooney's Miss Rumphius
