I hope my wife forgives me. Surely she understands my misgivings. We’ll be together for five (5) months now, so she should be happy knowing she will be the recipient of my undivided attention. Ah, but it is the last seven (7) months of my love affair and living in my sanctuary that I now must atone for.

You see, my love relationship wasn’t with another woman….oh no, instead it was with the ever gorgeous front and back yards of our home. I miss her already and over the next several months she will be in my mind. I’ll fantasize about how I can make improvements that add to her growing beauty. I love my home although it is the outside I relish in. Are there any better smells in the world then the aroma of a freshly mowed lawn or that of the earth after it has been tilled? Not to me there isn’t. Yet, in my own sick way, I also enjoy the smell of cow manure. Oh well, diversity is what makes the world go around.

For me, the joy of planting seedlings and watching them mature year after year is rewarding on many levels. To dig a hole and place in a bulb then wait for it to peak out with it’s first burst of life is thrilling beyond words. Deciding what and where I’m going to create nature’s landscape in my own little utopia is like an artist looking at a half finished canvas. It’s a painting that is never quite right and never finished. Oh, the sweet torment of it all.

I know I won’t be here long enough to watch everything come to fruition and what happens after I am gone will no longer be my concern. I liken it to some gorgeous flowers or some seedlings that seem to be coming along so nicely until….ZAP, CHOMP, GONE! Yes, the deer or woodchucks have hit me again. I guess my yard provides them with a sanctuary, as well. Oh well, what am I to do? It’s a cycle of live and learn.

My yard is the place I go for beauty and peace of mind and satisfaction of watching nature do what nature does. It is my Garden of Eden and my place for closeness to Earth’s spirits. 

During these next few months my wife will give me a glance and half smile as she watches me go through my magazines and catalogues of plants, flowers, seeds and vegetables, knowing that naturally, she is first, but a close second is just around the corner. “Yes”, my sanctuary will return.