Friday, May 07, 2010

If You Love Them, They Are Wildflowers

mini violets

"If you don't like them," she said, "they're called weeds."

"But if you love them, they're wildflowers."

My daughter is right of course. It is why I have so much trouble starting the mower this morning. Miniature violets, like a crowd of lovely children, look up at me as if to say, "Please?"

My mower is roaring and can't hear them. But my heart says, "Go around." And I do.


tall grass

Tall grass catches the light just so. My daughter says that cut-grass doesn't have real shape any more. It is why I feel compelled to capture a memory on camera, before I please my neighbors and cut it all down.


purple weeds

Here are the purple weeds. But no, I mow around them and change them into wildflowers.


wild onions

Here are the onions I pull by hand. They bleed onto my fingers. I smell them, along with the bled grass, the bled Bee Balm (which has rewarded my trespass with an Earl Grey fragrance).

after mowing

And here at last is the garden without (most of) her wild friends. She's beautiful in her way.


Flowers and Wildflowers photos, by L.L. Barkat.

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10 Comments:

Blogger lynnmosher said...

Oh, how I love the violets! But they do take over your grass! I missed seeing my precious blue/violet offerings this year. When the yardman cut the grass for the first time this spring, I forgot to go out and check for the violets. {sniff-sniff} We have tons of onions also! Your garden is lovely! Congratulations!

12:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

your heart is like a wildflower.
beautiful and freegrowing the plains.

12:39 PM  
Blogger Martie Ingebretsen said...

I loved this...it is remarkable and simple the way a child sees. I wish more could keep that fresh look of beauty alive. Lovely photos and words...much enjoyed.

2:25 PM  
Blogger sarah said...

when my daughter was little, our favourite saying, which we quoted often, was "weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them."

children are so wise.

4:31 PM  
Blogger SimplyDarlene said...

If only all of our trespassing was rewarded with a sweet scent!

Blessings.

4:58 PM  
Anonymous kingfisher said...

Sometimes I feel I might be just a weed in God's garden. But I prefer to accept that he sees me -- and cherishes me -- as a wildflower!

If the ubiquitous dandelions only grew in rare patches, don't you think people would drive clear across the country to see how beautiful they are?

5:14 PM  
Blogger Halfmom said...

lovely indeed

12:22 AM  
Blogger Megan Willome said...

Your post reminds me that so many tourists come to the Texas Hill Country to see the wildflowers, but the best ones are found in the middle of town, in un-mown yards.

9:42 AM  
Blogger Michelle DeRusha said...

Oh yes, we all have a thing for dandelions around here lately. And I have those purples ones in my backyard, too -- not the violets (well, those too) but the other purples. We love them all. My husband mows them down...they grow back again in just a few days!

5:26 PM  
Anonymous Children of Eve said...

Nothing purple can ever be a weed!

8:59 PM  

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