Every spring, the apple trees in front of my home bloom in lavish pink. During two weeks, the fragrance and color of the flowers attracts honeybees that come buzzing into them, carrying pollen to fertilize the flowers. Once fertilized, the flower ovaries become fruits.
Then the flowers fall to the ground, spreading a regal carpet of soft petals, and it feels as if some lavish wedding has been going on. And it has.
At this time of the year, after the long months of winter, nature is surging forth in a great effort, as sudden and dramatic as birth itself. There is so much to see, it is hard to keep up. And having a garden, there is also much to do.
I used to stress out, torn between work in the studio and the garden. As if one would take me from the other: rather, one feeds the other. Hands in dirt or in paint, nipping a branch or mixing a color, it is the same the creative process.
Nowadays, the garden is calling for my attention and gratefully, I run to it. Fresh air, sun, foliage dancing in the wind, birdsongs : this is pure happiness after too much time in the stillness of the studio. Painting has been slow lately, and I need time to work at it patiently.
So I follow life’s abundance where it happens and trust another germination is going on, that will bloom in it’s own time.