I have learned to value the beauty of many different landscapes. Indeed I don't think I fully appreciated the majesty in the rolling waves of wheat and magnificent wide expanse of sky of my childhood home in Alberta until years after I left it. Now that I am back west where the sky is "big" and at night a glorious star studded tapestry, I once again am caught up in the marvel of the creation of our God. I loved the palms and desert plants of our California home and the rolling hills, rivers and trees of Missouri, however the deciduous forests, Atlantic beaches, wisteria, cherry blossoms, dogwoods and magnolias of Virginia are dear memories for me. Most treasured are the recollections of our own Midlothian home.
Virginia mornings would begin with birdsong. The trees around our colonial home rose seventy feet into the air. Claigh and I would often sit in our kitchen nook and look out the bay window into our quarter acre back yard watching the cardinals and eastern bluebirds dart from one tree to another. We would search for the woodpecker we could hear pecking for a juicy bug. Not only did we have three different varieties of woodpeckers, we enjoyed visits from mocking birds, nut hatches, sparrows, humming birds, and wrens.
Many four footed friends including squirrels and chipmunks and of course our dear Shelti "Katie Dog" brought life to our yard as well. Katie was growing old. She would sit calmly in the yard with her head erect waiting for the surge of energy that would spring her to life as a cheeky squirrel got confident enough to come down from the trees. For a few brief moments she was young again. This "catch me if you can" game gave us many moments of the best of entertainment. The squirrels knew the height of Katie's jump. They loved to mock her by coming down the trunk of a tree just out of reach of her excited leaps.
One beautiful spring day, 3 year old Jonah and I sat in the "granny" chair in our master bedroom on the second floor watching a mother squirrel prepare a nest for her coming babies. We were within four feet of this incredible sight. She would run out towards the ends of the branches, snip off a small twig of newly forming leaves and then scurry back to the trunk and up to the "home" site. This was a work of hours. I was so grateful to have a little boy with me to take it all in. Children have a way of renewing our own sense of wonder.
Miniature snow crocus, tulips and daffodils were the first signs of color peeking into the brown world awakening from it's winter sleep. Spring also inspired our dogwoods to burst into magnificent bloom. Our three largest dogwoods were immediately outside of our bay window. I loved to do my written work at the kitchen table facing those treasured trees.
The front of our home provided a wide bed for summer color. Bright pink azaleas, bayberry bushes, hydrangeas, and variegated hostas provided a back drop for a magnificent array of annuals that I would tenderly care for throughout the season. Every now and then we would catch a flash of a vivid blue salamander on our front steps. Garden frogs joined the salamanders enjoying the abundant bug buffet. A variety of colorful dragon flies delighted us in the hot afternoons. Fireflies sparkled across our shrubs in the late evening hours.
Vegetable gardening in Virginia is not that easy. I did manage to hide a couple of tomato and pepper plants in the flower gardens in front of our home as our back yard was not at all conducive to veggie growth. Massive trees completely shaded the landscape behind our home, their extensive root systems working their way through the ground creating quite a trial for our back lawn. I did all I could to meet this struggle for seven years, trying every kind of grass seed, fertilizer and prayer. My complete and utter failure proved to be a very weak attempt to fight what was natural.
Imagine my surprise when the answer to the lawn dilemma came through a Relief Society Activity. One summer, the opportunity came for a small group of us sisters to tour a famous "moss garden" that had been featured in gardening magazines throughout the world. We drove the short distance to the old home where an elderly woman welcomed us and led us into her yard. We walked paths through the terrain marveling at the peace and beauty of a shaded woodland. I learned of many different types of moss that day and came to appreciate the beauty of another of God's green creations.
After years of grass grief, I finally knew the "Virginia way." The last three years we lived in Midlothian, I gave my full support to the variety of mosses that grew naturally across our yard. It was becoming a soft beautiful carpet of magnificent greens just as we had to say good-bye and head west for the challenges of high desert gardening.
I miss my Virginia woodland home. I wonder at the love of Heavenly Father and a Savior Creator. I feel truly blessed.
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