THE GARDEN GATE AND BEYOND...

Thanks to all

 who have been so caring and concerned

 about my foot. 

 I appreciate all your kind words.

  

I do have an appointment with 

the original doctor that operated 

on Monday, May 23,

 and will hopefully have

 a definite diagnosis after that.

 In the meantime, 

I can tell you 

that I had my annual physical

 with my doctor yesterday

 and got very good news

 about my overall health,

 so I am very pleased about that.

  She looked at my foot

 and said it looks

 really good and healthy 

even though there is still 

a slight bit of swelling. 

 She seems to think 

that it isn't neuropathy 

as that seems to manifest itself

 with continuous pain 

and I am not experiencing that. 

 She thinks it might be 

scar tissue pressing on some nerves,

 but she is not a specialist

 so is glad I am seeing 

the vascular surgeon.

  

Imagine finding a butterfly that looks exactly how my tummy felt!

I had a slight attack

 of the old flu bug

 on Monday 

so have been laying low 

for the past few days. 

 The doctor said

 it is a viral thing going around

 and I am feeling much better today

 so that is the reason 

I am writing a little later this week.

Now on to the good stuff:

The flower of the moment: 

 Valerian, 

or as introduced to me by my grandmother,

 the Garden Gate flower.

It is 

what is blooming 

in the garden now,

 in great abundance,

 I might add.

I remember 

this old-fashioned and simple flower, 

from my youth,

 growing in my grandmother's garden.

  It was there 

that I learned the names of flowers, 

not by their scientific names, 

but by a fairy-tale image 

that the words

 from her lips 

conjured up.

"All the names 

I know from nurse:

Gardener's Garters, Shepherd's Purse,

Bachelor's Buttons, Lady's Smock,

And the Lady Hollyhock.

Fairy places, fairy things,

Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,

Tiny trees for tiny dames -

These must all be fairy names!"

Robert Louis Stevenson

When we first planted the garden, 

this flower was not on the landscape.

  It did grow somewhere 

in a neighbor's garden 

and the next season

 it grew in another neighbor's garden 

and following that,

 in another neighbor's garden.

 Eventually 

there were brightly colored blooms 

appearing up and down

 the neighborhood 

but the majority of them 

seem to have settled

 in the Cottage's garden, 

evidence that it is truly

 a fairy's place

 filled with 

fairy things.

I hope you enjoyed your time

 looking through 

the garden gate.

...Judy...

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