SPREADING THE LOVE THURSDAY

Because I've been so inspired by this blog lately, I've decided to contribute to love Thursday. Plus devoting a day's entry to love is just so uplifting and positive and it's a direction I really need to be taking not just in the blog, but in my life.

I took this picture in my mom's backyard over the weekend. There's a lot about my parents home that makes my skin crawl with all the clutter. But I can always find peace and sanctuary in my mom's gardens. My mother is a true southern bell and she brought her green thumb to Oklahoma when they moved here from Mississippi many moons ago. And though there is very little rhyme or reason to her landscape design, the mess of it crashes together to create a beautiful escape.

In the back of the house Mom has created a bird sanctuary. Every time I visit it seems she has expanded the garden and added more flowers, bird feeders and bird baths. I can sit for hours at the kitchen table, staring out the window at all the different little finches, sparrows, woodpeckers, and doves flitting to the feeders. Sometimes the squirrels are out playing and sometimes the rabbits are out chasing each other.

I don't believe that I'd ever miss the house when it's gone, but I will miss the yard and all the memories of building forts, picking wild blackberries, and chasing fireflies. Even the injuries that occurred in that yard don't seem so bad (broken arm, chased by hornets, scraping my back against the tree while swinging on the monkey swing...yeah, I was dangerous).

Happy Love Thursday!