Remembrance

I haven’t been out in the garden much since early autumn and recently I was too ill to even think about it. On Tuesday I gazed out at the last flakes of rusting leaves and a leaden sky. I watched Luna, our black and white cat, meld into the shadows; marvelled at the gold and russet feathers of the resident cock pheasant and wondered where he’d left his usual harem of dowdy hens. The garden was calling to me.

Under the study window, I had organised a pallet for various pots of herbs and bulbs. My husband had told me they were all dead. He’d piled up sacks of logs there and balanced the pots on and around them, waiting for me to decide their fate. I started to pull away some of the smaller ones and found some old hyacinths, bulbs intact and ready for planting again. As I shifted a bag of seeding compost off the pallet, I spotted a clean terracotta pot lying on its side. Thinking it would be useful, I lifted it to find a healthy, green rosemary plant, which now has pride of place on the kitchen windowsill.

safe from wintry blasts
sweet fragrance of rosemary
warm with summers past

Kim M. Russell, 2017

Remembrance

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Haibun Monday — Pleasantly Surprised

This Monday our host is Frank Hubeny and our topic is ‘pleasantly surprised’. Frank says that this could be due to a gift we received or gave; a family gathering we weren’t looking forward to only to find out the experience was not so bad after all; or something we planned to accomplish that failed but in some unusual way got done anyway.

28 thoughts on “Remembrance”

  3. what a pleasant surprise.
    Way too cold here to be in the garden. Its probably froze hard as a rock. Those piles are often the least desirable chores too. Nice to find hidden treasure.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  14. thank you for sharing the sweetness of your day with us, I hope you feel better soon and that little rosemary plant gives you much joy, from your words I felt she was a little pot of hope waiting for you to find her.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  15. Such a fragrant herb. I left mine, in a huge pot, out for the winter. I was surprised how spritely it looked given it was under a blanket of the first fluffy snow. So I reaped it, rinsed it, dried it and put it in a ziplock bag in the freezer. That was a good few days ago. I just used some in dish I was preparing. That smell…like freshly picked rosemary, beautiful. So I know you are truly enjoying yours in the windowsill. A lovely surprise indeed! A very nice haibun☺. I hope you are feeling better.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Thank you, Pat. I’m slowly getting back to normal but have to return to the hospital at the end of the month. The rosemary is coming along beautifully. 😊

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.