When the Garden Calls

When I was younger, I used to enjoy being on the move, travelling to new places, revisiting ones I’d fallen in love with, and spending time with family and friends. These days it’s a struggle to get out of the village! I feel comfortable in the greenness and timelessness of where I live, but sometimes I must leave it, if only overnight or for a couple of days. I hate saying goodbye to the cats, my cosy bed and the study with all my books, notes and wonderful view.

While I’m away, I can’t sleep. If I’m in a city, I feel stifled by the buildings and traffic. But it is so liberating when I hear the garden call and return to the scent of honeysuckle, symphony of blooms, hum of bees and flash of a dragonfly. I love to walk down to the gate at the bottom of the garden and listen for the water in the moorings, watch the sparkles between boats, and feel the brush of a cat’s tail against my leg.

Kim M. Russell, 7th July 2019

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My response to Poets United Telling Tales with Magaly Guerrero’s Pantry of Prose #5: Away from Home

Magaly welcomes us to the fifth Pantry of Prose with the theme ‘Away from Home’, which came to her while she was on vacation. However, she says that does not mean that we are expected to write vacation stories (unless we really wish to). So today we are writing new short stories, essays or articles in 313 words or fewer, exploring the idea of being Away from Home. Magaly also gives us the option of taking one of our old poems, which fits the week’s theme, and turning it into a new short story – we just need to mention which option we chose.

I chose to take a poem I wrote for a friend’s birthday a while back as inspiration for an autobiographical article.

When the garden calls…
the soil sings and the bees hum
in a symphony of blooms;
roots and leaves uncurl,
the seasons turn,
and the gardener knows
all’s right with the world. 

36 thoughts on “When the Garden Calls”

  1. I’m the same way. When I was younger I relished the idea of traveling everywhere. However, my life has been extremely unstable, and at this point, I’d really like the chance to just stop.

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  3. This is incredibly heart-stirring, Kim! ❤️ I especially love; “return to the scent of honeysuckle, symphony of blooms, hum of bees and flash of a dragonfly.” Your love for nature and greenery is palpable in your prose 🙂

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  8. I love the contentment in this piece, and the peace and gratitude. You live right on the water, which is WONDERFUL. Lucky girl! I did once for a few months and loved being able to step out onto it so easily. Now I have to drive three miles, but at least I can get there. And I, too, hate leaving the village, and love returning. Loved this piece.

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  9. I can remember the rush that was going places, meeting new people, experiencing new things. I still enjoy visiting family and friends, but I always end up missing my things, my place… I really love how you let us glimpse loved things–garden, cat, space–in a way that shows us what it means to be home. It’s as if we go on a trip in the first paragraph, and by the end… we are in the garden, smiling and playing with plants and cats.

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  10. This is so beautiful Kim. I think as we age, home seems to mean even more to us. I love the fact I no longer have to travel. When I worked, I traveled 35-40 weeks of the year. It was grueling. But that marvelous feeling of coming home was amazing. You captured it so well!

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  11. I hear you, Kim. Travelling can be exhausting and stressful at times. No matter how comfortable the other place is, one tends to miss their creature comforts. But with a garden like yours “…the scent of honeysuckle, symphony of blooms, hum of bees and flash of a dragonfly.” it must really feel good to come back home.

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  12. What a wonderful story of contentment and gratitude. You have been watching the butterflies and I have been watching the bees. And cats. I envy you that but after the last cat was euthanized, I decided no more. Isn’t wonderful to be happy with what you have? I love the picture of your cat.

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  14. Home that you make for yourself is that safe place where everything is as your want it. Eventually you are part of it it too and everything else palls in your mind. I am sure you are not alone in that feeling!

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  15. Related to this and loved the way you describe coming home. It was a surprise for me when “home” shifted from “that place I grew up” to “the place i live now.”

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  19. I travel a lot and it’s getting harder to leave home. Oh, and I so hate to leave my cats too. Your home sounds like a delightful place to be.

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    1. We love living here but the time is coming to move, to be closer to daughter, grandson, other family members and friends. I hope we can find somewhere just as lovely.

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