I Never Noticed That Before

Wreath Goldenrod

All that's known of Minnie Aumonier is that she was an early 20th century English poet who wrote two books of garden verse. There are poems that cause us to feel like the little mouse in the maze or the way we feel when we enter a thoroughly dark room patting down the walls in a frenzy hoping to find the light switch. But garden verse is usually very accessible.  She wrote:

When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, 

there is always the garden.

and

There is always music

amongst the trees

in the garden,

but our hearts must be
 very quiet to hear it.

Maybe your garden is a few potted plants on a bright window sill, perhaps rows of beans, a pumpkin patch, or some blue berry bushes. When I taught second grade in New York City years ago each October we tied plastic window boxes to the building (three floors up) and planted tulip and hyacinth bulbs and crocus corms. 

Here at the retreat house I'm realizing the best part of the garden is found naturally along the edge of the woods. That's where I made this late August discovery of Blue-stemmed Goldenrod, sometimes called Wreath Goldenrod. 

The very yellow flowers form little clusters nicely spaced along the arching stems. The leaves are elliptical, pointed at both ends and slightly serrated or toothed along the edges. The wildflower field guide (Eastern Region) says that Wreath Goldenrod is found from Ontario, then east to Nova Scotia, then south to Florida, then west to Texas and Oklahoma and north to Wisconsin. My goodness! 

Wreath Goldenrod is an American Native - not a European or Oriental import. Its bright flowers invite a closer look and thoughts of: lovely, delicate, charming, vulnerable.

Do we look mindfully and carefully enough that we at least sometimes (if not often) say, "I never noticed that before."