52 Weeks of Thankfulness – Week 1
This is my first week of “52 Weeks of Thankfulness” at Haddon Musings. This week I am thankful for sunny days to do gardening. Gardening is my personal therapy.
The official spring date is not here yet, buts spring is in southern California. It has been sunny for a week. We had an unusual winter with cold and rainstorm. I got the flood warning signal twice on my phone. Since our home is situated near the major drainage system, we had no worry. The rain finally stopped a week ago. This is the timing I was waiting for to do gardening.
I love gardening. I love to work with the soil bare handed. My fingernails would be filled with dirt and scratches. This is just a minor detail. Gardening is my therapy. It’s a way for me to be in touch with earth. I love to watch growth. No plants, trees, or flowers are maintenance free. They all need nurturing, pruning, watering, correcting the gesture, nourishing, healing of diseases, and the right timing to plant different plants and flowers. I am thankful for many life lessons learned through gardening experience.
I usually prune the rose bushes in the middle of January, but the heavy rain kept me in the house. My gardener skipped one week in January due to the rain. As soon as it had a clear day, he came to mow the lawn, and pruned all the roses. I was so glad he did that. The rain was welcome after many years of drought. The soil in my garden is well soaked.
With one week of sun, the green and the flowers can hardly wait to burst into showy colors. The plum trees started budding and filled with blossoms. The bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds are not around to pollinate the blossoms yet. It needs other flowers such as lavender to attract them to come. Last year, I used a brush to manually pollinate between the two plum trees. They produced about twenty plums. Well, one plum tree was triple crossed bred.
The Valencia orange tree produces two crops a year. Thanks to the rain, the second crop is full grown. When they are first ripen, they are little bit sour, so I will wait for a couple week to pick them. By that time, they should be juicy and sweet.
The camellia bush is crossed bred. It has red flowers as well as pink and white flowers. They are in bloom, so I can make nice flower arrangement for decoration. The purple and yellow freesias; red, yellow and pink snapdragons, and other perennial flowers are complimenting each other with their beauties.
This year is my first attempt to plant irises. I planted purple, fuchsia, and blue bulbs. I am waiting with great anticipation to see their beautiful blooms.
The Showers of Blessings 
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I also love to plant flowers and find such peace in watering them. I imagine that I just like to nurture…whether it is a child or a flower! Thank you for writing such an inspiring post!
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Oh, nice to know another flower lover and a nurturing lady. I’m sure it take that kind of care of teach little ones. Thank you so much!!
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The flowers in your garden look beautiful. Everything depends on the hand of who cultivates it and with your sensitivity, will be of the best.
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You words are as beautiful as poetry! Thank you for your comment!
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I see that you’re a good gardener. The flowers are beautiful.
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I got my green thumb from my dad! Thank you for your comment!
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A blessing.Keep it up😊
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Thank you, I will!
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No problem😊
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🙂
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Thank you for the follow!
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Your gardening is paying off. My late dad loved gardening, my mother as well and I helped them a lot when I was back home, sadly, I haven’t lived in one place long enough to plant roots. I hope soon 🙂
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Do you do a lot of traveling? I think I like to be settled down in one place. When we travel, my heart is torn, I always look forward to go home!
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Wow, Miriam, you hand-pollinated the plum trees! Wow! That’s amazing. I also find gardening or working in the yard to be very enjoyable. It’s the one thing I do that I get “lost” in while I’m doing it. I’ve been working on a project to re-introduce native plants into our yard, which encompasses something of a greenbelt or ravine that had been overrun with ivy and a few other invasive plants. It’s paying off!
I love that you are doing a multi-week project centered on gratitude. I’m looking forward to hearing more in the weeks ahead!
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I pollinated my tree today. The tree is full of blossom but other flowering trees are not. No bees around!! You have to post your project so I could see it. Yes, I saw other bloggers doing it, and traced the source of the hostess. I need a folder to write down the future topics. I think I’m going to post every Friday. Thank you for your encouragement!
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How wonderful! Gratefulness is topic/week 6 of the mindfulness article I’m following, so I’ll be with you in a few weeks! 🙂
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Oh, wonderful! I hope I won’t miss it…..
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I’m sure you’ll see it. I’ll make a note to add a link to your gratefulness post as part of my post! 🙂
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Oh thank you so much, Teresa. I’ll do the same. What day of the week do you post that?
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I’m posting these updates on the “being in the moment” project on Sunday nights. Just did Week 2, and there are 6 strategies, so Week 6 should be gratitude (the last strategy) – April 2nd? Thank you for your interest and your comments! I would love to hear how the 52-week gratitude project is shifting your outlook, if any. You already seem very thoughtful, cheerful, and caring! 🙂
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Thank you for you kind comment! By participating, at least I have a focus once a week!
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Miriam I love your flowers how beautiful! I like to garden as well, but it’s a bit more challenging in Arizona. When I lived in Georgia I could barely contain my garden, but here that is not the case! But as far as my lemons and limes they do love the sun! I am so glad to see you were able to start your journey of 52 Weeks of Thankfulness.I look forward to reading more 🙂
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Thank you so much for helping me to get started. I tried to do it right as far as follow the rules, but Bernadette is
Writer’s Quote Challenge also, and left left her a question. Let me see if I got the answer today. Thank you again for so helpful. I think I’ll do the 52 weeks on Fridays. I read yours.
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You’re very welcome! 🙂
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I got the answer about Quotes, I just have to go check it out!!
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Hi Masumah, I’m honored to be tagged. I started the award/tag free blog in January. I’m thankful for your nomination. I have done one tag last year!
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How wonderful the pictures are! We are having an early spring here on the South-East coast too. Rose bushes has a few blooms an them and the trees are blossoming 🙂
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One blogger in NC has the camellia way before my bloom. I take as much photos as I could in spring. Last summer, my flowers shrunk because of the heat and drought! 🙂
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Lovely photos! I hope you are doing well! I just posted another travel post ! Enjoy! https://thelostmango.com
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Beautiful photos of Austria! Thank you for sharing.
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What beautiful flowers you have Miriam. I am not long in from my garden and it was such a joy. I loved hearing about your fruit trees and pollination methods.😊
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Love your flower pictures…and I completely feel the same way! 🙂 Isn’t gardening wonderful? I love seeing all the flowers bloom and they are so ready. This week I was out in the garden just enjoying…had dirt all over my bare hands and my fingers were itching to plant! I bought a dwarf lemon tree and am moving some plants from pots into the ground today. Your description of little flowers budding from plum trees has me inspired to try growing a dwarf one; I wonder if it’s hard to grow? With it being dwarf and possibly in containers, I might have space to put 2-3 of them for cross pollination like you described. Enjoy your day out in the garden! 🙂
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Thank you for reading. In fact my fingers cracked and dried, I almost could pass the life scan for my business. When I go to the gym, the check-in is to scan one finger, I use wax on mu finger all the time. Both of my plum trees are dwarf trees. One is f years old. it”s about 12-14 feet, about the flowering I may trim 3-4 feet from top. they are not very wide. I hope to get more fruits this year!
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Wow, cracked fingers…you certainly put a lot of work in the garden yesterday, and I’m glad you did; it was a beautiful day. I was out there until it rained again and then back out when it stopped. Gardening is so therapeutic! 🙂 Wow, dwarf trees can get pretty tall too. But it sound like yours are super healthy and will produce lots of fruit this year!
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Yes, all the green and colorful flowers are good for the eyes to see and brain to appreciate. I surely hope I have more fruits this years. Thank you for reading!
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When we were living in Amsterdam we tried to keep the bulbs of Amarylis and Tulips. Oh we don’t have green fingers! it has not turned out well. So we enjoy watching others doing the gardening.
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It can be delightful also.
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Reblogged this on Haddon Musings and commented:
An early spring – a beautiful post about being thankful for the garden.
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Thank you Bernadette, Yes, I get a lot of enjoyment from gardening. My neighbors appreciate m front yard. Sometimes even kids walk by and see me out gardening, they would saying something like, “You have a nice garden.” I’m thankful that my garden delights the neighbors and strangers.
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Love the beauty of nature and you took beautiful pictures.
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Thank you so much. Oop, it starts raining again, but it’s okay, water my new plants!
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Reblogged this on Wag 'n Bietjie.
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Thank you for the reblog. I’ll come over to visit!
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I’m afraid I’m not a gardener but I can fully appreciate the hard work and the final product/produce , great post 🌹
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That’s okay, Elaine! My neighbors enjoy my garden. When they say, “You’re working hard, Miriam.” I said, “This is my therapy. I enjoy doing it.” They said, “Thank you for your beautiful garden for us to enjoy.” So it turns out that I’m not just doing it for myself…. 🙂
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Hi Elaine, I thought I answered your comment, but apparently was not sent. Well thank you for your comment. Nice profile. Now you’re sending me love with a pretty heart.
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I love to work in the garden too. It really is a therapy. Those flowers are beautiful!
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Thank you so much! They are the new bloom! Good to know that you also like gardening! It’s very relaxing!!
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Very nice!! Love your originality, Miriam. Great post. And much nurturing love to your Irises. ❤
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I’m sure they will show up on my blog if they make it to grow! Thank you!!
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Looking forward to it 🙂 Blessings!
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Is it raining in LA? It’s been raining here again!
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It was! Now it’s beautiful 😊 going down to the garden in a few minutes Miriam! Stay dry my friend. I love you
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The rain stopped, but it’s getting cold! love, Miriam
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Lovely photos. Living in LA, I know what you’re talking about. It rained quite a lot this winter, but everything looks great now and spring is definitely here. Enjoy your gardening! 🙂
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Thank you for reading. Yes, I still have some planting to do tomorrow! Have a nice Sunday!
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Isn’t life simply beautiful, especially when we embrace nature and appreciate our days! While in nature, I feel closer to hope, faith, and love! Through nature, I learned to survive my biggest fears while tornados wiggle their pointy tail above areas of Atlanta, GA. Through Nature, I learned to embrace silence and listen to American Robin musical songs day/night; through nature, I learned to accept life’s encounters and grow through it just like flowers bloom after each season. My favorite flowers are Lavender, Veronica, and Bluebell flowers. I love cooking especially when I use organic mint, parsley, and basil. Simply beautiful and healthy life. I’m thankful for your insightful and beautiful post!
Thank you. Looking forward for more!
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Thank you for your comment. I can’t imagine facing tornados. It’s scary to me. We have earthquakes in CA. I was in the middle of watching a movie with the women’s group. There it was, an earthquake. I came home, some damage, not was okay. It shook the cabinets in the garage, some soda fell. One bottle leaked and the carbonation exploded and caused the bottle to swirl, and squirt around and around. I had to clean it up so the ants won’t invade the garage. There were other times. Thank you for reading my post. A pair of gray jay came back from south. I was feeding them today.
Look forward to reading your posts!
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