My father-in-law

When I first met my girl's father
He was gruff as he sized me up
Nodded at me and turned aside
Suggesting that I should behave
What had I let myself into?
Did he think that I was depraved?

In fact he was an individual
Had a wife and two teenage girls
Whose needs seem to mystify him
So spent most of his time outdoors
In his garden which was a dellight
Spent his time there 'til fall of night

His garden had lawn and fruit trees
And a mass of flowers and insects too
Birds, singing, nesting calling it home
Then to produce their vegetables
Had council allotment quite close by
With veggies irrisistable

Each evening and all of weekend
Spent his time tending all the plants
Or sat smoking his hand made fags
My girl told me she come that way
Grab a carrot and eat it up 
After school nearly every day

They came to Australia when retired
To be close to their family
A small house and garden they chose
So that he could still garden on
On visits we would still receive
Grown veggies his talent not gone

Image found at https://depositphotos.com/35192337/stock-phot-allotments-england.html


Perhaps I should explain that in Britain families with small gardens or enthusiastic gardeners could recive permission to plant vegetables on council land which would be allocated to them. You were permitted a garden shed to keep tools and other equipment in (best kept locked). They were very popular and still exist today.  Quite often you would see the whole family working there or sitting down watching their Dad or Mum working there or even being allowed a small portion of their plot to have a kids garden themselves! These plots were extremely useful in wartime!

I love my garden

I love my garden and I love the birds
But hated thieving rats and feral cats
As sat on stool trussing tomato plants
Stamping my boots on disturbed angry ants

Birds watch close in case I find wiggly worms
Favourite place is on top of my spade
For they wake me on each weekends morning
Soon after breakfast when sun is dawning

Out wife comes bringing a cup of sweet tea
Sits on the patio grinning now at me
I take a sip, stop, no sugar what a pain!
She points at bowl, I been hooked on bait again

We sit basking in the afternoon sun
No mansion for us, just a house for two
Sit quietly, kids all gone, just her and me
I think for her I'll plant a maple tree

Image found at https://pixabay.co/photo/person-man-woman-elderly-sitting-3593656

In the garden

I lay in the garden
Then looked across at the sky
Clouds scudding above

The busy bees hummed
All the flowers looked pleased
Clearly they're in love

Wife called out to me
How I adore this sweet lass
We're like hand in glove

Married bliss that's us
On this so beautiful Earth
Playing push and shove

Her eyes are so green
She belongs in the garden
See how she does bloom

She'll have baby soon
How the sweet birds will sing then
Love will fill each room

When you are in love
What mountains you both can climb
To banish ones gloom

For all our lives long
Should ever be that garden
Of such sweet perfume

Image found at https://pixabay.com/en/photos/ 

The allegory here is that we must love the world to ensure its survival

My hair is silver now

I like to think my hair is silver now
It's journey from fair, to brown, to white
Did record those stages in my life
Like a census marking dawn to night

I can't pretend my parents were the best
They brought me up through years of strife
Hung on to the bitter end to be
Confounded, so left to wed a wife

Shanty like was our first married home
Garden a jungle had to be cleared
Like native worked spurred on by police
Laughed at how we looked, your Ma just sneered

Then suddenly after all those years
That it was poor me that you did ditch
What a shock, I have to tell you that
Oh what can I say, you were a bitch!

So I strolled through life alone and sad
Now what have I got to show for that?
A wealth of knowledge from reading books
A house, a garden and one black cat

Image found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/44968994@N06/6149998532

Secret garden

This place was our secret garden
Where we would walk hand in hand
Sit on the grass all alone
I loved you in our magic land

We touched, we kissed, we cuddled here
We never spoke of right or wrong
We just felt right being one
And so sang our lovers song

The sun shone us every day
Our loving was quite taboo
We did wrong but didn't care
For your eyes shone for me too

Winter winds blow where we once were
Our trysting place is quite bare
You've gone to find another love
As it's the end of our affair

I'll remember you my dear
Those warm days with sunny skies
You were all mine and I yours
I'll not forget your passion's sighs

Image found at www.pixabay.com

Waiting for the god of thunder

Blossom on the nut tree
And burst of mixed color
In my wee garden bed
Oh isn't nature kind?

I simmer during rain
Pulling labels off jam jars
It matters that I'm stuck
Thor has won once again

The garden weeps with tears
Long chains of clouds storm on
Lightning punches hard
Lawn's surface is a lake

Storm god now clears his throat
His rumble now abates
Sun winks his eye at me
Behind white cloud he peeps

Blossom on the nut tree
And burst of mixed color
In my wee garden bed
Oh isn't nature kind?

Image found at www.pinterest.com

Thor is the norse god of thunder, lightning and storms

I woke one morning

I woke one morning
Stretched and looked out the window
The choice was all mine

Shower, shave, set out
City bound work as usual
Or stay home, garden

The answer was plain
Rosemary made it so clear
We were both in love

Image courtesy @magalyguerreroindarkerwords

Dreaming of the past

Her name was Ingrid and she had long blonde hair that she flicked from her face as she grinned at me in class as I tried not to respond as I knew the teacher watched us like a hawk.

When we got out of school she wanted to take me home and show me her house and meet her mother so she held my hand which was soft and warm as she eyed me all the time as though I belonged to her.

Theirs was an old cottage with a beautiful garden and she told me her father worked on an estate as the head gardener and I could see why because it was immaculate.

So we burst through the front door and I was introduced to her mother who smiled with pleasure that Ingrid had brouight home a friend from school so gave us a drink and told us to go out into the back garden.

It was magnificent there as we made our way through a thick conifer hedge with an arched entrance that led into a wonderland of winding pathways, ornamental ponds, shaded bowers and flowers blooming everywhere.

It was magic; bees were buzzing butterflies flitting amongst the flowers and Ingrid was still holding my hand as she then turned to me and out of sight of the kitchen window she kissed me on my lips and that kiss I have remembered for the rest of my life as I sit here in my retirement home dreaming of the past.

Image found at www.pinterest.com

In my granddaddy's garden

I recall it now
In my granddaddy's garden
O so long ago

I had to go round
As he was ill in his bed
To tidy it up

It didn't need it
Yes the weeds had taken over
But was beautiful

The burdock had come

While his peonies had died

Dwindling away

Insects were whirring

Hummingbirds were darting

Sucking the nectar

All making patterns

Hovering over the plants

Just as they wanted

The garden had changed

Nothing could stem the wild growth

Softening the view

No work was needed

As I laid in the tall grass

That would be my loss

“Are you pulling weeds?”

I heard granddaddy call

I nodded and lied

Image found at www.feathersfurandflowers.blogspot.com

Where her heart was

Granny May had been in hospital for many weeks. Her recovery was slow from her surgery. They thought they had lost her but she slowly pulled through. Jim her son worried how she would manage after she returned home as she insisted she would return to her cottage on the outskirts of town where she had lived for so many years.  Gramps her long dead husband had lived with her until he died and she said he would expect to find her when he came back to her!

So Jim got his own son Paul and Laura his girlfriend to go round and tidy up the place before she returned as she still had a few weeks rehab. They were lucky it was spring for they soon got stuck into it weeding and pruning and planting seedlings so that she could enjoy the garden as she recuperated. Once it was cleared the annuals showed their faces again and the roses now were bursting into bloom. The bees were buzzing around the fruit trees with so much work to do.

They cleaned up her cottage too but not too much or else Granny would not know where they had put things away. However it was tidy again and everything shone just like the sun and the clock was ticking once more.

Jim brought Granny May home and she sighed with satisfaction that she had finally returned. “Let me put on the kettle” she said “but first I must look at my garden there must be lots to do”.

Tears came to her eyes when she found that so much work had been done and that her grandson Paul was sitting on the garden seat waving to her as she looked over the luxuriant blooms and by his side she could see Laura cuddled up close. 

                                         She smiled her eyes beamed

                                       The garden where her heart was

                                               Greeted her in bloom

Image found at www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com

It's so quiet here

Granny May was tired
She sat in her small garden
In her old deckchair

Drifting off to sleep
Tinkling laughter awoke her
Grandchildren had arrived

The girls kissed her cheeks
Daughter Jill said she'd make tea
Sue searched for the cat

It's so quiet here
Said the oldest granddaughter
Sssh! Listen, said Gran

Can you hear the bees?
They're in the snapdragons
Buzzing as they work

And there's a blackbird
How beautifully he sings
He's happy today

What do you hear now?
The little girl shook her head
That's just a sprinkler

It's the man next door
Watering his vegetables
He gives some to me

The tea was brought out
Jill had brought them cakes to eat
Birds watched from the fence

May threw them some crumbs
They dived twittering away
Soon they came up close

When the cake was gone
They still stayed to give their thanks
Until a dog barked

It's beautiful here
Can I come and live with you?
The eldest one said

Image found at www.mopodir.blogspot.com

Renewal

The gaunt figure stirred

His coffee break now over

He got back to work

He dug the damp soil

Springtime was his favorite

Life in renewal

Vile bodies wriggled

Decomposure meant good crops

He smiled happily

Her new gardener

                                        The Gardener by Pissarro

Her new gardener

So unkempt and disheveled

He had green fingers

 

He loved his work there

Ghastly scars marking his face

Told of his cruel past

 

He spoke to the plants

And she spoke to him of love

Her man to cherish

 

 

In Monet's Garden at Giverney

I wonder if I can tell you about Monique. I met her so many years ago. Where was it now? It could have been in London, Paris or even on Brighton beach but I am sure she was like so many mysterious figures in the past. They continually appear in your life and at such unexpected moments. A glance, a shy smile or even a friendly wave, that may have been meant for you or perhaps not. Such moments you recall much later on and you say to yourself, “That was the girl I saw on the ferry to Ostend or bumped into at Heathrow airport.” But you are never quite sure, are you? Is it a different girl with a twinkle in her eye? Or perhaps it is some guardian angel watching over you for all eternity?

I was travelling around France some years ago and found myself in Monet’s beautiful garden at Giverney. Like many others in the garden that day I wandered around his house and studio, side stepped the army of gardeners that seems to work constantly on the flower beds, wound my way through the arches of roses and eventually made my way through the tunnel under the road that certainly wasn’t there in Monet’s day and discovered his water lily ponds.

I already had my camera snapping at all the scenes so reminiscent of his artistic work as I desperately tried to get a shot of the pond and the arched bridge in the background. Needless to say I was not alone and was annoyed that the people on the bridge didn’t look picturesque enough for my shot. There was a gardener in the pond cleaning up the debris heading my way so I hurriedly took my picture. This was in the days before digital and it was a week or so before I finally saw the print!

There she was, I had caught her on camera! My Monique; I had finally captured her.

Now of course her name wasn’t Monique, I just made that up. But how many of you have captured your fantasy? Well I did!

Now the sad part is that once again had she teased and eluded me. If I had not been so precious about getting the picture right I could have walked around to the bridge myself, gone up to her and said. “Hello Monique, I think we have been nearly meeting for a few years now, my name is Old Egg.”

And she in her turn would smile a little impish smile. Touch her finger to her lips then place it on mine and say “I am always with you.”

That didn’t happen though and I know somehow that even though she might always see me, I will never see her again.