Life Continues

The wild wood poppie poppy population is larger than last year. Their glowing yellow blossoms brighten up dark spots in the damp woods they have chosen to make their home growing amid the white violets and fiddleheads.  The two plants I transplanted last spring have were lovely blooming in my garden a couple weeks ago. 
It always amazes me how much difference a week makes.  I can walk by a place year after year, but if I am not there the right week or even the right day, I might easily miss a wildflower that is so obvious during its blooming time.  I've walked this path for ten years and never noticed the wood poppies until last year.  There are too many of them for them to have come overnight. The same is true for the bloodroot of which I wrote about a few weeks ago. Their bloom lasted only four days in the woods.  Many flowers, without their blooms are unnoticeable.

In other garden news, my garden has shifted from its bulb phase to the bushes.  My lilac is opening into full bloom and filling the yard with its spicy scent. The dogwoods are clinging to a last few blooms while my oak leaf hydrangea is just starting to leaf.  Rhododendrons are starting to glow pink and fuchsia as the last baby's breath spirea bloom falls to the ground.

The garden has a new gate at the stone wall. 

Jeff decided on the design for the gate after being inspired during a Celtic spirituality  class.  A Celtic knot is eternal in that it does not have a beginning or an end, a very fitting symbol for a garden where life is continuous. The seed that starts the plant is the last fruit of a fading plant. The gate is a visual symbol of this circle of life. It, too is made of old metal parts reformed into this new creation.

After many drawings and considering the welding practicality of several knot designs, he chose the the triquertra for the gate's center. The triquertra has been used for centuries in Celtic art, symbolizing three natures in one. 

For Christians, it has become a symbol of the trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

For the top of the the gate, Jeff chose some old fence finials, welding them to the top of the vertical posts representing how life grows toward its source of light, the sun

I'm very proud of his work and how it fits into the stone wall. I have a can of blue paint to highlight the triquetra at its center.  Blue is the color that represents the Presbyterian denomination, personalizing the design for our particular home.