Skip to main content

Grace Has an Orgy! by Grace Burrowes

Indulging myself is easy—a good book; a quarter pound of sprouted almonds covered in double dark German chocolate consumed one at a time; a sleep-in day in the middle of the week; a bouquet of flowers; a good dessert after a meal with a friend.

Pampering myself, however, is foreign to my nature in the typical sense. I don’t want anybody fussing with my hair, skin, fingernails or toenails. I have restless leg syndrome too severely to permit me to enjoy a massage. I do not enjoy shopping for anything except books and horses (and really good chocolate covered almonds). I do not own a DVD player so an Austen marathon is out (though Colin, I do miss you).

If I belonged to a gym, then lingering in the sauna might appeal, except the last gym I joined left me with tennis elbow, plantar fasciitis, thrush, athlete’s foot and the certain conviction—as God is my witness, Katie Scarlett—I will never join another gym.

But I do have some guilty pleasures. The one I’ve indulged in most recently had me outside for an entire day. This time of year with the trees not yet leafed out, when the sun shines, it shines everywhere. I live on a couple very pretty rural acres with lots of fresh air and privacy, and a stream running down the middle of my property.

I was such a bad girl. I had an orgy.

I planted entire flats of pansies in beds and in buckets. I put in a bank of irises by the stream, I added a bed of tulips and German irises by the barn. I planted lilies of the valley under a cherry tree; I pruned my roses and whacked down about half that blasted wisteria bush (that never blooms). I garnished one bed with Siberian irises and another with some hardy lavender. I stuck in another half dozen stargazer lilies—what the heck, you only go around once. I mulched from here to kingdom come.

I got my hands dirty, I got a dose of sunshine, and I made it a little more likely that if we get adequate rain, my yard will be a thing of beauty for months. I am panting to get in the pick-up truck loads of begonias that thrive so nicely in all my shady borders, and it’s all I can do to hold off on the gladiolus for a couple weeks.

And hanging baskets… don’t make me moan about hanging baskets of fragrant, velvety petunias.

I cannot afford this extravagance. I am not in shape for Total Body gardening for hours on end and yet… when the mood strikes me, there is nothing I’d rather be doing—not even writing (sorry, Deb)—than playing in the dirt with my flowers.

The result is a yard that pampers the senses of sight and smell for months, one that yields lovely bouquets for me and my friends, one that I think everybody who drives by can enjoy for a least a moment.

If that isn’t an indulgence, I don’t know what is.

How do you indulge yourself this time of year? C’mon—tell us how you wallow in the coming of spring.

Comments

  1. Oh, Grace I can just see your acres in full bloom! All the colors, scents, butterflies and bees! Sounds like the Garden of Eden and later in the year I hope you will take pictures and share them with us.
    Me--I don't like gardening of any kind and I don't like to get my hands dirty. :-) But I do LOVE to enjoy the beauty and effort of others.
    Amelia

    ReplyDelete
  2. Want some company next time you have a planting orgy? I'm planning on having one here in Oklahoma in about two weeks. I could visualize your place all bloomed out...sounds wonderful and beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oooh, that sounds lovely. I need to dig in the dirt a little, but Wyoming is not ready yet. We can't plant until late May at best - but thanks for the vicarious flower orgy!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a vivid picture you paint, and now I'm thinking how neglected my yard is.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds delightful, Grace.

    Unfortunately, we're still waiting for spring to arrive in New England. When it does, I'll have a pot of geraniums on my terrace table and that's about the extent of my gardening since we live in a condo. However, the landscaping around our building is lovely once the weather cooperates, so I'll enjoy the spring blooms without the weeding. (Now that's an orgy! LOL.)

    ReplyDelete
  6. And of course after I had this one, literal day in the sun, we've had nights well below freezing, a dusting of snow, and other neener-neneers from the weather gods. I tell myself the cold will knock the bugs back too, but all those gladiolus bulbs are burning a hole in my refrigerator's vegetable drawer.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dirt under my fingernails is a very satisfying thing indeed. What a riot of color your garden will be. Yay! Post pictures, will ya? I find gardening not so much an indulgence as a necessity. It takes my mind off of things in a way tv does not (and I indulge in plenty o' tv, not to worry!). It's difficult to describe how wonderful it is to prepare garden-grown kale (one of my favorite-ist foods) after sweating for hours in the garden. Lovely, lovely post!

    ReplyDelete
  8. We are still stuck in winter so still pampering myself by indulging in a short nap when I get home from work and then reading...and maybe I'll get a pedicure this weekend:)

    Your yard sounds magnificent! I'm not much of a gardner....lol

    ReplyDelete
  9. This made me want to run out and buy the geraniums and impatiens. Sadly...New York hasn't gotten the memo that it's spring. I can't wait to plant pretty pink and white flowers along the fence and fill the window boxes. They make everything so much prettier.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I don't consider myself a gardener by any stretch. Gardeners are those eccentric souls who like to weed flower beds and wear straw hats and keep different pairs of gloves for different jobs.

    I like to stuff bulbs in the dirt and mulch everything to a depth greater than recommended on the bag. And then next year I put in some MORE bulbs... Stay in one place long enough, it just looks like somebody did some gardening.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I too love to garden. Well, flower garden. Why plant veggies if you aren't going to eat them? I haven't had time to indulge myself in gardening for a couple years now and boy do my flower beds show the neglect. *cringe* I'd really like to get back to it. It's very relaxing in a hard-work sort of way.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!

    online pharmacy

    ReplyDelete
  13. Your gardens sound beautiful!! I have a rather black thumb when it comes to plants, but I do enjoy the fruits of other's labor!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I love working in the yard and spend days doing it throughout Spring. When my freesias are in bloom I get oodles of compliments on my flower beds. They do come in the most gorgeous of colors. I wish I enjoyed working inside the home as much as I do working outside, but I don't. I, too, would love to see pictures of your flowers when they are in full bloom.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Sounds beautiful, Grace! I wanted so much to work on the garden this weekend, but was sick all weekend. :( The weeds have already taken over. *sigh*...But all the trees are leafing out and the greening revolution has begun and I'm loving it!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I envy your green thumb, Grace! I have a tendency to wilt my poor plants...I always forget to water them.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment