Through the Wisteria Gate, into Enchanted Spring…

Oh lovely March, how you have delighted me.

Everything has happened very early in the garden this year.

The weather has vacillated back and forth between cold and unseasonably warm, so that all the early blooms and leaves have decided to spring open.

Just like that, the season has changed.

I unplugged for most of the month and it has been glorious.

Strolling the garden paths, doing my daily workouts right in the middle of all of this magic.

Spending an extra hour stretching and doing yoga on a mat as purple leaves rain upon my head.

Watching apple babies being born.

First blooms, then bees, then baby apples growing.

I have been painting like mad.

Dragging giant canvases into the garden…

Under the most stunning afternoon light at the country house garden.

My garden here has always had the most exquisite early morning and afternoon light.

The shadows illuminated through my canvas make me extra happy.

This 6ft tall canvas began with a desire to just paint with wild abandon.

But then it quickly became clear that I was painting a dreamscape.

Something unusual, born in those hours of sleep where visual scenes are pieced together nonsensically, but fascinatingly wonderfully.

Colors and thoughts sewn together with a paint brush.

I will share more details on that soon.

And how can I ever express to you the intoxicating citrus trees in both of my gardens, full to bursting with blossoms. Orange blossoms making you drunk with their natural delectable scent.

I have eaten so many perfect sweet oranges in the garden, ever sooo many.

I will be sad when I devour the very last one.

They are unreal, just as an orange should really taste.

The bees are obsessed with the orange blossoms.

They buzz around like crazed winged creatures.

I paint planters and anything else I can get my hands on in the garden.

Music, glorious weather, eating oranges in a bubble of orange blossom scented air.

Unreal.

All I can do is spend my days outside painting and tending garden.

Or should I say, all I want to do.

A tulip somehow appeared in one of my planters.

Imagine that?

And then…

The wisteria of my heart.

Gobs of blossoms everywhere you turn.

I go into the pergola that they are growing over and hide underneath.

I stay there for so long.

Hummingbirds and cardinals fly about, as fascinated as me.

Then I realize that there are hundreds of little white butterflies camouflaged into the wisteria blossoms.

I gasp to myself.

Imagine the garden scent.

Floral wisteria, climbing roses, orange blossoms and jasmine.

No wonder I unplugged for most of the month.

My brain was transported and it has been glorious beyond words.

Why would I want to scroll on my phone when I can sit in the garden and watch birds and butterflies delight in the place I built for them.

Nothing could make my heart happier.

Wooooosh…

For 25 years this same butterfly has loved the passion fruit vine.

The Gulf Fritillary butterfly, flitting around.

Just this week the hollyhocks decided to start flowering.

While nearby, those apple babies made their appearance.

There will be soooo many early apples in June.

I cannot wait!

And now begins the yearly bloom of the Lady Banks roses.

It’s all happening, we are in it.

The magic of spring!

Escaping into my own world where there is no bad news and mother earth is busy with bees and blooms is the best thing ever.

I have enjoyed pushing away from the table of “quick paced too much information overload” and continuing my journey into the things that make my heart happy.

Garden painting with all the scents wafting about and slurping sweetest oranges to my heart’s content is exactly the only thing I think I should have been doing this March.

I wake up early, put on good music, do my little garden workout followed by yoga and stretches.

Sometimes I don’t even want to do anything else but just be there in that moment forever.

The power of unplugging, gardens, music and dance is huge.

I highly recommend it.

I have also had some cheeky adventures of buying too many old used wonderful things I have to chase down around the town.

I just finished painting a cabinet that has utterly transformed.

I will share photos next time, I promise.

I am just up to a million little projects, plus all my other things I must do.

The doggies are well, Poppy is much better and Teddy is finally out of his cone.

A bee stung him and he wouldn’t stop licking and making it all worse.

So, I had to cone him, but then I found this neat leg brace thingie to stop licking and it was amazing.

If you need to know about it for your dog let me know and I will share.

Poppy has turned out to be a real huntress, but I will spare you all those details.

Everyone else is doing well around here.

Mister Lovee built a huge wood picket fence and has finished that.

Now he is beautifully landscaping in front of the fence, including some plants I grew from seed at house 2 and brought over to the country house.

It’s been the most wonderful project seeing as how it was totally unplanned, but necessary due to a new little bevy of farm animals that moved in next to us that were causing way too much chaos with their dogs and our dogs and donkeys and horses and roosters, oh my!

The country house has turned into a wild place.

Oh, but I must leave you with one wonderful story.

We have been gifted a 50 plus-year-old Eucalyptus tree that touches the stars.

It is so huge and beautiful, and I have admired it on the neighboring horse property for years.

The wall around that property fell apart on one side close to where the tree lives.

And so, when they repaired their wall, they pulled it in tighter onto their property and left out the tree which now is on our side of the wall.

It is absolutely magical to have this massive tree right next to our barn now.

The hawks visit nightly and it has wonderful carving on the trunk from chewing and things the horses were doing to it (we have horses living on both sides of our property).

I couldn’t believe it.

We gained a stunning old tree.

Well, those are my stories as of late.

Last night I filled all my Easter eggs with really fun treats for our family Easter egg hunt and am preparing for the week ahead.

I hope you are doing very well in your neck of the woods.

I do lament that I have not been here as much as I would like, but my life immersion time has been delightful beyond words and very necessary. Enjoying one’s life is really the very most important thing.

I do hope you understand <3

I best be on my way to check on my gremlins, as they are being way too quiet.

All my best to you, and lots of love!

See you soon, Vanessa