They were in this area, but this is not how they were. He must have quietly dug them up and replanted them. I thought he’d just cleared off the dead cover plants.
They were here when we bought the house, and over time they crowded themselves badly and then did a mass die-off in the drought–and have been steadily, slowly working their way back ever since. They ended up kind of split down the middle into two bunches of randomness.
I thought it was so weird when we moved to California that everybody had a hired gardener. Doesn’t anybody work in their own yard around here?
Then I got lupus with extreme sun sensitivity, my husband threw his back out, and we ended up asking the neighbor’s how much he charged. (Fred’s cardiologist had made him retire.) It’s been good to have the help, and Elio’s a great guy.
I paid him extra last winter for something I didn’t feel was in his usual job description. He disagreed and tried to stop me. Dude: Take. The. Money. You spent the time, you did the work, you earned it.
Which is probably why the purple irises are now arranged in a perfect circle of green leaves and purple blossoms, with enough distancing to be social and healthy for a goodly while to come, placed just so between the apples and the fig tree. They are in their fullest glory and they have never looked better than they do right now.
Elio quietly offered up a gift in the barren winter dirt and waited for the day when I’d get to notice.
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Good things happen to good people: you have proof!
Sending Elio a warm hug and smiling with you at the discovery of the lovely gift.
Comment by Suzanne in Montreal 05.01.20 @ 6:37 amLove that color. I need to ‘thin’ some of mine also. Yesterday a neighbor asked if she could have some. ‘Sure come over’ and I got a clean garbage bag and a shovel out to ‘lift’ the irises she wanted. She went home happy and a few of my irises are a little thinner. They have been so glorious to see and smell. They can just make you happy, right? It is easy to keep ‘distance’ in the garden. 🙂
Comment by Helen 05.01.20 @ 9:14 amI absolutely love the image of him thinking about what he could do for you, something nice, and coming up with this, that would take so long for you to see, but that you would appreciate so much. He couldn’t have known how much!
Comment by ccr in MA 05.01.20 @ 9:52 amBest kind of gift, the ones that wait patiently to delight.
Comment by twinsetellen 05.01.20 @ 9:25 pmThat happened with our rental in Tacoma, after we sold our house, and before we moved to Provo…the big tree behind the house turned out to be an apple tree, and when the apples grew they were yellow transparents (very distinctive color, as you now know), Hubby’s one favorite apple, and I imagined a divine smile widening, just waiting for us to find out. That move had been difficult, the circumstances were discouraging. But that was a surprise gift.
Comment by Marian 05.01.20 @ 11:00 pmLeave a comment
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