Not What I Remembered
We are now in our 6th winter --that can't be right -- in Santa Fe and surely my old gardens back east look much different now. When I was sick and bored this January, stretched out on my electric pad on the couch, I pulled up some old photos and looked at pictures of the gardens I last saw in early 2017. I looked over the 10 years of progression, from a bare half acre to a space filled with plants.
I haven't thought much about the gardens I left back east, and reader. . . I was stunned.
By the time we left, after 10 years of experimenting and planting and re-planting, my pictures show an incredible lush landscape. Gorgeous, really. Not what I remembered.
Trees were huge, even my newly planted saplings. Shrubs were full, flowers were prolific, color was rampant. Gardens were stuffed. Climbing vines were aggressive. The grass was so, so green. I have pictures of dew-laden foliage. I'd forgotten.
🌲 I did not remember how big it was.
A half acre plus meadow and hillside, all intensively planted, was a lot and it looks like a lot. I was amazed at how extensive it all was. It was too much work by the time I was ready to leave it. I remember being overwhelmed, but I'd forgotten how large it truly was.
🍀 I did not remember how lovely it was.
I'd had so many failures and disappointments in my endless experimenting and do-overs, but the photos only show perfection. I'd forgotten how the camera selects the best and leaves the awful just out of frame. (I was using a real SLR camera then, not the iPhone I use exclusively now. The phone takes a good picture, but the real camera was better)
I have rarely thought much about the gardens I left when we moved here. I haven't looked at all the old photos I kept or re-read the hundreds of blog posts I did. I was ready for the move and I've been entranced with all that is new to us here in the mountain southwest.
But spending some idle time almost six years on, looking at all I had created then was astonishing.
A little nostalgia trip for me.
Comments