My Serenity

So it appears that I’ll go to any length to protect it. It’s actually getting quite ridiculous. This year, for some reason, I’m having a little trouble letting Summer go. The frost warnings have arrived, the much colder nights – heck I’ve already witnessed mountain snow over a month ago. Thanksgiving is but a week away, and then we’re into Christmas season. (You won’t ever hear the word ‘holiday’ from this southern girl. I’ll save that for another blog.)

Still –I cling to the long nights of crickets chirping, warm wind whistling through my palm tree, and watching the sunset reflect the most gorgeous bright gold against the forest beyond me for 8-10 minutes every night. Saturday and Sunday mornings of sitting cross-legged in my chair, eating a bagel as I gaze out. Caring for my much-loved greenery, which resides everywhere and so enhances the beauty. I feel as though I am on top of the world here. My world. The place that could be anywhere I could ever imagine.

To what do I refer of my ‘serenity’? Quite simply, my balcony. I know that must sound silly to some. But let me continue to paint the picture for you, if I may. Of my own little green sanctuary. My treehouse in the sky.

Caring for and protecting my own little botanical garden. I have in recent years come to adore the color green. To appreciate it far beyond what I ever have before. Not just that of which I possess – but of that which exists just beyond the realm of my own sanctuary, in the midst of seasons a’changing… the beautiful forest.

And my fern. What a runt it was when I purchased it in the Spring. I remember thinking, should I hold out and get a bigger one later? Ha, should’ve known better. This fern now spans over 3 ft wide. It’s almost unrealistically beautiful, looks artificial. A couple weekends ago, my guy went up to it, grabbed a branch between three fingers and pulled hard all the way down to the tip. He doesn’t know it, but I cringed and thought wtf? Not one tiny leaf came off. Neither of us said anything – the fern had just said it all. We’d visited a nearby county fair a couple months ago, and he’d joked then that I should’ve brought my fern. I’d hesitated to agree, but knew in my heart that those first-place prizewinners paled in comparison to my own.

Even with the few frosts we’ve had this far, as well as the gale-force winds from Hurricane Ida – I’ve managed to preserve my little green-garden in the sky. I’ve moved them in and out of my utility room more times than I care to count, usually resulting in sore muscles. It’s been a toil to keep up with the warnings and advisories to protect them. Just tonight, my 7 ft palm has landed on it’s side twice, in two different positions. What to do? Well, I’ve just moved her, of course. I have to someday soon let it go. It will once again, for several months, be bare, cold and lonely out here.

But for now – well, it looks like the next couple of days forecast consists of rain but no frost. Yeah…. I think I can prolong my little utopia in the sky at least a few more days….