Jayne In Georgia

It is so easy to get lost in the tumble of days produced when a Pandemic seizes the world. Saturday? Thursday? The usual timetable gets thrown aside and the rhythms of your life are upended. The day ends, you watch the glow of sun recede and you’re embarrassed that you have little to show in terms of productivity.

But then #something very ordinary happens, and you remember what it is like to have a method and a madness to your day. Our garage door broke, irretrievably broken, the steel facing of the door ripped away as the bolts no longer held…what a mess.

So now, you are pressed into action. make the calls, get the estimates, examine the options!

Taking breaks from the garden play and chores, we hopped aboard the golf cart to see what our neighbors had chosen for garage doors.

Apparently a broken garage door requires an essential service, so we now have been stirred from our stupor of days. Try not to lose your way forward. We will don our masks, and stand at a distance, and try to get this done. Slowly, ever so slowly, the world will try to defeat this virus and get back to some sense of normalcy. We can hope we have all learned something…how to be quiet, how to be still, and yet we will continue to have to deal with broken doors….

Weather permitting, we try to walk at least once a day, and that does not include the short walks with the dogs. We are fortunate to live in a beautiful place.

There are walking paths along both the Eastern and Western Marsh. Our walk along the Western Marsh was lovely, quiet and breezy, with warm sunshine. With a view like that, creating a garden is almost superfluous.

The architecture on this Island is regulated, but there are still many different styles to be seen. There aren’t many blue homes, but this one was handsome.

We passed along the side of a tabby house, that we had viewed when we were searching for a home here. Glad we didn’t choose it because a new home was built on the side, and seems to block the former view of a particularly appealing lagoon.

Fountains and water features are often part of Island gardens here. On this particular walk, I discovered a fountain I had not seen before.

This is a very difficult time to be living through, and I know so many people are suffering without being able to see and be with their families and friends. A simple walk does a lot to clear the mind, though it doesn’t change the reality. Another thing I look forward to, is a visit by the fox family in my back yard. The two kits have been coming out in the evenings. I am insisting they keep a wide social distance from my two beloved dogs! So far, we are coexisting nicely.

Some camellias will capture your attention more than others. And some perform so well that they become your favorite child.

This year Camellia ‘Mine-no-yuki’ is on its way to becoming the favorite of ’19-20.

This lovely white sasanqua was grown from layering. She is still growing in a pot and after 3 years, may be ready to go in the ground but I think I will wait until Spring. The Mother plant has not one bloom this year! What a disappointment! But her offspring is a delight this Autumn! In Jennifer Trehane’s book, “Camellias”, this Camellia is described well. “It evokes the purity of the first snowfall of winter.” I am happy to enjoy the first snowfall this way…a benefit of living in Georgia where the snow flurries are very rare! “A jumble of Snow White petals” is a perfect way to describe this jolly bloom.