Goodbye To an Old Friend

A surprise warm front has everyone out in their gardens, or at least those lucky people who have discovered the joys of puttering in the dirt, and watching things grow. My garden has filled in much faster than I expected because of the low 70 degree weather. It's filling in too fast for me. I can barely keep up. Of course big changes are in the works. The old arbor that divided the garden into two seperate areas was torn down recently. The timbers were rotting, and the lattice was breaking apart. Now a brand new arbor is taking it's place. Meanwhile, several residents of the old arbor, roses and clematis, are tied up and pulled out of the way of construction, waiting to latch their selves on to anything they can find. Worse still, they have sprouted new growth and leaves, which means these thender shoots will most likely be damaged when I tie them into the new arbor.

I was looking through some old pictures of my arbor. What a wonderful feature it made. It was not only the center piece of my garden it was a shelter from the summer sun, a place to rest from gardening chores or to read a book. When the weather was nice, we would enjoy lunch or dinner with friends around a wooden table placed in the center. It seemed like the arbor was always in bloom with roses, clematis, and pots of flowers at its feet. I shall miss my old friend, but I must confess, I am looking forward to the new arbor. This is the old arbor in summer.