A Single Memory

A single memory
I hold close as a dream
shape-shifting the dark:
an intensity of ocean,
a memory of water
this green.

From “A Green Glass Bowl” by Antonia Clark

The Guardian of the Garden, my friend says holds all our memories safe within her globe available for retrieval by those who left them there.

The stones around the Butterfly Garden are in remembrance of all of you who follow the same path as I. Monarchs were everywhere dancing in the warm mountain air teasing us with their antics, but declining to light long enough take their picture. Flighty lot those Monarchs.
Outlaw’s Garden…well…who needs an explanation of that…wild child all over the place just like me…she as well.

We are kindred, she and I…my friend…another with fire within her soul and an outlaw’s take on life. She is such a special gift. She loved my husband I think almost as much as I and mourns his loss in equal measure.
Her sense of humor, offbeat as mine, set the tone for the day when she popped the lid on the marble urn and said “Hi, Jim. Want some coffee?”

He would have loved that and would smile that we giggled our way through the garden spots she chose. A last bit she saved to take up to the hidden waterfall to spread among the fern, hosta and liriope growing there.
She said she was honored to have a bit of him in her gardens and tend to the stones we left in memory of y’all.

It was a day filled with hugs, smiles, laughter and easy memories.

All in all it was a good day.

(All pictures taken by me with Handyman's Olympus digi-cam at Melrose Junction, Saluda Mt., NC 5-24-2006)