How does your garden grow?

Remember that rhyme? Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? I find it fascinating how nursery rhymes and fairy-tales usually have such negative/sexist/racist/no-good-origins but how they evolve into something so commonplace that one would think the rhyme in question here is actually about a garden. My students say I like to "ruin" things for them. I tell them I like to show them reality and that the world out there is tough and we can't hide behind appearances. Appearance VS. Reality - a theme in much of great literature -- what does it mean anyway? I feel as though I've been deceived by appearances many a time... that just because you look a certain way doesn't mean you act a certain way... and that doesn't just apply for women, but for men too. Some people try to put on acts to try to act more religious/wealthy/popular/attractive/whatever it is, and I'm just not buying it anymore. I want to surround myself with open and secure people. People who don't judge, and people who don't bite your head off and go on a rant for more than an hour about the littlest things. There's just so much more important things out there that I simply can't be bothered by the "high school drama" that wants to follow me to my adult life. I prefer leaving that drama for my students to contend with. For them, it's the biggest part of their lives. For me, I think I've moved forward to a new place of understanding.

My head is full of voices that I'm trying to ignore at the present moment, so instead of posting the usual teaching-related/V-related post, I'm going to introduce you to my garden. Mind you, none of these photos have been photo-shopped in any way, they're all in their natural state (with only a little bit of cropping to fit on the page).

Enjoy!

THE FRONT YARD

Still growing:

Betcha didn't know these purple ones are edible!



Up close:



These look like little rubies:



Larger view:




I love this plant, even more so than the flowers. The leaves are all curly.



Up close:



The most interesting thing in the world, this is actually the root of our tree, which is SO large it's beginning to come out the grass (and we have no way to fix it):




Now we get to the important stuff:




Wild roses!




I love this photo, not yet blossomed, but framed against the backdrop of a winter tree:




More:




These are the craziest - in the sun the purple thingies come out, but when the sun is hiding, they go back into their little "caves."



THE BACK YARD

These seem to go on forever. Purple obsessed can you say?



Daffodils!



Some kinda tree:



Up close you can see tons of tiny flowers:



Now these my dear readers are absolutely breathtaking:



They look like something a bride would carry (and they smell heavenly).



These of the purple variety are also quite pretty. I have no idea why this photo came out with black background - I took these in the middle of the day!



This is better:



What did I get out of this whole experience besides the fact that I want to quit my job and become a nature photographer? Well, I found a new friend. This little guy ain't gonna judge me one bit, and if he starts to get a little judgemental or arrogant, well, I'm just going to have to knock him off his high horse and introduce him to my shoe :D

P.S Um.. what I said about wanting to quit my job, I take that back! I think I'll just keep the photo-snapping to a hobby... with 511, 172 clicks on my teacher-site to date, I know I have a good thing going there already lol.