Mosiac Angel Stepping Stone for Mom's Garden.

Yuka Plant 2006

Yuka in bloom, Summer 2006

Yuka Plant, 2006

White Flowering Butterfly Bush

Summer 2006, Butterfly Bush

White Butterfly Bush, July 2006

Mom's Beautiful Calla Lilys

2006, Early Summer

Early Summer, 2006

Poem

"Mother's Garden"

My mother loved the flowers,

Each season brought new blooms.

With Joy she'd plant and till and weed,

It chased away her glooms.

***

She knew the names of all she tended,

A master of her trade.

Her hands were strong and knew no wrong,

The Best God ever made.

***

She tried to teach me all she knew,

But little did I care.

For if I needed flowers,

My mother would be there.

***

My mother loved her Garden,

'Til Heaven she did go.

Where growing seasons never end,

And blooms don't fade, but grow.

***

And I now Tend the flowers,

A love that's real and true.

For when I'm in my garden, Mom,

I'm closest there to you.

***

written by Beverly Ann Batten Kandrick

Donna M. Stanford
1942 - 2003

(you are a Doodle, Mama!)

And So It Begins....

This blog is in tribute to my mother, Donna M. Stanford, who passed away in November 2003. The spring following her death, amazingly enough, her beloved flowers began to poke out of the dirt. I just couldn't figure this out, I mean, she wasn't here so how in the hell can the flowers she planted and nurtured for years have the gall to come up. It felt like a slap in my face.

You see, I was devastated and still am to this day by the loss of my mother. My Mom is my best friend. She is my heart and soul and I feel like a part of me has died as well. I can sum up in one word what she means to me.....Everything! I didn't want to exist after she left, and I certainly didn't want these cheerful blooming flowers to remind me of what I no longer had.

But at some point, and I don't know when, I came around and embraced these plants. I feel like I'm taking care of them for my Mom. I feel so proud when they turn up every year and I feel so close to my Mom when I'm taking care of them. I now dread the winters and long for the blooming season. I'm doing what she cannot do for them. I'm pulling the weeds and mulching and feeding them for her, not for me. It was always her dream to have her very own garden. She and my Dad rented most of their lives. They didn't buy a house of their own until 1997. My Mom relished the spring every year so that she could begin planning her landscape. She planted trees (a beautiful Magnolia and two Japanese Lilacs) and a lilac bush right outside my window so that I could smell them blooming in the spring. She planted flowers to numerous to mention, though I certainly am going to try. She was only given the blessing of her very own garden for 6 years, but she managed to build a beautiful one in that short time and I have since added on with each passing year, try to pick plants that remind me of her (blue looking ones mostly because it's her favorite color.)

I love to take pictures of these flowers to show my friends and decided a cyber-scrapbook would fitting. It's certainly cheaper to take them and download them rather than paying for the development costs. Now I have more money to spend in my Mother's garden!

So Welcome to my Mom's Flower Garden!

'The Daughter'