I really need to go out and run with the dog — go out now before it’s too late and the 100-degree temperatures set upon us again. But first I need to tell you a short story…
“Do you think people walking by notice our flowers?” Trudy asked the other day.
People walk by sometimes, not as much as you would might think would be normal for a healthy neighborhood (everyone being shut up with their home theater systems and all), but I digress. People do walk by sometimes, and so we wonder if they notice our yard-gone-wild.
We’ve taken most of the grass is the front out of production, replacing it with bark that will demand less water. We’ve expanded the stone and log-lined bed with xeric plants that do well in the heat. And unlike the last few years, the springtime rains have been kind and the temperatures are lingering in the 80s, and so those native plants have begun blooming in abundance.
Blooming in abundance. There are white Lilies and Blackfoot Daisies. There are orange/red/purple Lilies. There are yellow Four Nerve Daisies and Green Thread plants. There are red and pink and white/lavender Salvia Greggii. There are new Blue-Eyed Grass about to open their blue blossoms. And the white/purple explosion on the Thyme Juniper. And of course, there are the Bluebonnets.
It has given us great pleasure to watch it all unfold this spring. But do other people notice when they walk by?
This afternoon I was sitting here with the blind up and the window open as I was typing at the keyboard doing work (of course), and a high school girl walked by on her way back home from the bus stop down on the corner. She was on our side of the street, choosing our sunny curb to the shady sidewalk on the other side of the street probably because the weather is so nice right now. And I recognized her, because she walks down the street every day about that time.
I looked up to see her walking by and to see her looking at the Irises and Green Thread plants and the Thyme Junipers and the … well you know: all that I said. I looked up to see her look at them and continue walking and then look at them again and then continue walking and then (believe it or not) look at them a third time.
So yes, I guess other people do notice — even high school students walking home at the end of the day, and that’s saying something.