Today’s blog is simply to uplift the spirits and inspire hope with some wildflower inspiration. So for anyone who needs a little boost, a cheery burst of sweetness, or a reminder that there is beauty and potential even amidst the darker times and challenges, this is a little love note from Nature and my garden for you to know you’re not alone, to encourage strength and belief, and that from the pressures of life, you have opportunity to shine.

You might recall that this year I decided to seed my garden bed with wildflower perennials to return each year with the other flowering plants I already established both in the garden and in pots.

I also have seven beautiful lush bushes that return each year too. For veggies, I opted again to only do herbs in my Garden Tower, but it’s been supplying a bounty of aromatic herbs continuously for one sweet bunny Queen named Astrid.

I also save some to dry and have for baking and cooking during Autumn and Winter seasons. I think I’ll also make some vinegar infusions, since we use a lot of flavored vinegar, and a rose petal and crystal water blend for misting on hikes or throughout the day. My little mason jars are nearly all full.

And every week or so I create little mini faery bouquets bringing different color therapies for inside the house with some of the blooms that are lighting up the garden with joy.

I love garden time, but also like to keep things simple and manageable for my full life. Down the road I’ll likely do a lot more, as I envision a greenhouse at some point, which is optimal for being able to grow year round.

For now I just picked up 150 tulip and daffodil bulbs I’ll be planting around Autumn Equinox. Little by little I expand and envision new ideas to bring beauty that blends with the mountain wild and provides both the forest creatures, Astrid and us with some fresh goodness. I also like to keep the Faeries and Elementals of the land happy, as promised.

I intuited that my wildflower plants would likely start blooming in August, and I was right. New varieties continue to pop up with more on the way, which likely will continue through September and perhaps even October.

Anthesis is the flowering period of a plant, or the act of expansion and blooming into a fully open flower.

And now my favorite – sunflowers – have emerged in all their sunshiney glory. There are over thirty buds on this one plant!

There’s a definite and dramatic contrast being experienced across the globe including the very scary and sad heatwaves, lightning fires and smoke-filled skies enveloping much of the land west of us.

I keep sending Reiki and prayers that relief, understanding, and productive change will come from everything. Even right now we, here, have had smokey skies the last three days from the winds blowing it in from the California fires.

The energy feels heavy, but I’m also feeling the impetus for potential change and that’s what I choose to focus on so that I can be of greater help to others because my well is full and not depleted. I’m working on deeper, vulnerable transmutation and understanding of the emotional and energetic layers so I can continue to walk a middle path best I can.

I’m reminded that all cycles of life exist simultaneously and within all of this I continue to up my gratitude practice. Interestingly, I’ve been experiencing a big thrust of increased energy and abilities integrate into my life and it’s made me explore further retrieval of the rest.

Now is here for each of us to be and bring all of us to the forefront.

Remember that the thickest cloud just might bring the heaviest shower of blessings.

If we widen our perspective and open to more possibilities, this makes room for what seems hidden to suddenly come through.

It can be challenging to think that something that hurts could in any way help us.

No one ever asked a plant if it hurts to grow so rapidly and produce a bud or unfurl a leaf.

It just is.

Maybe within each unfolding, new life awaits, regardless of what package it comes in at first.

Garden surprises continue to burst forth here from the seeds I planted this year. 

May hope guide a new beginning.