Diary of My Country Life-May 16th, 2026

The original source of this blog: https://www.lotusandmichael.com/blogs/diary-of-my-country-life

05/16/2026 Saturday 46-81F Sunny

It will be a beautiful day today, warm and sunny, and most importantly, I will be free.

Free means I can solely enjoy the weather and my garden with nothing else on my today’s to-do list.

The vegetables and flowers were just watered this morning; the back patio and my courtyard were just swept; the laundry is hanging in the sun; all my other work is done except for writing this diary 😊.

Today’s meals will be simple as well—bagel and cream cheese as breakfast; chicken breast, celery and my home-made gnocchi as dinner; lunch is skipped, instead, we will have black bean cookies, kiwis and peony tea in early afternoon.

How do I plan to spend, or enjoy, the day? Well, put a round jute rug on the lawn and lie on it under the sun. At noon if too much sun, I will sit in the shade and read book—I bought a vintage book weeks ago, the name is “World-Famous Paintings” which was published in 1939. I have browsed it several times in bed before sleep; today I want to give it a good look during the day.

Those paintings inserted in the book are too wonderful; when I first saw them, I felt that I almost couldn’t paint anymore—they are like high mountains, while my paintings are just little slopes; they are big rivers and lakes, mine are small puddles. I have a long journey to go, about how far I can reach? I have no idea yet. But it’s something I love, and a way of life I choose, no matter how hard it has been and will be, I shall not retreat.

Throughout April and June is the prettiest time for my garden, perhaps for many gardens too. Cherry blossoms, camellias, tree peonies, lilac and iris bloom in April, then calycanthus, mock orange, itoh and herbaceous peonies follow. June will be lavenders, abelias, magnolia, elderberry and lilies’ season. During the hot summer, the garden will take a nap except for the vegetables. Then starting from September, it will resume because of the autumn bloomers—esters, chrysanthemums, osmanthus, and my tea sinensis. And all the trees will begin to change the colors of their foliage. The palette show will last until late November when snow may have started to fall. It will be a deep sleep for the garden, and a long rest for the gardeners as well. Only occasionally the silence of the garden will be broken by snow shoveling. I will count the days, make my next year’s plan, meanwhile waiting for the first outdoor bloomer—snowdrop, and the first indoor flower-- Cymbidium goeringii-- to open.

Year by year, the plants repeat the same things; while year after year, they secretly grow stronger. This morning when I watered my plants, by chance I noticed how sparkling my little cherry tree was in the sun. We bought it in the spring of 2023. At that time, it was so small that we had no problem to fit it in our mini copper’s front seat by letting its top peep out of the window. On the way home, I watched its leaves flapping in the breezes, wondering: “Will my cherry tree grow fast?” Now three years later, its trunk is much thicker, and it has formed a nice size of canopy. I watched it grow, like watching a toddler grow into a kid. I guess I am its mom.

Though all the plants always repeat their routines, small differences still apply. For example: We have three lilacs. One has a pleasant scent very close to Oolong tea, and each year it delivers us a great number of flowers; while the other two, even though they are different cultivars, this spring bloomed much fewer flowers than last year: One opened three twigs of flowers and the other one just a single twig. I am not sure whether it is caused by the past harsh winter (shouldn’t be because lilacs are very cold hardy), or their cultivars are more like cherry trees: Heavy yield and light yield come in turn.

And I change the layout of my garden almost every year. If a plant grows too big and crowd into other plants, I have to dig it out and plant it somewhere else; sometimes I bring new plants home so a new serial of arrangement begins; deer are regular visitors of my garden, to keep some plants from deep, I have to keep upgrading their fences as time goes by and they grow taller and bigger…

Yesterday after remolding the fences for my mock orange and prunus mume, I said to my husband : “I think I have used up all my ideas about building fences for my plants.” He answered in a disapproving tone as he helped me clean up the scattered bamboo poles: “You will never run out of ideas.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

Well, living in a wildlife-friendly area and loving to have a natural open view, maintaining a garden is a challenge. I already have tried to keep my garden as deer resistant as possible, but certain plants which I love very much and will never give up are unfortunately deer’s favorites, like the lilies, the mock oranges, and plum blossoms.

While when watching their beautiful flowers loading on the branches, all the efforts made, all the complaints are gone—no matter what, everything is worthwhile just for this moment.

Sometimes I fancy myself as a flowering plant: If I am happy, I will bloom red flowers and the scent is refreshingly sweet; if unhappy, my flower color changes to blue and smells spicy; if my mood is neutral, then the flowers should be white and have a subtle clean musky fragrance… Isn’t it a wonderful thought?

Ok, I have written enough! Time for me to go out to enjoy the sun!