It is a beautiful morning here in the Carondelet Garden.  The skies are sunny with a few passing clouds.  We should be getting a few more clouds moving in and some rain by this afternoon.  No complaints, we still need the heavenly moisture around here!  Mild temperatures all day.  All around, a pretty good weather day.

Dr. B and I had a fun-filled day doing all the things we love to do.  We bought a new Hellebore to add to our ever-growing collection and planted it in the shade garden.  Did a few minor chores around the garden here in Carondelet.  We then packed up and headed out to our very own @Mobotgarden to view the train show and holiday displays and take a bit of a walk about around the garden.  A beautiful day to enjoy nature and its beauty.  Then we headed over to The Hill Antiques for their Holiday Extravaganza.  Finishing with a few drinks and dinner.  I'm pretty sure Dr. B enjoyed her birthday!

We have some chores, a meeting, and then haircuts on the agenda for this Ordinary Thursday.  It's time to get to work!  Be good and be kind to yourself and others as you travel about.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.
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Sunny skies and warmer temperatures greeted this old gardener as I stepped outside on this Ordinary Wednesday morning.  I couldn't help but share the picture of our hanging basket from its last day before the frost took care of it.  It was huge this year and beyond lovely.  What a bit of glory and grace indeed.

The month of November is, for me, a bit of a rough month.  A lot of loss and memories are associated with the month of November.  It's a bit easier with time but it still stings a bit.  Yet, by the end of the month I am reminded of the joy that November can bring.  Today is the anniversary of the day my life was forever changed.  Happy birthday Dr. B!  You are the all the good things in the world for me.  We have been together now for 41 years, and I can truly say I can't wait to see what happens next.  You are the cream in my coffee and the honey in my tea!

The seasons are changing.  The light is growing shorter and shorter. You can feel the changes in the air around us.  Even the sunshine is quite as warm as it was a few months ago.  Advent is almost upon us.  We will wait.  We will have hope.  We will continue with faith.  We long with love in our hearts for the changes to come.  

It's a good day to have a bit of faith, to rekindle some hope and to spread a bit of love around the best we can.  We all deserve some faith, hope and love right about now.  It's all we really need to change the world.  The world could use all it can right now.  Be good to yourself, and kind as you travel about on this glorious Ordinary Wednesday in November.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

It's a sunny, cold start to the day here in the Carondelet Garden.   The temperatures will struggle to climb into the upper 30s today.  A tiny preview of the Winter yet to come. The Red Maple put on quite the show this year.  The leaves are all gone now, and they are nestled into the bin waiting to be turned into leafmould and begin life anew next year.  A bit of grace for a cold Tuesday morning.

Ordinary Time is coming to an end this week as we begin the waiting in darkness for the light to come.  Ordinary Time is anything but ordinary.  It simply means that we are not in the liturgical seasons of Christmas, Lent or Easter.  The work continues as we continue to seek the creator of all things.  

I seek the capacity to see the world with intense regard.  I believe nothing is truly ordinary.  Our creator creates in us an imagination that unlocks the awesome potential in all things.  A simple, ordinary attentiveness gives us the grace to find wonder in the most mundane of circumstances.  

It is a chilly but beautiful day here in South Saint Louis.  Having lunch with an old friend this afternoon.  It's a good day for a good day.  Be good and be kind to yourself and others as we live into this last week of Ordinary Time.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.  The old gardener is taking the week off from gardening to help out in the @carondeleletkitchen.  Blessings and all things good this week are my prayers. 

Good morning from the Carondelet Garden.  A quiet, mild morning here in South Saint Louis.  Some clouds about early will gave way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon.  Temperatures will begin to fall this afternoon.  Lows tonight below freezing for the outlying areas.  Here in the urban area, we will definitely see mid 30s.  

The 'Jack of Spades' is looking good out in the shade garden.  It's lovely to see the green sticking around through the late Fall days.  A simple, ordinary grace that helps sustain us through the darkness of Winter.  Simplicity has become a bit of a mantra for the old gardener this year.

I've grown up expecting too much from institutions, from the church, from others, and finally from myself.  I've finally started to embrace the simple, ordinariness of living in the now.  The best ally of the Creator is reality.  Not theology, not ideology, not what "should be" but "what is."  I've come to avoid the hysteria that is crying out, 'This is the whole truth, the only truth, the only way to look at it!"   

I've slowly begun to embrace a simplicity of thought and living that might be, after all, the most radical form of living in this age.  Simple, ordinary living in an overall attitude of gratitude and thankfulness for what I have.  I still struggle with the materialism of this world as, I think, we all do at one time or another.  Yet I'm trying to live outside the whole system of greed, consumption and injustice.  The key word is trying.  

It's a good day for a good day.  The coffee is made. The newspaper has arrived.  Beautiful music playing in the background.  A simple, ordinary morning on this Friday in mid-November.  Be good to yourself, and kind.  We all need that right now more than ever.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

A sunny start to the day here in the Carondelet Garden.  The temps are in the mid-40s, but the skies are clear and bright blue.  We will warmup again today into the lower 70s this afternoon, but a cooldown is expected for the weekend.  

Did you know that Hostas and Asparagus are from the same family?  How very cool is that?  The fun things you learn.  It is possible to teach an old dog a few new things.  

It's been a busy few days for the old gardener as we are tidying things up a bit around the garden.  This year we are trying to create leafmould.  I had never heard of it but you often read about it in British gardening magazines.  It's a fairly simple process of gathering only the fallen leaves.  Placing them into a bin with air circulation and then keeping them wet for about a year.   You end up with a beautiful compost that is perfect for overdressing beds and mulching borders.  The old gardener is still learning new things.  

It's a good day to be kind to yourself.  It's a good day to enjoy a bit of sunshine and the grace of a temperate Fall Day.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

There is a bit of a chill in the air outside in the Garden on this Ordinary Wednesday morning.  The good news is the sun is shining brightly in the blue skies above.  The afternoon temperatures should hit the lower 70s with abundant sunshine.  Winds should be light and variable and another perfect gardening day.  

The holidays are fast approaching.  It is a time of joy and revelry for so many folks but for many others it is a time of sorrow and sadness.  A bit of melancholy accompanies this time of year for the old gardener.  It's not depression but just a time of remembering those who are no longer with us.  Today, that feeling is strongest.  We lost dad fifteen years ago today.  It's been seven years since we lost my brother-in-law on this same date.  Next week will be the first anniversary of the loss of my sweet little Holly Doodle dog.  

The good news is that gardens heal.  When you are melancholy, a garden will comfort you.  When you are defeated, the garden consoles.  When you are lonely, it offers a companionship that is true and ongoing.  When you are weary, the garden will refresh you.  The presence of the Creator of all things is everywhere you look in the garden.  God is in all things and the garden is where I feel that presence. 

Today I'm going out to the garden.  I will walk around and piddle about.  Do a bit of work. Have a little sit.  Later this afternoon the old firepit will burst forth with flame and memory.  A glass of good old John Jameson's finest Irish Whiskey will be poured.  Stories and memories will be shared of lives lived and lives lost.  A bit of melancholy? Yes. Also, a whole lot of love, and hope, and all the faith I can scrape together.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

The skies are sunny here in the Carondelet Garden on this simple, ordinary Tuesday morning.  We are expecting a partly cloudy day with highs in the upper 60s again.  Can you believe this beautiful weather?  Such a bit of grace at this time of year.

The Garden is coming to its natural end.  We seem to be losing all those lovely things that we enjoy seeing so much.  The good news is that there so many of these incredible days, especially at the beginning and middle of November when the leaves are still trying to hold on and are still giving off their incredible glow in the Autumn light.  I always feel that November is the peak month for color here in the Saint Louis area.  The leaves just seem to reach their most glorious just after the first of the month.  We are starting to see the end of that glory right now. The leaves are beginning to fall in full.  Soon the wet weather will arrive and then those heavy frosts and the leaves will come clattering down in the chilly, still air.  

For now, I am enjoying the bit of warmth and doing some of those last-minute jobs we all seem to have in the garden.  The Leaf Mould is starting it annual journey to becoming a beautiful compost for next Autumn.  The Dahlias are out and hanging upside down to remove any remaining liquid in the tubers before they are stored in dry, spent compost in the darkest part of the old coal bin.  Lots of good things happening.  

It's definitely a good day for a good day.  Sunshine, lovely blue skies, and warm temperatures.  Quite difficult to think of much better.  The coffee is made, the newspapers are calling my name.  I have a bit of Haydn playing in the background.  As my Austrian friend would say, "not bad... not bad."  Be good and be kind to yourself and others as you travel about this Ordinary Tuesday.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

A bright, sunshiny morning here in the Carondelet Garden.  Winds are light and variable, and it is going to be gorgeous.  Highs in the upper 60s this afternoon means that it is going to be a gardening kind of day.

Today marks two weeks since our first hard frost of the season.  It is now time to pull out the Dahlia tubers to store over winter.  I've debated about whether to leave them in the ground and take a chance as our Calla Lillies are doing quite well that way.  We have enjoyed fairly mild winters these past few years.  I've grown quite fond of my Dahlias and I'm afraid to take a chance so out they come.

So much of any success I have as a gardener is a blend of confidence and intuition, in equal measure.  I try not to get into a wrestling match with the changes in season.  I don't fight so much anymore.  I've lost my way too many times.  I've learned, the hard way many times, to be a more flexible and to simply watch and learn and then do.  It seems to be working a bit better in this old gardener's world.

These mid-Autumn days filled with sunshine and milder temperatures are a healing balm for me.  The garden is truly a place of healing.  When I'm sad, the garden offers comfort.  When I feel a bit defeated, the garden gives me blessed consolation.  When I'm feeling alone, it offers companionship.  When I'm feeling down and out, weary from life's travails, the garden offers a bit of refreshment.  

It is a beautiful beginning to this Monday in mid-November.  I will be heading back into the garden soon to get my hands into the soil.  It's a good day to garden. A good day to share a bit of faith, to keep holding on to hope, and spread a bit of love around.  Be good and be kind to yourself this simple, ordinary day.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

It's a chilly morning here in the Carondelet Garden.  Opened the door to 39-degrees and clear skies overhead.  They tell me there will be abundant sunshine this Friday in November.  A beautiful Fall Day in South Saint Louis.

The Rock Garden is still looking quite nice out in the backyard.  It's been a nice addition to the Garden this summer.  It's a small, odd-shaped little corner of the Garden that, honestly, has been neglected or used to store a wheelbarrow for the past several years.  Dr. B reclaimed it and it has simply become a beautiful little spot that I always stop to check out.  Did I mention she added a small "Fairy Garden?"  It's a wee bit of whimsy here in the Garden.

We all could use a bit of whimsy in our lives right now.  Someplace that can put a smile on our face and lift us up a bit when needed.  A simple, ordinary thing to brighten our days.  Share a bit of whimsy on this Friday in November.  Be good and be kind to yourself.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.