The garden is growth and change and that means loss as well as constant new treasures to make up for a few disasters. ~May Sarton
The last two months in the garden has been astonishing – after a long winter, the extended cool weather and plenty of rainfall has triggered healthy growth and abundant flowers. The garden changes before my eyes every day – sometimes slowly and sometimes suddenly – and I have finally began to capture that change with my camera. 
It has been almost four months since my shoulder surgery in February. I was unable to walk through the garden for the first two months because of the danger of falling, so I could only observe it from the decks and open doorways. 
In the past several weeks, I’ve finally been able to immerse myself in the beauty of the garden.
Honestly, the surgery recovery process was longer and far more painful than I expected and physical therapy sessions began triggering my auto-immune response which limited how much I could do without debilitating flareups. Nothing was simple or easy but now, finally, I’m able to both work in the garden and film it. 
Mornings with Pixie have been so joyful for both of us as we settle into our usual routine, 
and the garden has never looked better now that the eye and the hand of the gardener is constant once again. 
In those first few weeks after surgery, a loss of strength and mobility led me to walk more slowly and look at the garden more closely, noticing small changes and details that I might have missed otherwise. 
These days, I am filled with a sense of joy and hope as I awaken each day, eager to reacquaint myself with the plants, the woods, and the creatures that make their home there. 
Absence did make the heart grow fonder and I treasure every moment that I spend in my garden, immersed in the scent of flowers and songs of birds. 
Although I was not able to garden in late winter and early spring, I did begin working remotely with Sarabeth Ramsey, a wonderful social media specialist to expand my blog and YouTube channel with the intent to start my own online garden courses. To be honest, I was finally over the burnout of my long music teaching career and itching to be creatively productive again. Some deep soul searching went into this entire process and I’m still unraveling the details as I move forward. I found deep satisfaction from teaching a few garden classes and seminars in February and March and reconnecting with gardening friends – there is still so much for me to learn and to share! It is the season for growth and change indeed.
You can expect to see me more regularly here on the blog and I look forward to renewing my friendships with all of you. For now, I offer my latest garden video on the transformation of the garden, with many more to come. May you embrace the beauty of nature around you and take time to listen to its quiet voice.
Pixie and I have spent a few quiet evenings by the fireplace as I considered how I want to proceed on the blog and on all of my social media. Did I want to shut down everything online or commit to writing and creating material more regularly? I explored each option fully, as I was frustrated and frankly, bored, with the status quo. I finally realized that I needed to unhook the direct connection between my life in the garden and my work as a composer – each continues to affect the other but trying to sustain material for two separate threads here and on YouTube has prevented me from doing work I would like to do.
Earlier this spring, we were having a tree trimmed away from the roof of the house when the arborists found that it was completely hollow – “like a straw” they said – and needed to come down. They did a magnificent job of bringing down the trunk and refitting it together so that I could make it a garden feature as part of the new woodland walk. 
composerinthegarden 