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<p class="aolmailmsonormal"><u>I like the idea of a memory garden. There are so
many different ways to keep our ties to our roots and what has grown from them
over a life time. For many of us, plants are touchstones for memorial.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I can remember so many things about growing
things since the time I was a toddler. They connect me to my family as do your
plant memories.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></u> <u>We could
palaver about our individual memories probably for a long time.</u> </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">Once within a much younger year,</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">I had the idea of finding wild violets in a wood</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">and transplanting them at home.</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">Of course, my dad and I went violet hunting,</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">harvested some of the purple flowers</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">from a wooded spot alongside Highway 163,</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">on a memorable Hoosier hill.</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">Uncertain of my plan,</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">my dad still was a stealth accomplice.</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"> </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">At the inset of the southwest corner of our home,</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;
mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list .5in"><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><u>What is an inset corner? </u></p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">shaded partly by the soft maple</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">on the other side</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">of the curving, white-rock driveway</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">was one of our three wells.</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">A concrete, rectangular frame </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">with a six-inch-deep cement lid</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">formed the base for the four-foot high,</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">old iron water pump</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">that my father painted the same bluish green</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">that he painted the foundation</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">of our "Heartland" house,</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">built in 1914.</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;
mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list .5in"><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><u>I’m curious to know what the foundation of
the house was made of. This has nothing to do with the poem, of course.</u></p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"> </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">Since city water lines</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">had come into our rural area,</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">we did not have the same needs for the pump.</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">When city cousins, with eleven children,</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">came to visit from Kankakee, Illinois,</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">the wild eleven were </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">fascinated with our pump</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">and worked the handle more in one day</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">than it had been used in three months of a summer.</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"> </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">With sidewalk to the east of the pump</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">and unsodded grass</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;
mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list .5in"><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><u>What is unsodded grass?</u></p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">around the other sides,</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">the knoll was the perfect spot</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">for my transplanting</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">the wild violets--</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">violets for remembrance.</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"> </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">Borrowed from an Indiana wood,</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">these violets flourished</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">for many years</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">to the north of the old pump</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">and below one of my bedroom windows.</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"> </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">Now, on my front porch</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">and behind my townhouse,</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">I tend a summer garden</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">of sixteen containers;</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">among these are </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">three containers of rosemary</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">because rosemary, too,</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">is for remembrance.</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"> </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"> </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">POST-SCRIPT:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>Do you wonder what brought to my mind this patch of violets?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A few weeks ago, my friend and former
colleague Sue (who is also a "master gardener" and a consistent
supporter of my blog) sent me a card on the front of which was a watercolor
painting of forget-me-nots (the state flower of Alaska).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>These forget-me-nots prompted me to think of
the violets detailed in this poem.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Thank
you, Sue, because I had not thought of this remembrance of violets for many
years.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Now, I have added another piece
to the recollection puzzle of my "home in the Heartland"--in Blanford, Indiana.</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"> </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>The
unusual bluish gray-green color of paint was my dad's creation by mixing together
all of his leftover paint.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Fortunately,
his mixture was a sufficient amount for the entire foundation and the
pump.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I always liked this color which my
dad created.</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"> </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Besides
the three rosemary plants, this summer, my container garden includes two Italian
basil plants, one purple sage, one spearmint plant, two lavender (herb) bushes,
two white geraniums, three pink geraniums, and two lavender geraniums.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I greatly enjoy tending and giving
"tours" of my container garden.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>Of course, Willow,
my fourth guide dog, is my gentle and wonderful assistant.</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"> </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Finally,
I, a resident of Wisconsin for twenty-seven
years, will share with you the coincidence that the state flower of Wisconsin is the wood
violet.</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"> </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">God bless your home and heart this summer!</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">Alice</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> and Leader
Dog Willow</i> (who has never yet set paw in my
beloved Indiana)</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"> </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal">August 15, 2018, Wednesday</p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"> </p>
<p class="aolmailmsonormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">_______________________________________________<br>
Group2 mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Group2@bluegrasspals.com">Group2@bluegr</a></p>
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