the door. “Slow on the uptake Scoobs!” and with that, my brother bounded down the stairs.
I lazily stretched my arms above my head and yawned. “RUUUUBBYYYY!” I heard my mother yell up the stairs. Geesh. It’s like Grand Central Station around here. For Pete’s sake, it’s Sunday morning! I dragged myself out of bed, pulled on some cutoffs and an old t-shirt and headed downstairs.
As I walked into the kitchen to pour myself some cereal, my mother was heading out the back door. She paused when she saw me enter the kitchen. “Those new Moon Flower plants came yesterday evening from Aunt Sue! Remember? You said you wanted to help me transplant them!”
“ That’s right, Ma. I remember. Just lemme eat my cereal first, ‘kay?” My mom gave a quick nod, “See you out there in five!”
My mother was like a kid in a candy shop when it came to her flowers. Although, I can’t say I’m much different. I just loved being in the garden with her. We didn’t share a lot of things, but we both loved working in the garden. My mother always told me, “You can bury a lot of your problems in the dirt.” I had to agree. Plus, seeing the magic of the fairies playing in the garden always put a smile on my face.
I finished my cereal and walked barefoot out the back door to see what my mother had in store for me.
I had never seen a Moon Flower before, but my mother had described them to me with great detail. I looked around at the potted plants scattered across the lawn waiting to be transplanted and tried to imagine them blooming. My mother told me that it was a beautiful bright white, flower, round like a full-moon. In my opinion, the coolest thing about this flower was that that it bloomed in the evening and it can be pollinated by night-flying moths. The flower stays open and is fragrant all through the warm summer evenings, but the petals shrivel and die when touched by the morning sun. It reminded me of an enchanted flower out of a fairy tale…something I used to read about in storybooks when I was a kid. As my mother babbled on and on about this new flower we were planting, she began laughing as she told me about my Aunt Sue’s experience with the Moon Flowers. My Aunt Sue is kind of a hippy. Okay, not kind of. She is a hippy. About twelve years older than my mother (yeah, you could say my mom’s birth was a “surprise,”) Aunt Sue was like a flower child of the sixties. Apparently, the Moon Flower seeds can be hallucinogenic. Without getting into details, let’s just say that Aunt Sue tended to have a wild streak in her and her early experiences with the Moon Flower involved my Grandpa having to drive three states away to bring her home. I couldn’t believe how nutso my Aunt Sue was sometimes. The more stories I heard about her, the more I wondered how my mother turned out so normal and boring.
As I helped my mother transfer the delicate plants from the pots into the ground, she warned me for the hundredth time, “Be sure not to touch your mouth. The seeds are poisonous, especially for animals. Now go put some over there, in the garden bed near the path to the lake. I think the white flowers will really stand out against all the green over there,” she ordered as she crawled around on her hands and knees, carefully tending to the soil and watering what we had just planted. I walked barefoot through the grass and carried a tray of the potted plants over to the back of the yard. As I knelt down in the cool, soft ground, I quickly scanned the garden for fairies. Huh. That was weird. Not one in sight. Usually, I see at least a few fluttering about. I started turning the soil with my small shovel, then dug several holes. I gently placed the plants in the freshly dug holes and packed the dirt in around them. I glanced at my hands and let out a big sigh. So much for my freshly painted Silver Moon Mist fingernails. They were covered in dirt. Well, at least the polish was named appropriately! Moon Mist polish, Moon
I lazily stretched my arms above my head and yawned. “RUUUUBBYYYY!” I heard my mother yell up the stairs. Geesh. It’s like Grand Central Station around here. For Pete’s sake, it’s Sunday morning! I dragged myself out of bed, pulled on some cutoffs and an old t-shirt and headed downstairs.
As I walked into the kitchen to pour myself some cereal, my mother was heading out the back door. She paused when she saw me enter the kitchen. “Those new Moon Flower plants came yesterday evening from Aunt Sue! Remember? You said you wanted to help me transplant them!”
“ That’s right, Ma. I remember. Just lemme eat my cereal first, ‘kay?” My mom gave a quick nod, “See you out there in five!”
My mother was like a kid in a candy shop when it came to her flowers. Although, I can’t say I’m much different. I just loved being in the garden with her. We didn’t share a lot of things, but we both loved working in the garden. My mother always told me, “You can bury a lot of your problems in the dirt.” I had to agree. Plus, seeing the magic of the fairies playing in the garden always put a smile on my face.
I finished my cereal and walked barefoot out the back door to see what my mother had in store for me.
I had never seen a Moon Flower before, but my mother had described them to me with great detail. I looked around at the potted plants scattered across the lawn waiting to be transplanted and tried to imagine them blooming. My mother told me that it was a beautiful bright white, flower, round like a full-moon. In my opinion, the coolest thing about this flower was that that it bloomed in the evening and it can be pollinated by night-flying moths. The flower stays open and is fragrant all through the warm summer evenings, but the petals shrivel and die when touched by the morning sun. It reminded me of an enchanted flower out of a fairy tale…something I used to read about in storybooks when I was a kid. As my mother babbled on and on about this new flower we were planting, she began laughing as she told me about my Aunt Sue’s experience with the Moon Flowers. My Aunt Sue is kind of a hippy. Okay, not kind of. She is a hippy. About twelve years older than my mother (yeah, you could say my mom’s birth was a “surprise,”) Aunt Sue was like a flower child of the sixties. Apparently, the Moon Flower seeds can be hallucinogenic. Without getting into details, let’s just say that Aunt Sue tended to have a wild streak in her and her early experiences with the Moon Flower involved my Grandpa having to drive three states away to bring her home. I couldn’t believe how nutso my Aunt Sue was sometimes. The more stories I heard about her, the more I wondered how my mother turned out so normal and boring.
As I helped my mother transfer the delicate plants from the pots into the ground, she warned me for the hundredth time, “Be sure not to touch your mouth. The seeds are poisonous, especially for animals. Now go put some over there, in the garden bed near the path to the lake. I think the white flowers will really stand out against all the green over there,” she ordered as she crawled around on her hands and knees, carefully tending to the soil and watering what we had just planted. I walked barefoot through the grass and carried a tray of the potted plants over to the back of the yard. As I knelt down in the cool, soft ground, I quickly scanned the garden for fairies. Huh. That was weird. Not one in sight. Usually, I see at least a few fluttering about. I started turning the soil with my small shovel, then dug several holes. I gently placed the plants in the freshly dug holes and packed the dirt in around them. I glanced at my hands and let out a big sigh. So much for my freshly painted Silver Moon Mist fingernails. They were covered in dirt. Well, at least the polish was named appropriately! Moon Mist polish, Moon
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