The Pink Surprise

I've been doing lots of weeding in our yard and little woods. There is garlic mustard growing everywhere. I've been trying to remove it before it goes to seed, and have been having some level of success, but not total. I try to do it in increments of an hour or less, so all of the bending over and ripping weeds out doesn't aggravate my tendency toward sciatica.

I often wear my pink tunes box while weeding so that I can listen to music, which makes the task go more easily, and I remember thinking, while I was weeding, when Foreigner's song I Want To Know What Love Is came on, that the measure of your love is the measure of SACRIFICE you are willing to make for your loved one. In this case, the time spent removing invasive weeds is part of my commitment to this tiny bit of land entrusted to our care.

Anyway, on this day, I looked up onto a nicely weeded area in our woods and saw something PINK shining out at me. What? More rhododendrons? But no, it is not rhododendron: it is Aquilegia, also known as columbine. And it is pink. VERY pink. In fact, stunningly so.

I have to admit that it has been some time since I've seen any other shade of Aquilegia on our property other than WHITE. And so I was surprised and absolutely delighted to see this fine, healthy, huge, brightly shining pink set, right there, staring me in the face!

Now, I do not know if this is a miracle of it showing up because I weeded (or showing up, indifferent to my weeding, perhaps), or that it is just that it was always there and I could not see it because it was obscured by weeds. In any case, we are grateful for this pink surprise and I plan to gather seeds and shake them everywhere, so that we get MORE of these pink beauties NEXT year!

It's my custom to include a soundtrack song, but I've got to go with two. First is the question raised by Foreigner, in I Want To Know What Love Is. And it is answered by Sinead O'Connor, with Sacrifice.

P.S. My friend Karen says this is our good friend Ellen popping up to say Hi!