Week 16 of the 52s...A Bit of Solace

It's been a fraught week, weighted with incomprehensible horror.  I actually forgot about the 52s until this morning and honestly, at first I couldn't imagine what to do, even thinking that perhaps this was the week I would take a pass.

But as I stared out my windows, sipping my coffee, listening to the latest news unfold, I decided  I needed to dig, to smell the soil, feel the earth, encourage Life instead of contemplating Death.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do, so after walking the boys, I went to my local garden center and found first a tree, then a shrub; I already had the perfect spot picked out...

There was plenty of room around the gigantor pot, so...

...to the left of the pot I planted this, a new kind of dwarf Lilac that will only grow to about 3 feet and will stay wispy and elegant, and so wonderfully fragrant.











On the right, this dwarf Daphne will also stay within 2-3 feet.  I love the smell of Daphne, but this one?  Holy crap, it's like sticking your head in a bottle of perfume.  I nearly had an allergy attack in the car from the fumes and the dogs kept sneezing, which was pretty funny.





I tried to find a little humor, so added this Whirl-a-gig thing that I just love.  It spins wildly in the wind as the bird bobs from side to side...a bird with a jeweled tail...

I thought about Boston as I planted, I wrestled with despair as I tried to make sense of innocent lives lost, damaged, changed forever.  And for what?  I don't understand what is wrong with us as a species.  Why do we do these things to each other?

In the end, all I could do was plant two small bits of beauty in an ugly world, and try to find hope in the midst of chaos and madness.  It's not enough, not nearly, but that's all I've got right now...