Tags
A Writer's Garden, Carole Ann Moleti, COVID-19 Garden, Fantasy, flowers, Garden blog, Nature, paranormal, Unfinished Business Series
Welcome to A Writer’s Garden where writers who are gardeners or just love gardens will be sharing their garden and flower stories, as well as a bit about their writing. Today’s writer/gardener guest is Carole Ann Moleti, who is talking about how her garden helped get her through her COVID-19 experiences this year.
Welcome, Carole, and thank you for your front-line service during this global pandemic.
This past winter was more like an endless spring of damp, dreary days with flooding rains. The camellia bloomed, blood red, during the final days of March.
Camelia
That was right about the time those of us in health care raced in blindfolded, with one hand tied behind our backs battle to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
In those early days, adrenaline pumping, I’d return home from what was supposed to be an 8-hour shift that lasted 10-12 hours. I’d pull into my driveway, and Mother Nature would welcome me home to my garden.
The world was silent to human ears, with New York City on PAUSE and battling a killer virus. But, like before we dominated the Earth, the flora and fauna breathed deeply of the fresh air and thrived.
By March 27, the chirping robins had returned, and were building their nests in the trees. The camellia was fading but I cut a bumper crop of daffodils and made nosegays with the grape hyacinths, which brightened my mood.
Daffodils and forsythia (upper right)
grape hyacinths and heuecera
My tulips did not fare well, with only four pale purple blooms, but the forsythia was a wall of bright yellow. Squirrels darted about. And there was not a single human sound, other than my waterproof clogs tapping the slate before I left them at the back door.
The streets were deserted, but nature didn’t care. There was no traffic, less smog, more parking and the sunrises and sunsets over the South Brooklyn waterfront conveyed peace and serenity moments before I entered the chaos that loomed beyond the door I was about to scan myself through.
May was soon gone, lost amongst 60-hour workweeks, and I never realized that Memorial Day weekend had passed. By June, the azaleas and irises were spent, and the mountain laurel, rhododendrons, and peonies were finally blooming.
peonies
The hydrangeas are in leaf. Who knows when their blossoms will emerge in this crazy year? I finally planted my vegetable garden.
hydrangea
The most amazing gift was the frog. We have lived in this house for thirty years. My young son had once hoped for a frog or toad, just like the ones in the legendary books by Arnold Lobel. We even had a toad house in hopes of attracting one, or both, but had no success.
Frog
As if it was waiting for curfew and COVID 19 restrictions to be lifted on June 8, as I walked past the pond, a frog leaped across my path. I thought it might be my imagination, but later I spied it on a rock. The next day, its eyes peeped out of the murky water, then disappeared. Hopefully it is here to stay. We all need health and peace and happiness.
Mother Nature has issued a stern rebuke. Human habits are driving many species to extinction, and we might be next unless we pay attention to the environment and take meaningful action to avert climate change.
We learned a lot about COVID 19 this spring, and about the best and the worst of human spirit. We’ll be better prepared for the next round, but hopefully the Earth can recover and we can avert another viral pandemic and violence epidemic.
Mother Nature spoke to me loud and clear this year, without saying a word. I just had to PAUSE to open my eyes and my heart to hear the message through the silence.
About the Writer/Gardener
Carole Ann Moleti lives and works as a nurse-midwife in New York City, thus explaining her fascination with all things paranormal, urban fantasy, and space opera. Her nonfiction focuses on health care, politics, and women’s issues. But her first love is writing science fiction and fantasy because walking through walls is less painful than running into them.
Excerpts of Carole’s memoir, Someday I’m Going to Write a Book: Diary of an Urban Missionary range from the sweet and inspirational in A Quilt of Holidays to the edgy and irreverent in Not Your Mother’s Book: On Being a Woman. She has a essay in the acclaimed Shifts anthology, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CB4XEIM/
and one in the forthcoming Impact: Personal Portraits of Activism due out September 2020.
Carole’s work has appeared in a variety of literary and speculative fiction venues. Short stories set in the world of her novels are featured in several of the Ten Tales anthologies. The Unfinished Business Series, a three volume paranormal romance, was published by Soulmate.
Social Media Links
Amazon: Twitter @petitemeetstree Website: Facebook
#Nature #flowers Unfinished Business Series #fantasy# paranormal
Catherine Castle 