Relax...

By the time you are reading this I will be elbows deep in exams to grade and paperwork to complete.  I am a college professor and program head. As it is the final days of the summer semester there is a lot of semester-end work that needs to be done before my brief, but long anticipated, summer break begins. If you went to college you remember the anxiety that goes along with exam week.  FYI- Professors feel it too!

Regardless of where you are on life’s path, still in school or with a “grown up job” or raising kids, it is important to step back from the anxiety and relax a little-  even if it is just for a few minutes.  For me, it is a short break on my deck enjoying a cool beverage on a beautiful summer day.  There I am surrounded by my pots of flowers and herbs with my dog as my faithful companion. The picture above shows my “Flamingo Garden” which resides on a corner of my deck- Begonias, Trailing Petunias and Vincas, all in pink. (These Begonias, grown locally and sold as a fund raiser for the local high school orchestra, are the most beautiful and hardy flowers I have ever grown!) The container is surrounded by herbs (yes, I actually use the herbs to cook!) and other pretty little plants.  

This amazingly vibrant flower, apparently Verbena, is part of a container I rescued from the garden center.  I ran in the store one day to pick something up and saw a shelf of clearance plants that needed a home.  I bought one and the flowers have amazed me with their resiliency and beauty. 

 If I am out early enough I get to see the pumpkin blossoms in bloom. They close up during the heat of the day.  I believe that this plant was sown by a squirrel.  I usually leave my uncarved pumpkins in the backyard after Thanksgiving for the wildlife to enjoy.  Perhaps one of them buried the seeds to this plant and forgot them.  The vine is now about six feet long.  The bees were visiting the blossoms this morning.  I hope I get a pumpkin!  

On quiet days, early in the morning and early in the evening, I am joined by birds, squirrels and a bunny eating at the feeder beside the deck.  I feel like Cinderella sometimes! 

And next week, once the craziness is all over, the cool beverage I am enjoying on my deck might just look like this.

I hope that whatever you are doing this summer you too have a few quiet moments to just sit and relax and enjoy your surroundings! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Cynthia