Two Beautiful Garden Bouquets and Ups and Downs…

This weekend has been an extreme roller-coaster of highs and lows.  

Mostly lows though…..

You know what makes a person feel better though?  A beautiful bouquet.  I would like to showcase two bouquets that were submitted for August’s Monthly Garden Bouquet.

I can’t wait to share them with you.

Isn’t it lovely?

This bouquet was created by Marguerite who lives in Prince Edward Island.  She has a great blog called Canoe Corner.

She created her bouquet using flowers from her own garden.  She included one of my favorite flowers, Peonies, which unfortunately do not grow where I live.

The next bouquet is from David who lives and gardens in Texas.

David has been a faithful contributor to the Monthly Garden Bouquet.  He always creates a monthly bouquet from his garden for his wife.

This one he named “Welcome Home” bouquet after she began working full-time.  

He made it out of Blue Daze, Serena Purple Angelonia, Yellow Musseanda, Luteola and Bergarten Sage.

David is a wonderful blogger and you can read more about his garden on his blog, Tropical Texana.

So, if you would like for your bouquet to be included next month, all you need to do is to send me a photo via email (link on my sidebar), or you can send me a link to your blog page.  You can also post on my facebook page if you like.

I will post it on the 20th of next month.

The only guideline is to create a bouquet using plants from your garden.

I can’t wait to see what you create 🙂

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The past few days have been emotionally exhausting.

My father-in-law, who is suffering from ALS, was taken to the hospital with pneumonia.

We have spent the past three days there with him and other family.  Yesterday, his breathing became even more labored and he is becoming increasingly dependent on a machine that assists his breathing (not a ventilator though).

It is hard to see him suffer so much from this disease.  He can no longer communicate beyond nodding “yes” or “no”.  Using his hands is no longer possible and he is almost completely wheelchair bound.

Today his lungs began to collapse due to his disease, but for now, the breathing machine is helping to keep them open.  

In the midst of all of this was a very joyful time.  You see, my daughter had a 4-D ultrasound where we could actually see the features of our new granddaughter’s face.  Even though she is not due for 10 more weeks, it was so wonderful to gaze upon her precious little face.

It was disconcerting to go from such sadness, to joy and back to sadness in a period of 2 hours as we left the hospital to go to the ultrasound and then back to the hospital.

We did bring the photos of the ultrasound to my father-in-law so that he could see his first great-grandchild.  He has been so excited about her.  We only hope that he will survive long enough to see her in person.

For now, we are living in a period of uncertainty.  No one knows how long he will live.  Will we get a call tonight?  Or, will it be a few more months?  No one knows.

What we do know is that there will be a precious little baby born in about 10 weeks.  It is that certainty and joy that is helping us through this difficult time 🙂

I hope you all have a wonderful week….

Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."