Bringing the Outside In

When I heard that Hilary was concentrating on spending a lot of her sabbatical outdoors, my first thought was, "Well, that sounds unpleasant." I'm glad Hilary enjoys hiking and nature, but I am definitely an indoor girl. I spent a week at a beach house with my parents and siblings, with their families. I did not once go to the beach. I explored some shops, coffeehouses, and one very good bakery, but my feet didn't hit the sand.

The one exception to this rule is any place with flowers. While I didn't get any beach shots in Michigan, I did have to stop in front of a bed and breakfast and take a picture of their striking irises.

While we bought our house for a number of reasons, the flowers were definitely one of them. The woman who originally owned the house was a professor in the horticulture department at Purdue. From the first hyacinths in spring until the last mums in the fall, the first year we lived in the house was a delight of surprising blooms.

In the seven years we have lived here, some plants have died, and we have replaced them with others. In the front yard, we had a large yellow rose that became diseased. Daniel dug it out, and next to her black-eyed susans and yellow lilies, we planted a hydrangea, hollyhocks, beebalm, sedum, phlox, yarrow, and allium. Of course, we also planted about five other types of plants in that hot, full-sun area that shriveled up and died. At one point, we also had one more hydrangea, hollyhock, and phlox. As our summers get hotter and drier, gardening gets tougher. I've come to accept that every summer I will lose some plants and every spring I will have to plant some new ones. Still, I will brave being outdoors, which we have established I don't care for, in the heat, which I really hate, in order to water all my flowers.

When I arrive home from something, I park the car and then do a circuit around the house, checking all the flowers to see if anything new is blooming. Looking at them just makes me happy. They are so colorful and have such interesting textures. I softly touch the blooms and smell the ones that have any scent. I smile at the bees that happily buzz around. And of course, from time to time, I cut the blooms and bring them inside. Then I have the best of both worlds—my beautiful flowers in the climate-controlled, air-filtered inside. I can relax in my recliner in the quiet and still see some of the best nature has to offer.

—Lara

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