Growth

My mother planted a Wisteria vine below her porch when we moved here seven (almost eight) years ago. It has since grown to cover one entire side of the porch and the shade it provides cools the hanging swing and rocking chairs enough to hold back the North Carolina heat.

 

 

I free-handed, or well, free-sawed this tiny creeping vine that wraps around the band of this ring, all the time thinking of growth and how rapidly that tiny stalk of Wisteria has become a thick clinging trunk spreading its leaves in all directions seeking the sun and looking for the clearest path for growth. 

 

I love the aventurine, the facets reflect the light, tiny flashes of color when you move your finger. The Wisteria leaves do almost the same thing, different shades of green depending on how the sunlight hits the leaf. 

She tells me she's got beetles this year, and I can only hope she finds a way to get rid of them. That Wisteria has become a part of the house, and yes, I know how ravenous it can be, but it's kept clipped back and controlled. It hasn't snuck under the shingles or crawled into the siding, though we did sacrifice a porch railing or two to its growth.

 

I've never thought of plants as friends, but that Wisteria comes close. In the late afternoon a cool breeze and a bit of shade are the only things between you and the scorching summer sun and I sure am thankful for that wall of tangled vines.  

 



It's all growth around here, plants, animals...babies. I hope your summer is the same, plants springing up all over with shade to block the summer sun, and growth, plenty of growth.