the greatest

action

is

not conforming

The left side of my backyard has for years been a forgotten step-child. But for some reason, this spring I decided to make it other. My solution, and it was a serendipitous process as to how I got to a decision, was to turn it into a zen-garden. And with that idea in the back of my mind, I began to shape it.
What you see, in the above pic, is its latest transformation.

Some Background
– At one time the left-side had a 50 foot sequoia on it. It had started life as a bonsai but its roots left the confines of the pot and borrowed into the soil; the blue marble sits on what’s left of the tree-trunk.
– Where the apricot tree stands, there once was a cascading spruce. It too had been a bonsai that refused to conform. It grew a magnificent canopy and every spring its soft, green candles danced with the night winds. But a late, heavy, wet snow ripped it from the ground.
– The blue marble that everyone loves, is really a tribute to my sister Jo’. I bought it the weekend she died – June 30, 2001 – and it has been in the backyard ever since.
– Between the fern and the tall terracotta planter is a large blue-stone from the shores of Lake Superior. Under it is written September 6, 2018 – the day my dad died.
– The Buddha, in the back against the fence, too has been in the backyard for years.

It very much feels like I’ve been circling the idea of a zen-garden for years – look at all the elements that have been always part of the left-side. At one time, in the area with the small, blue stones, I had fashioned a stream-like feature using hundreds of blue rocks that I brought back from the shores of Lake Superior. Those are now along the left fence where the pots are.