The Iris--from east to west

 "The flower that smells the sweetest is shy and lowly..."
                                           -William Wordsworth

1988 Petawawa,Ontario

 When we first started toodling across the country, I would put down a garden,of some sort, wherever we were based.Most of them were haphazard. It was fun. In Petawawa, I found out I was allowed to dig in the ground at the MQ's. SO I dug. I went down to the Ottawa River and found wild purple iris growing by the water's edge. Plucked them out of the sand. 

  Stuffed them in the middle of the square of flowers in the backyard. And there they stayed, until we moved a few years later.I had this feeling that I would miss them, unless they were brought along.

 When we moved to Cornwallis, I faithfully dug up the purple Iris (again).......

 Munched in it's ice cream pail of dirt , it drove with us , east, this time, to Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. It wasn't there long before it came time to dig it up again.....once more ripped away from its flower cousins.....

Fredericton, N.B.

 ....and planted  in the patch I managed to dig up in front of the the New Brunswick house.Not sure what I was thinking. But it was fun.

1993

 That year I was digging up ground quite a bit. I loved the Maritimes. I loved the people, I loved the weather. I had a veggie box where tomatoes grew abundantly. Funny thing was, we never used half of them. Gave most away. Watched the slugs eat them.

F'ton,1994

 Made cucumbers pickles with the neighbours, debated how to make tomatoe relish over tall glasses of lemonade.Discussed the finer points of quilting. Watched the leaves turn....Fredericton is still one of my favourite places.

 When it was time to leave for St. Albert, once more I hauled out the shovel, dug up the Iris, shook off the dirt and plopped it into an ice cream pail. This time it rode west to Alberta. In the moving truck.St. Albert I had  more trouble with gardening. Things died and shrivelled. Messy garden. The rhubarb from Fredericton did the best however.  

St.Albert, Alberta,1998

 The Iris did great. It just grew and grew. I brought along the rhubarb and the Iris to the B.C. Mainland.  I left the  garden to the next tenants.....perhaps they would have more luck with it.

White Rock,B.C. 2005

 In B.C. The purple Iris (high on the right of this pic) seemed to be very happy in the front patch. It flourished there. The rhubarb flourished as well.. The garden patch was small and neat. Pots overflowed.It rained. There was wind. Smell of the sea. 

 "Basically I was a hippie and still am a flower child...." -Donna Karan

 And then, finally, when that Iris and Rhubarb were about 20 some odd years, they made it to the island.  Their last place. The Rhubarb has long  long gone. Vanished into the earth, no longer able to continue after all those years. 

Campbell River,B.C. 2017

 And the Iris? Well. It made it to 2018 spring. It no longer bloomed. Grew as crooked as it ever did.  I had it dug up for the last time, to make way for the new. It had seen snow, lots of it, rain from east to west.When it would bloom I would remember that spring I first came across it on the sandy shores of the Ottawa River. I would remember the loons, and the call of the Canada Geese, and grasses waving in the wind, touching the warm water in the sunlight.....

 "Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair..."
                        -Susan Poliz Schutz (poet)(1944-)

 Photographs 2018