I’ll count my sweetpeas…

An envelope of optimism
arrived in the mail today.
A purchase made with wisdom?
I cannot as yet say.

Now they’re spread upon the table
all these packs of possibility
each neatly filled and labelled –
with hopes of harvests yet to be.

So on this sunny autumn day,
with a dozen types of seed,
out to the garden I make my way,
and pray they will succeed.

For it won’t be a secure life,
they’ll be prey to birds and possums,
and frosts and drought and other strife.
I’ll count my sweet-peas when they’ve blossomed!

I love buying seeds and bulbs online – it’s an expression of optimism and faith in the future.  And between delivery being a bit slow out here and me rarely remembering to stop in the village to check the mail, by the time I get them I’ve forgotten what I ordered, so it’s like a surprise present. 

A brown envelope arrived a few days ago, just in time for a long weekend of gardening – onions, kohl-rabi, broccoli, snow peas, sugar-snap peas and sweet-peas… They’re mostly planted now, and I just hope nothing eats them before harvest this year.