My daughters packed their cars, their dogs, a toddler and returned to New Orleans on Saturday. The house was cavernous and quiet. I needed to do something for myself or I knew I would sink into the sofa and sulk.
Petite Anse Farm advertised a cut-your-own-bucket-of-flowers weekend. On Sunday morning, I grabbed my coffee and smoothie and hit the road. The farm of beautiful Jennifer and handsome Andrew Graycheck is about 8 miles south of town. I was greeted by Georgia, their Australian Shepherd and Lorelei, their 5 year old.
In the warming breeze, I set out with a bucket of water and clippers. I stopped to take photos. I took Lorelei’s picture, and she took mine. She also helped me choose the best stems to fill my bucket.
When I checked out with Jennifer, I asked, “What am I going to do with all these flowers?”
“Give them to the people you love!”
At home I gathered jars and vases and cut the stems again to place in arrangements. After lunch, I set out to deliver flowers.
My friend (and my husband’s cousin) Annie has been called as a priest for our church. She is the first female priest in charge for the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in its 165 year history. I wrote an article for our local newspaper about her. You can read it here. I stopped by to thank her for all the little things she is doing at our church to make it a stronger community of caring people.
I made 4 more stops. It took me 2.5 hours because everyone was home and ready to visit. I caught up with friends and delivered a bit of joy in the process. Literally and figuratively filled up my bucket.
Reflections on the Teche 
What a perfect day to avoid sitting and sulking in an empty house. Lovely pictures. How exciting about Annie, friend, cousin, pastor, and first woman priest at your church. I’m writing this comment first on my phone, and then clicking to read the article you wrote. What a perfect day!
Cutting my own flowers from a field has been one of my great joys the past three summers. We have lots of farms that allow people to come to do that here in Lancaster. It’s a wonderful way to add warmth and brightness to our homes.
LOVE it. Every single bit.
What a beautiful slice all the way around. I agree with Denise instead of sitting home and being sad you decided to find something that made you happy.
farm + picking flowers + Lorelei + Jennifer = joy
gifting flowers + Annie = joy
I grow both many perennials and five annuals in my garden for butterflies, bees, birds, people walking by, gifting flowers to people, and me.
flowers + butterflies + bees + birds = joy
giving flowers to people = joy
The two of my annuals I grow are cut & grow back zinnias and cosmos (3 feet kind). You can both of these easily from seeds. We plant two rows of the zinnias (around 2 1/2 feet tall) in the front of one garden with the taller cosmos in the back. Butterflies and bees love both of these flowers and their easy to grow. Today I had 7-8 monarchs floating between the zinnias garden and the perennial garden! I have never had that many before! I also had white cabbage butterflies, a small fritillary butterfly, honeybees, bumblebees, & other bees. Gold finches and other birds like to eat seeds from purple cone flowers, lazy Susans, daisies, and other perennials now through winter.
I also grow annual petunias and morning glories for hummingbirds and bees and I grow marigolds for smaller butterflies and to keep horn worms away from my cherry tomato plants and basil.
Anyway, I’m telling you all this because my children used to help plant and the garden was their science lab. You can do that with your grandchildren or students at school. All that science can produce a lot of notes/brainstorming/writing/poetry and joy. Some of my “super generation” monarchs could make it all the way to your garden.
Hey, I could text you some of my flower/bee/butterfly photos & video to you and you could share them with your students if you would like to. My email is
gailaldous@msn.com. Thank you for sharing your beautiful post and photos. Sorry I wrote so much.
I love reading about your garden. The summers are so hot here that I don’t spend much time cultivating a garden. But as the temps cool a bit, I need to get out into the dirt. I hope my grands will enjoy the outdoors, too. They love to watch butterflies.
Thank you. I’m sure your grands will keep loving the outdoors as long as they keep spending time outdoors doing things they enjoy, which it seems like they have been doing. We also took our girls hiking in the Adirondack Mtns. and to the the shores of Cape Cod before they could walk. They both still love hiking and the ocean. In fact our oldest, Maegan went to college in Vermont graduating in Environmental Science and Forestry. This spring she moved to CO and works for the National Forest Service in the lower Rocky Mtns.!
Our youngest, Heather plays viola very well and she has learned all the other string instruments, piano, some brass instruments, and woodwind instruments because she is in her senior year for music education! She has four concerts coming up this semester, hopefully all are going to stay in person so we can attend them. We have no clue where she got her talent, though.
You know I am savoring this sunflower love, Margaret – and the spreading of their inherent joy. Beautiful photos – and although your family had to return to NO, leaving you longing, I am so glad things improved enough there for them to be able to.
[…] you read my post last week, you know I have a thing for flowers. After visiting Petite Anse Farms and cutting my own flowers, […]