The garden I daily find myself in is surrounded by the wonders of nature. My view is supported by towering cliffs or granite walls, and trees nearly as tall or so it seems. The trees stand straight as arrows, sometimes or when the noon breezes blow they gently sway and make the sounds of the seas, well air through needles and cedar boughs anyway.

today I found myself catching the second growth of the crocus as it springs forth its green leaves amidst all the long gone dry leaves of 2009. From a few inches my crocus has new growth that well spring of cellular movement upwards is now about 7 inches high and unfurling large lovely leaves that are hoovering over a slender bud that is just beginning to poke its way skyward. It is peeping upwards towards the underbelly of the larger parent leaves that are gracefully protecting its tender innocence...just as I see infant children toddling beneath the tall leg stalks of their parents as they walk about the Ahwahnee gardens, absorbing the same view of my world as I am.

Today was a day for raking and sweeping and picking up of the debris that continually gathers upon the lawns and other garden surfaces. As I drove my gator around the main lawn, I saw that some small children had kicked my piles of carefully raked leaves and then went running off playing rather destructively I might add with our garden sprinkler heads. One little person was banging them up and down...tiring of this game the child then ran off to play jump rope with our pathway rope fences, as though in fancy play put them in a hurdle race, whereby gaining one rope and then, hop, hop across the path. Youth does not always miss and the falling down did not happen. So I went on my way off down the flagstone pathway, catching up my piles as I roared away. The wedding lawn produced some nice sticks and I tossed them aboard also. With my gator loaded I roared out to the pile of sticks that has evolved into a larger pile of trees and stumps.

There was a point out in the garden when I stopped by the creek to clean it out. It was a mess. One young lad stood on the other side and he was watching me. He hollers at me from across the way, "Is that a beaver dam?" Well I hollered back to the lad: "No, we do not have beavers in Yosemite!" I was merely cleaning it so the water would flow nice and steady. That is what we do up here, keep the water flowing.