A Year of Gratitude – March 27, 2024

Nature holds a lot of my daily gratitude. It seems to be placing it around for me to discover, especially on days when I seem to need it the most. Or, perhaps it is always there and I just know that I should focus on the natural world around me because I am bound to find something to be grateful for.

Today, that gratitude was at my feet. As I was finishing up my morning chores, I passed through a portion of our cottage garden to discover these gorgeous leaves partially covered in snow and dusted by morning frost. The colors were so extraordinary. I had to stop for a moment to take them in.

Most of our landscape is very brown or just starting to hold a hint of green, so these reddish purple leaves are a welcome sight. After the weekend’s snow, seeing a pop of new growth and color is a very welcome reminder that spring really will be here soon.

Colors like this aren’t very common in our garden. When everything is in full bloom, we have plenty of white, blues, pinks, and greens from the hydrangeas. The roses and annuals add touches of red. Peonies treat us to bright white, pale pink, and a bit of fuchsia. The lilacs and coneflowers add purples to the garden, but none of them in this deep plum color.

I know that it wasn’t the case, but it felt a bit like these leaves were here just waiting to be discovered. I’m so glad that I did, that I looked down to see that there was something beautiful and unusual to be enjoyed. I sure did enjoy seeing it. I hope that you did too.

What’s starting to wake up in your gardens? Do you have new growth to discover?

This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.