It was Seven Years Ago . . .

It was SEVEN years ago yesterday that I began this journey

The Lines from Linderhof Blog journey

I've enjoyed it immensely and I look back at those old posts . . . 

And realize what a "newbie" I was

How inexperienced

But I "soldiered" on

And now SEVEN years have gone by

Not a post every day

But almost

Close to 2000 posts, I imagine!

(If I'd count them up)

But the best thing about this journey . . . 

Is all of you who I've met along the way!

Here's to the first seven years

And to many more

And in honor of that day, May 5, 2008,

I am reposting that first post

With an update following!

My very first blog post:

The gardens at Linderhof are filled with flowers. Most are "pass along plants" -- plants given to me by friends and relatives. Old fashioned flowers for they seem to suit Linderhof's age. Old fashioned flowers because they seem to grow well on my part of the prairie.

Iris always reminds me of my grandmother for her garden was always full of them -- mostly the old fashioned deep purple ones. She called them flags and they didn't bloom in her garden until around the end of May. They were always picked and taken to cemeteries on Memorial Day.

When I stopped by Sally's today to see a new plant, not only did I get a great cup of coffee which we sipped on her covered back porch while watching the birds and a dish of ice cream with strawberries but I also ended up with a grocery sack of iris -- pale purple ones -- so pale that they seem white.

None of the iris in Linderhof's gardens are that color and I put them in a special place. Where you can see them from the breakfast room. They won't bloom this year but they will bloom the next and those icy purple iris will always be a reminder of a day spent on a porch with a friend.

Seven Years Later . . . that same garden

It's matured, there are roses and a fence and a birdbath

The iris mentioned in that long ago post have since been moved

The brick paths are the same

The arbor is the same

And the sundial in the middle is the same

(only now it's filled with flowers instead of water!)

I want to thank each and every one of you who visit Linderhof

for you certainly have enriched my life!