Cranny charms

In our garden the planted beds, statuesque trees, vigorous bushes and profusions of flowers are the unmistakable stars, but even its corners and crannies have the capacity to delight. I call them pocket surprises. Sometimes it's a patch of blooms, usually poppies, craning round toward the sun. Other times (or indeed most times) it's just grasses that spring under your feet or weeds that try to charm their way into your heart with tiny white, pink or marigold petals, soft as roses. You might find hillocks of dug-up earth, courtesy of the resident moles. And always the constant buzz and hum of bees, dragonflies and wasps, punctuated by drifts of cottonwood and the near-silent whir of monarch wings.