Oxalis, sedum, moss, and a bunny

My grandmother's oxalis is blooming. She planted it around her house in the 1940's. I should have asked her where she got her start of it.  As it spread from the house like weeds,  her gardener Raymond would cut over it and it would spread out even more.  It has no smell but blooms all summer in the shade. 

It forms small bulbs about the size of garlic. I'm going to start digging up clumps and mailing them to cousins so it can perhaps survive in our family as an heirloom plant of hers. 

I was fortunate to have been born on her birthday and also in the same place....Birmingham.  Since I was next door here on the farm,  I was at her house just about every day while growing up.  She lived to be 98.  Lord, she's been gone now 18 years but it doesn't seem to have been that long ago. 

This sedum blooms a greenish white and is from my other grandmother.  She had a difficult early life as her mother died when she was 3 and her father's second wife  poisoned him and gave my grandmother and her brother and sisters away and ran off.  They were in north Georgia where all those Foxfire books were written. My grandmother's uncle later found out what had happened and gathered the children back together and took them to his home. 

One day when my grandmother was about 5 she was told by the stepmother to sweep out the fireplace.  Some of the soot got on the floor and the lady whipped her.  My grandmother remembers that her father came in and saw what was going on.  He told the woman,  "If all you've come here fer is to whup the child, pack your duds and leave."  My grandmother then remembers that soon after, her father was dead.  That is the only quote I have of her father's but it's worth a million dollars to know it. 

My mother's father, during the depression, hung an old tire in a tree and planted this sedum moss in it. It can grow very long and will bloom little white flowers later in the summer. My Aunt JoAnn also keeps some of it growing around the outside of her chimney. 

I have managed to keep some of it alive thanks to my mother and other aunts who planted it in pots on their porch and in the yard in a cool spot.  There is a book called Passalong Plants which explains the practice of having family plants that go back generations.

My mother was born in Ashby, Alabama. This is an old brick made there. Ashby is an area in Bibb County.  My mother loved Easter more than any other holiday.  She died in April, 20 years ago.  So Easter is my most difficult holiday to get through. I asked my great aunt years ago, "How long does it take to get over a mother's dying?"  She said, " My mother died 50 years ago and I'm not over it yet."  

This little bunny sits in a basket with a wreath of eggs. 

I bring her out every Easter and sit her on a couch or a table.