When a gardener goes to a basketball and her team plays poorly and doesn’t seem all that interested in winning, her mind wanders and she begins to notice subliminal messages about gardening in the advertising around the court.

She sees “time”,

And begins to think about thyme and how often writers use the phrase, “thyme in a garden” to mean not only the little tiny herb, thyme, but also the actual time, as in days, hours, and minutes, that seems to pass so quickly on warm spring days, but drags on forever on cold winter days and during basketball games when her team is so far behind.

She also wonders if it is time to add some thyme and other herbs to her garden.

She sees “lilly”,

And begins to think about lilies in her garden, not just daylilies but martagon lilies, too, and how she planted more of them this fall.

She also wonders if there are some other lilies she should get to plant in the spring.

She sees “buds”,

And thinks about how sometimes buds of flowers can be just as pretty as the flowers themselves, like rose buds and tulip buds.

She also wonders at how all the buds of next spring’s leaves and flowers already formed can survive the winter, and tries to remember what she learned about this in college, but finally gives up on that mental exercise and decides to just be thankful that they always do.

She sees the word “legends”,

And thinks about the legendary gardeners and writers who have shaped the gardening world through their writings and ideas and thinks that would be a good subject for a future blog post.

The gardener also wonders if anyone else has noticed these subliminal messages about gardening when finally the buzzer sounds, the game ends, and she heads out into the cold night putting the horrendous performance of her team out of her mind and replacing it with thoughts of herbs, lilies, buds, and garden writing legends.

(Click on the  pictures to enlarge them if you can’t see those subliminal messages!)