For nine years I attended church at the LDS Pocatello Fifth Ward – that’s what we Mormons call our parishes. I have many fond memories of my religious upbringing there, and among them are the songs we learned in Primary.

Every Wednesday at 10:00 A.M. in the summer and 4:00 P.M. during the school year, children from 3 to 12 years old gathered at the meeting house on McKinley and Elm to sing songs and learn about the gospel. Sister Stolworthy was the chorister who taught me songs and melodies I sing or hum to this day.

While taking a walk in my yard last Wednesday to monitor the progress of our year-old plants, flowers, and trees, I remembered the first couple of lines to one of those old favorites from that long-ago time, and that heightened the joy I found in my garden that morning.

The little song, “I Have a Garden,” also reminds me of my grandmothers’ gardens that I enjoyed so much. They inspired me to create a miniature “secret garden” beneath their lilac bushes.

While the young flowers, bushes, and trees of my garden in the western desert have to mature into back yards like Grandma B.’s and Grandma H.’s, I enjoy it still.

I invite you to sing along as you peruse a few pictures of my growing patch of happiness . (Just follow the bouncing ball – oh, wait. Dear Mitch Miller passed away recently. There will be NO bouncing ball. Sorry.)

Where sun shines brightly, and rain falls lightly ...

and breezes gather sweet fragrance there.

Song birds come singing out of the sky ...

butterflies winging, hovering by.

And in my garden, my lovely garden ...

there’s always beauty to greet the eye.