Lupines and Hydrangeas

       This afternoon at three o’clock the first vesper service of the summer will begin at the Oysterville Church.  It’s hard to believe that it is our 32^nd season of ecumenical worship services in the historic old building.
        Yesterday I swept up a bit and set up the extra chairs in the Sunday school room.  This morning I’ll distribute the hymnals – one on every other seat – and place bouquets on the piano and pump organ.
     In our garden, choices of flowers are still slim this early in June.  But for the first year in memory we have an abundance of pale blue hydrangeas.  That hydrangea plant just sat there under our parlor window for years, never producing more than a blossom or two.  It was clearly not happy but none of our tender loving care seemed to help. And then, a year or two ago, some lupines arrived – volunteers from who-knows-where.  Voila!  Both hydrangeas and lupines are thriving.
     On Wikipedia I found that lupines are a legume and can fix nitrogen from the atmosphere into ammonia via ‘a rhizobium-root nodule symbiosis’ (read: magic), fertilizing the soil for other plants.  That information, of course, prompted me to look up hydrangeas which didn’t give me any additional insights but reminded me that acidic soil gives hydrangea blossoms a blue color.
     It goes without saying that flowers for today’s service will be arrangements of hydrangeas and lupines.  They have demonstrated without a doubt that they belong together and I can’t think of a better place to display their beauty than at the church across the road.