Connecting with Nature
One of my favorite ways to recharge, unstress, is to be outside. Outside with nature. I love this time of year, it doesn’t even feel like summer, although my kids are out of school. Beautiful outside, nice breeze, warm not hot. Overcast, an occasional mist of rain, or raining buckets.
Today I spent time with my youngest daughter working in the garden. It sure can use the work. My daughter quickly found some earthworms, we were pulling out weeds, and more worms kept popping out. Earthworms are welcome guest to my garden, soon we had 4 worms wiggling away, right where we were trying to weed. You could still catch a whiff of honeysuckle that grows wild by the fence. The ground was soft and warm, easy to work. The plants are very happy, enjoying all these rainy days.
Now if you have worms, the birds are happy too. We seem to have lots of birds in our yard, but they need to quit eying my new little grapes. Last year they left them alone until the day they got ripe. I had no idea that birds could eat so much so quick.
Our cat Tiger Lily loves those birds, and it is her job to keep the birds out of the garden. We watched her climb a tree, and the magpie (at least I think that is what that noisy bird is called) would tease her to climb just a little higher. She’d slowly work her way up the tree and the bird would take off. Finally the bird settled down on the fence right next to the garden.
Of course the cat had to come over too, and crouch down in the grass. And the noisy bird would play a game swooping down, trying to tag the cat before the cat snatched a feather or two. Quite entertaining, I think they play that game for hours. Our neighbor’s dog couldn’t stand it anymore, runs to the fence, barking up a storm. And the little 2 year old the dog belongs to, had to see what all the commotion was about. He also had fun “barking” at the cat. Tiger lily walks a few feet away, now that she is the star attraction, she can ignore all, curl up in a nice sunny spot and snooze.
And I’m at peace. In no hurry to go back in. All troubles forgotten, as it should be.
Heidi
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May 24th, 2007 at 7:33 am
What a beautiful post. And I couldn’t agree more. My husband and I head into the woods and hike on weekends when I’m not on the road — and the shift that happens in our relationship after ten minutes among the trees is palpable. My challenge is to get people to experience this level of bliss. Thanks!
May 24th, 2007 at 10:04 am
Thank you Christine! Imagine what our world would be like if more knew about the healing power of nature. I love trees too, why I like living in a green part of this world.
May 24th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Hello Heidi,
Ohooo, I get a peaceful feeling just reading about your morning in the gardens.
It’s the strangest thing, very, very, seldom does our cat “Tigger” even notice the birds! I suppose that is why we have so many…he sleeps right under the tree where the biggest feeder is, and he is just obvilious.
I didn’t know there was a cat in the world that didn’t chase birds…what’s with this cat?
Blessings,
Bea
May 30th, 2007 at 6:37 am
Bea, I’ll have to meet Tigger some time, never met a cat that wasn’t interested in birds. Thanks
Heidi
Jun 6th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Your cat has a gorgeous face. I agree with Christine – nature time really does transform relationships (but she said it more eloquently). I recommend hiking, kayaking, canoeing… even just a peaceful walk around the lake. Love your photos. I enjoy taking pics too, but they surely don’t come out like yours! Keep it up – maybe share them on http://sxc.hu or perhaps use them in your clients’ website designs… so many ideas here!
Nov 1st, 2009 at 2:42 am
I enjoyed your entry on weeding, including earthworms. We have weeding only in winter when it is our rain season. Only succulents can grow in our garden in the dry summer. Nice! is it not. Catch is that my hands look like a war zone when I weed between the thorns in winter.
PS. I am trying to puzzle out this carnaval concept.