Time for some time out! Hope you’ve all had a chance for a break too.
Still taking part in the Big Butterfly count though – a wonderful chance to take a moment and watch the world around me.
Having a Holiday
Author: sareenmclay
Wildflowers
Where flowers bloom, so does hope.
All summer I have asked in every garden centre I’ve been to (and there’s been a few!) if they had any Borage plants or seeds.
I must have been too late though as there was no sign of either.
I had read Borage is brilliant for bees so was quite enthusiastic to have some in my garden. Eventually I thought, I’ll just have to wait for next year.
Imagine my surprise when on returning from two weeks away my little wildflower garden (planted with a packet of un-named seeds) had turned from this to this!
I had a sneaking suspicion that the little blue star flowers might in fact be Borage and they are! It was growing in my garden all along! Right under my nose.
Funny how often things turn out after all.
Health and Houseplants
I grew up in a house with trailing spider plants, busy lizzies and goodness knows what.
One house we rented had a resident cheese plant so big it grew along the ceiling. It was a bit nerve wracking trying to keep that alive!
Anyway, I resisted having houseplants in our new home. I concentrated on working in the garden but I guess I missed the house plants.
So, after my daughters started to buy all the trendy succulents and had been encouraged by their Grandpa to try cactii, I finally bought some and … I’m loving them.
There’s a calmness about the shades of green, a generosity in the way the leaves open out to the world.
What a delight to look at the flower on this Peace Lily.
House plants are said to have many benefits to human health.
One of them is that we exhale carbon dioxide and they use it up in photosynthesis and give us more oxygen.
Another is better memory retention – now, I just have to get into the way of remembering to water them!
Do you have a favourite house plant you would recommend?
Butterfies and Fairies
Do you ever just know you are in the right place at the right time? Sometimes you’re lucky.
This Small Tortoiseshell butterfly did a tour of my garden before settling down for a rest.
I’ve always been fascinated by the symmetry and beauty of butterflies. Maybe because as a child I loved stories about fairies. If you look closely at the depictions of a fairy’s wings then really they are the wings of a butterfly. And so, it always seems to me there is something magical, something of another world about them.
Perhaps seeing a butterfly reminds me of those childhood days, lost in a book of fairy stories, transported to another world.
Just for an instant as they grace our presence.
I recently read had the pleasure of reading a beautiful book, ‘Cicely Mary Barker and her Art’ by Jane Laing. I’ve posted my review on GoodReads.
Ever wished you could name the butterfly that is fluttering by you?
Well, the Big Butterfly Count is on until the end of August. There is a handy App you can download.
Butterflies must flutter into my thoughts more than I realise. One of my very first blog posts was about butterflies and there have been more since!
A Kaleidescope of Butterfly Moments
“Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, “one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.” ~Hans Christian Andersen, The Complete Fairy Tales
Time for a short story? One of my favourites is The Faery Handbag by Kelly Link.
Planting Patience
Do you stop, hold your breath, count to ten, raise your eyes to the sky?
What helps you to be patient?
Do we have time for patience in this world?
At the graduation day of my nephew last week the speaker included this quote:
Judge each day not by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.
Gardening and writing are both a game of patience.
Think of the countless authors who have folders full of rejection letters, think of the gardener planting seeds.
Patience and hope are needed. Will your writing develop into something truly worthwhile? Will the seed you planted or the cutting you took grow into something beautiful?
I have just been so delighted by this honeysuckle – I took a cutting from the one in my garden last year, dipped it in some rooting powder and stuck it in my raised bed.
Hey presto!
A beautiful flower and even better, I got to divide it in two; one for my garden and one to give to my parents.
Definitely a win for patience and hope.
Now just to keep on writing!
Bee Happy
I wrote a blog post last week and for some reason it didn’t save.
Not a great start to a Monday morning when I was hoping to just check it over and publish.
Still, oddly enough the post was about little things and how they can make you happy. In the scheme of things I decided, this was not a big thing and certainly wasn’t going to make me unhappy.
In fact, in a cup half full sort of way, perhaps it was a good thing? Maybe the post wasn’t that great anyway and now this was a chance to start afresh?
A few years ago I cut out this clipping from a newspaper. For a while I hung it up in the kitchen and then I used it as a bookmark. I hadn’t seen it for sometime and had forgotten about it until thinking about this post.
On my way to try and find it amongst the mountain of books on my bedside table it was there; lying on the floor in front of me!
Somehow it must have blown off the table as I picked up a book that morning! Bizarre, definitely meant to be anyway!
Taking part in the Great British Bee Count has made me really pay attention to the beauty and intricacy of flowers. I’ve spent a few moments each time watching the bee at work, an amazing sight and well worth taking the time to see. Definitely a small thing I would like to add to this top 20.
So, here we are, blog post written, photos included, a small thing but certainly one to make me happy – I could add it to the list above.
I’d love to know, what small thing makes you happy, is it on this list or something different?
Switch the Kettle on, Love 