Saturday, September 1, 2012

September Walk in the Gardens Challenge: Slow Down, You Move Too Fast


This meme is about allowing ourselves time to slow down...
we do move too fast.
Sometimes we just need permission to slow down 
so we don't feel so guilty. 

Each month on the first day, I give you that permission 
and invite you to share your discoveries.

Nature offers beauty in such abundance... 
beauty that is always there, we're just too busy to notice. 
As we slow down to walk about our world, we see differently, 
we feel differently 
and our Souls are refreshed and renewed.


My son is taking an Environmental Humanities class in college and he recently asked the question: 

What is NATURE?

I loved the discussion that ensued.
 
I believe that NATURE is God's gift to Humanity...
a gift that brings comfort, joy and peace.
I feel this deep within my soul
as I allow myself to slow down long enough to discover.  

Discovery does not validate existence... nature is always there,
sometimes hidden from our view 
as we live in this world of 
hurry, hurry... 
and busy, busy. 

The last couple of weeks in the cool of the morning 
and the calm of the evening I have been discovering a bit of nature 
in my garden that I wasn't fully aware of.



Summer Project 2012
Next to our newly completed Summer project... our Firepit,
we planted a new garden...
a Butterfly garden.
(Although the butterflies have not yet discovered it)

Little did I know 
that this garden would also delight 
another tiny creature 
that I thought only on occasional visited our gardens. 

Humming in the Leyland Cypress

I've discovered that Hummingbirds 
live in the trees above this garden.

I've watched as they fly in and out of the graceful evergreen branches.

I've seen their long tongues 
as they sip refreshment from the dew. 
Can you see me?

Looking back, I do believe they have been here all along...
I was just too busy to notice.



I've come to recognize that these tiny birds 
don't just fly through my gardens on their way to somewhere gathering nectar as they go...
instead, they live here,
they call my gardens home.

 Here, in my gardens they rest. 



Magic Hour in the Butterfly Hummingbird Garden
I've discovered their favorite places, 
and their morning and evening routine 
of feeding on the sweet nectar of the the blue Salvia.




I noticed one early evening a flurry of activity 
in this new garden.



Who knew that Hummingbirds are attracted 
to the blue of these Salvia blossoms?




And all these years I thought it was the pinks 
and reds and the orange.




There is so much more I've learned
and so much more to discover...
another day's post.




Come take the "Walk in the Gardens" Challenge.

Join me by publishing your own post

of what you discover during your walk.
Remember to include a link to
This Grandmother's Garden
in your post
then link your blog name to the linky list below.

On the first day of each month we do this again!

24 comments:

  1. Definitely lovely share. The hummingbird takes the lead. Your garden is really a beauty. Good choice for the hummingbirds. Check my site at 
    www.cheapsheds.co.nz

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  2. Jen @ MuddybootdreamsJanuary 9, 2013 at 7:53 PM

    I so enjoyed my slow walk through your garden, the birds, the blues, the lovilies.

    Jen @  Muddy Boot Dreams

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  3. Very nice captures Carolyn. You are very fortunate to have so many hummingbirds living right in your garden. Like some of your other comments, I have seen an increase in their numbers also.  I hope to find a study on this because it really is unusual this year. You had to have quick feet to follow them from plant to plant. Black and Blue was never a plant they frequented here, even though I grow quite a bit of it.

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  4. If you do find a study... please share! 

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  5. Oooh, what beautiful humming birds, how lovely to have them in your garden, the pictures are amazing! The most exotic things we get are wood peckers and mobs of house sparrows - very playful birds and amusing to watch too.

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  6. How very special to have Humming birds in your garden. These beautiful little birds are unfortunately not visitors to the UK although there is this large moth which is occasionally seen and from a distance is at times mistaken for a Hummingbird. I did enjoy your pictures of them.

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  7. Your photography is always AMAZING!  A couple of weeks ago a hummingbird overshot the feeder and got in the house.  It kept flying too high to find the door out.  I had to catch it in my hands.  Scared me 1/2 to death that I would hurt it.   It was amazing to hold that little thing in my hand.  

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  8. Now THAT is amazing, Elizabeth.  So glad you could be the rescuer.  Thanks for sharing such a sweet story.

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  9. I see hummingbirds every morning on my Salvia Black and Blue! I have it planted in pots, but next year I plant to integrate it into my beds.

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  10. I hope to plant more, too! Quite honestly, I found this plant in a nursery mid-Summer and planted it simply because I love blue flowers... and because it was labeled a perennial. I've since discovered that it is really an annual.  Maybe if the Winter is mild it will come back.

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  11. It is wonderful to discover something we have not noticed before.  Hummers are a special visitor here too as I have many plants they love and they seem to hit every color including white.  I love to watch them perch and rest.  You have made them so happy in your new garden...thanks for sharing this special story Carolyn!

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  12. Thank you, Donna. I've seen so many hummers in my garden during the past several years... that I've often wondered if they were nesting here. I've spent enough time in this particular garden in the past three weeks that I'm quite certain they are.  I'm having such fun with them.

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  13. The ruby throats are the only kind we have in the midwest.

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  14. I've never seen a hummingbird with a ruby throat here.

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  15. What great captures!  I've noticed quite a few hummingbirds for the first time in my garden this year, which has been so much fun.  They also love my black and blue salvia!

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  16. This is my first time to plant Black and Blue Salvia... sadly, it's an annual here.  It's now on my list of "must haves". 

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  17. I think it's so important to remember that our gardens are genuine homes to so many creatures, as well as being somewhere that thousand others pass through. We need to remember this - and take care of them.

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  18. Those hummingbird pictures are terrific. We've had more ruby throated hummingbirds than usual, but never have the camera at the right time.

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  19. I would like to be able to do that Carolyn, but my walk would only take five minutes, and then Ben my Border Collie would drive all the birds away.

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  20. I would leave the collie home once in a while. It would be worth it.

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  21. WOW great shots...I havent seen a hummer in years

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