I am thankful for nature's surprises.
This week in my yard I found a few surprises from nature that made me happy.
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| At the beginning of spring, we saw several goldfinches. However, we hadn't seen any for a few weeks until recently. This one was eating seeds from the sunflower head it was sitting on. |
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| Yesterday, I went behind a row of bushes to see if any of the invasive weeds that I'm trying to control were growing again. I only found a couple of weeds, but I found something else I was excited about. I found several little volunteer begonias from ones we planted in front of the bushes last year. In our climate, begonias don't reseed themselves very often and especially not this far from the originals. |
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| I think the name of these lilies says it all--surprise lilies. They bloom on stalks that shoot up months after their leaves have died. |
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| We don't see as many butterflies here as we used to at our old house so we have been planting more flowers to attract them. I think it is starting to work with the sighting of this swallowtail last week. |
So for these things and the rest of the beauty that nature has to offer, I am thankful.
Love those Nature's surprises and your photos. How lovely to have birds and butterflies visit the garden and to discover self seeded begonia plants! Not to mention the surprise lily! I have some of those lilies growing at the back of my garden, although, they didn't flower, this year! I wonder why?
ReplyDeleteMy sister said that hers didn't bloom this year either. I don't know why they bloom one year and not the next although I'm sure it has something to do with the weather.
DeleteThe goldfinch is so beautiful ☺
ReplyDeleteWhen they get their bright yellow color, there's nothing more striking.
DeleteNature is full of colorful, beautiful things especially this time of year.
ReplyDeleteI think all the finches are beautiful birds but the goldfinch is truly the beauty queen of the bunch.
ReplyDeleteWe planted a lot of lantana this year and my backyard is a virtual butterfly garden!
Your garden sounds wonderful. We had lantana in Houston where it would come back most years. Here it's cold enough that it's an annual, an expensive one at that, but I really like it. We have fewer birds and butterflies than we did before. I'm not sure why but maybe because the lots are not as big here and everyone has a bird feeder.
DeleteI watched a squirrel trying to carry a nut that was way too heavy for him. It was so much for him to carry that he was limp-hopping. He kept looking for places to bury it and decided they were not the place. Then he ended up on a drain and dropped the nut down the sewage hole. You could almost see him getting all frustrated. I felt so bad.
ReplyDeleteDarn it. We have a new computer mouse that I'm not used to, so I just lost the comment I wrote.
DeleteAnyway, that sounds fascinating to watch. I guess it's the time for squirrels to be collecting food for winter, so he (don't know why, but I seem to make all squirrels male) should be collecting more nuts, hopefully more his size. From my experience, squirrels just don't bury their food, but stick it in all kinds of nooks and crannies.