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!