I am continually inspired by nature.  Each time I take a little break and step outside, I am so thankful to have even a little piece of land on which to grow flowers and herbs and trees.  I remember when we were renters and I had to be content with simple containers on the front porch.  Even then I would take my three boys outside and we’d “garden.”

It’s a miracle that the insects keep doing what they do year after year.  Every spring it’s as if God whispers awake the flowers and the trees, who in turn wake the butterflies and the bees. 

I should never grow bored with nature and her thousands of little miracles that unfold every year. 

These red and black boxelder bugs that congregate in literal droves around my vegetable garden are probably pests, but I marvel that they disappear and come back each year, over and over again.  They like boxelder trees.  No surprise there!  They also like maple trees, however, which we have several of, so I suspect that’s why they hang around our yard.

This fancy foliage on the bronze fennel says to me sometimes when I go pushing my wheel barrow by in a big hurry, I’m a big, mean caterpillar!  I always screech to a halt and do a double-take.  Nature plays tricks!  Sometimes it reminds me of a large fancy plume on a fancy lady’s hat.  I have to smile.  God has made a lot for man to wonder about.

This fierce-looking jumping spider,  Phidippus audax, will indeed jump if provoked.  The name “audax” was taken from Latin and means audacious or daring!  I was trying my best to zoom in without provoking!  He did creep out a little further and turn to me as if to say, I will jump!  Hopefully he’s eating up some earwigs these days.

Spiders amaze me.  They are everywhere, even places men desire to be and never quite make it.

Proverbs 30:28 The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces.

This little gray spider was coolly hanging out on the rue.  I wonder why?  I’ll have to keep up with his (her?) doings. 

I see myself in nature.  I see myself in the constant cycle and changing and living and dying.  I see myself in the struggle to survive and in the ebb and flow of plenty and not enough. 

I’ll close on a silly note by showing you the cutest little pantaloons made by my mother.  She is the best seamstress!  She’s very modest about her abilities though.   I need to have some more of these pantaloons commissioned!  I love the ones I have and wear them often, even in the garden.  They are great with skirts or long shirts. 

Admire the nature around you!

Lynn