The Wonders of Nature
Written by admin on May 19th, 2008I 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
The Hundred Dresses
The Family Under the Bridge
Caddie Woodlawn. With the Wisconsin big woods theme, goes along great with a FIAR study of The Raft.
A Year Down Yonder
A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning
Pocketful of Pinecones: Nature Study With the Gentle Art of Learning: A Story for Mother Culture. Sweet fictional story about a newly homeschooling mother who incorporates nature study.
Nature Crafts for Kids: 50 Fantastic Things to Make With Mother Nature's Help
The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady
The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
Awakening Beauty the Dr. Hauschka Way
A Redbird Christmas: A Novel
The Usborne Internet-Linked Book of Knowledge
What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know
for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
20
AM
ohh I Do so love the Spider pics. You caught the green so well (That seems the hardest part to catch in photos) Thank you so much for sharing
Have a great day
20
AM
Lovely post…and I love those pantaloons!!! They look like they’d be wonderful to wear…and cute, too!
20
PM
Oh yes, let’s do get together one of these days!! Where do you live - Durham?
Meanwhile, here you are again dressed so prettily in the garden - Tasha Tudor the second for sure! Your Mom certainly made some cute pantaloons - maybe that’s what I should wear as they would prevent some of the dastardly mosquito bites - I’m so allergic to them!
The Southern bugs - not my favorite altho’ I admit some are very attractive and of course good for the garden. So many earwigs this year, even in my mailbox! I already see young fireflies everywhere - don’t you love sitting out at dusk in June and watching them show their lights all over the lawn?
Glad all is going well Lynn - heavy rain and distant thunder here as I write, lovely as long as the winds stay away! Tomorrow I will be planting the veg. garden - think it will be sunny and cooler, perfect.
20
PM
Mary, we did have some storms today, didn’t we? It wasn’t so bad right where I am, but I was traveling today and we did go through a storm. Some counties got it really bad.
If only I had Tasha Tudor’s garden!!
But I’m to be content with my own.
You and I will certainly get together one of these days, hopefully soon.
Lynn
20
PM
Thank you, Sandra. My mother told me today that she was going to make some more!
I want to buy them from her, but she won’t hear of it. I’ll try again!
Lynn
20
PM
Lynda, I thought the green was captured pretty well, too.
Spiders are neat, but they do make me nervous.
Lynn
20
PM
Well, at least the jumping spiders make me nervous. Lynn