The value of friendship is something that few people take time to really appreciate. When you need a friend, you realize just what kind of value friendship holds. I also value the companionship of my pets and consider them to be my friends too. I derive so much health and wellness and fun from my relationships with my pets, who are capable of unconditional love and unerring loyalty.
Monthly Archives: July 2011
Butterflies and Life Transformations
This week I visited my friend in her garden. There we spoke of the many transformative changes in our lives and in the world around us, as we watched butterflies and hummingbirds lighting on milkweed and on butterfly bushes (Buddleia davidii). Milkweed, is a native North American wildflower that attracts hummingbirds and butterflies. Viewed by many as a weed this important plant has been removed from acres and acres of land and replaced with lawns. But many organic gardeners like my friend and I are allowing it to take back the habitat it once was so prevalent in. Image credit
Hope, courage and strength
Our hearts all yearn for a better tomorrow, but hope is not simply wishful thinking. Hope is ‘confident expectation in a change in direction’.
Sherwin Nuland, is a surgeon, author and inspirational speaker. In this TED Talks presentation he mentions that the Oxford English Dictionary lists 14 definitions of hope but none truly hit the mark. Nuland speaks of moral imagination and the world as a patient in its original sense. We are the healers of the world through compassion, commitment, and persistence. Source
Companions in the Garden
Gardening is close to the soul and we are heart-sick at the prospect of a world without bees, so gardeners are focusing on companion planting vegetables with herbs and flowers that attract bees and butterflies.
Companion planting is strategically positioning plants in a garden to improve the soil, enhance growth and provide maximum ground cover. By companion planting you attract beneficial insects, and you repel pest insect communities and strains of disease reliant on different plants from invading your garden. Companion planting works well because the scent of one plant confuses the common insect pests of the other.
Garden tours are great
Garden tours are great!
I have friends visiting and we have been visiting organic gardens both large and small. What an inspiring way to spend our time it has been. We visited a truck garden, orchard, berry farm, and community garden first. Then we visited people with patio, deck and terrace gardens. We moved on to visit farmer’s gardens and backyard gardeners in their glory too. Lastly, we visited a butterfly, bee and hummingbird garden where colors were dazzling and the fragrances were hypnotic.
