Is it weird that I did a happy dance when I saw a bud on my Nasturtrium? After killing 47 of these the first time around, I'm pleased to see this group likes it here!
Gardening has been a huge learning curve for me and keeps my mind occupied while I'm still treating this stupid Lyme disease that truly keeps me functioning at a mere 50% level of a normal person my age. So, my little 4 bed garden surrounding our fountain has been nicknamed my "Charlie Brown" experimental garden. I've turned it over 3 or 4 times now, killing some things, growing others. I love flowers and color but for me it's important that the plant looks good out of bloom as well as in bloom. I think it's safe to say that next year, Nastrutriums will be featured, now that I know how to grow them. They are going cray-cray right now and I love their foliage as much as their flower. Plus they are edible which makes them appear useful in an herb garden.
I don't know what I love more: that my Nastatrium bloomed and keeps blooming or that there are crab spiders who make their home on them. Life is full of things to appreciate if you look hard enough.
"Can you see me know?"
Here's a crab spider hiding on a snap dragon, hoping to lure in some delicious tasting pollinators. As usual for these wee spiders, she ran and hid from my lens at every turn. Snapdragons: Sigh. I love them in bloom. Out of bloom, not so much. I'm beginning to find that I'm no a fan of most annuals. I suspect the trick is to mix in many perennials so that when annuals pop up and then split the beds still look fantastic.
Sittin' in the mornin' sun
I'll be sittiin' when the evenin' comes
Watchin' the bees fly in
Then I watch 'em fly away again, yea
Sittin on top of the Bay-sil, watchin' the bees fly away, ooo
I'm just sittin' on the top of the bay-sil
Wastin' time.
Otis meets world. I think Otis is a teeny weenie 5 mm wolf spider who was watching the lady bug clean herself a few leaves below him. It's very hard to tell his species, but no, I don't think those are two eyes that you see. They may be his mandibles.
The daily drama in my garden keeps me entertained. Observing nature is a fantastic way to understand not only how to be a better person, but how to accept living with an organism that is making me so sick. As "bad" as it seems to live with a non-killable pathogen (and it sucks), it just is what it is. The pathogen isn't out to get me. Nature never does anything out of hatred, good or evil. Only for the survival of the species. We all have to learn to live with each other and do our best to keep on keepin' on.