Up Close and Personal

Hydrangea shrubs become so heavy with blooms towards the end of summer that their branches begin to droop.  Their tired appearance might make it easy for you to walk past.  But stop.  Take a closer look…

Despite the droopiness of the branches, is not each bloom still exquisite, still perfect in its form and softness?  Peering through the bloom, one can get a glimpse of the fragile inner structure that holds each of the tiny flowers together in the rounded shape that is often mistaken for the flower itself.  Look more closely…

Each individual little flower consists of three tiny petals with its own centre.  Look!  The tiniest of flies is taking a rest on one of them.

Like flowers, the more closely we look at people, the more wondrous they become.  Although they might appear tired and worn from a distance, up close, their resilience and beauty is revealed.  Sometimes it’s only when they begin to fall apart a little, that we can see what holds them together beneath the surface.  Each one is more complex than we could ever have imagined.  But such discoveries don’t come cheap.

It takes time, patience and energy to focus on a single flower or person.  Some open themselves more easily to revelation than others.  Yet each one will open and disclose its beauty in its own time.

So much is waiting for us to discover, in both flowers and people… if only we would take the time and look carefully.

Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better.

~ Albert Einstein

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Rainbow Haven Beach

The provincial park at  Rainbow Haven Beach can attract thousands of visitors on a hot summer day.   The large sandy shore is beautiful and the cool water can be refreshing in the heat.  A network of boardwalks leads to different sections of the beach, allowing visitors to walk among the grassed sand dunes without having to disturb the ecosystem.

Parking lots fill quickly, so vehicles line the sides of nearby roads, where they are often ticketed if wheels are found touching the pavement.  Lifeguards, washrooms, change rooms with an outdoor shower and a canteen are all available throughout the summer months.  Volleyball is a popular activity on the beach, attracting many young people.  The numerous plastic toys that are left behind indicate the large number of children who are kept busy playing in the sand.

Over the years I’ve noticed a decline in bird and marine life along this shore.  Intensive human activity, even if it’s limited to single season, has an effect on wildlife that cannot be denied.

Plovers no longer nest in the grassed areas, which is probably just as well, since many dog owners ignore the signs that instruct them to keep their pets on a leash.  Sensitive sandpipers have moved further into the quieter watershed area behind the beach.  Seashells have become more scarce over the years, as have the crabs and sea stars that were once common tidepool residents.  Only seagulls remain, if they are present at all, lured by the garbage left behind by visitors.

Wild Statice grows in the park.  Sometimes called Sea Lavender, it will be a bright purple once it’s in full bloom.  This plant is often used in both dried and fresh floral arrangements.  It is illegal to remove plants or animals from a provincial park.

Managing parklands in a way that allows people to enjoy nature while minimizing the negative effect on the ecosystem is an ongoing challenge.  If you visit this beach, take care to leave with only your memories.  Let only your footprints remain behind on the sand.

For all posts about Rainbow Haven Beach see here.

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Signs of Innocence

Ragged Robin flowers grow wild in the yard.  They just popped up a few summers ago and I’ve been mowing around them ever since.  They’re too pretty to cut down.

I used to mow around the Oxeye daisies too but now restrict their growth to mostly a large circular bed in one corner of the yard.  Once they’re done blooming, I mow the area flat.

Wild flowers require no special care.  They grow where God has planted them (or I’ve transplanted them) and need no extra watering beyond what rains down.  They’re not as prone to blight and insect damage as introduced species seem to be, and the slugs don’t have much of an apetite for them.

Unfortunately, these plants are often seen as weeds and tend to be either tolerated or eradicated with great effort from city lawns.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

~ William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

Whether or not a plant is considered a weed is a matter of perception.  Poet William Blake believed that ‘If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.’  Signs of innocence are close at hand but it’s up to us to open our eyes, take notice and try to understand them.  ’Everything that lives is holy’ and can bring us in touch with that which is infinite.  What positive things might happen today if we were willing to abandon our pre-conceived, limited notions of beauty and abundance?

Nature in its many forms possesses qualities that can connect us to this holy state.  From sandpipers on the ocean’s shore to doves on city streets, these signs of innocence are ready to give us a glimpse of the infinite and the eternal, if only we would adjust our focus.

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All Flesh is Grass

A native love story set in North America provided the inspiration for this painting by the French artist Girodet. The Entombment of Atala had a profound effect on me when I first saw it as a teenager in the Louvre Museum.

I was especially moved by the inscription on the wall of the cave which is easily discernible in the large painting, but barely visible in most reproductions.

J’ai passé comme la fleur.
J’ai seché comme l’herbe des champs.

Translated, it means ‘I have withered like the flower.  I have dried up like the grass of the fields.’

The ephemeral connection between humans and grass blew me away.

Especially when we’re young, we have a tendency to think that we will live forever.   As we age, we begin to take more notice of the change of the seasons and realize that old age and death eventually come to us all.

The bloom of spring becomes synonymous with the bloom of youth.  By the time we hit middle age, it becomes quite apparent that we are in the late summer of life, and that we too will eventually dry up and wither like the grass in the fields.

Yet every season in both nature and life offers a beauty of its own.  August days reveal the simple elegance of grasses on the landscape.

The Foxtail Barley shown at left is one that I find especially pretty.  However, it can be deadly if it finds its way into the hay meant for farm animals, as its tiny barbs are known to cause respiratory and digestive problems.

Despite its beauty when in bloom, grass serves its greatest purpose once it begins to dry and  go to seed.  It’s a comforting message of hope for those of us who wonder at times if the best of life might already be passed.

All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.
~ Isaiah 40:6

For more information on Chateaubriand’s early 19th century story of Atala and Chactas, see the Wikipedia post on Atala.

For more information about the painting, see The Entombment of Atala at the Louvre Museum.

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The Golden Days of Summer

Summer spills her golden days,
Upon the earth in lust displays.

~ Nora Bozeman

Warm August days bring forth blooms of a yellow color that weren’t noticeable on the landscape a few weeks ago.  These cheerful flowers have a golden glow that mimics the bright summer sun.

Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) are native to North America and are desirable in gardens for their bright color and quality of low-maintenance.  They’ve been used by native people to treat a variety of ailments from snake bites to earaches.   These yellow daisies  have a flat open design that is especially attractive to butterflies.

Evening-primroses (Onagraceae) open at sunset and close by noon the following day.  Also known as sun cups, they are pollinated by moths that fly from flower to flower during the night hours.  The young shoots of this plant can be eaten in a salad while the roots can be cooked and eaten as a vegetable.  Yet another name for this plant, King’s Cure-all, reveals its myriad medicinal uses, from pain-relief to cough suppression.

I haven’t had any luck identifying the plant with light yellow flowers shown above.  It grows profusely along the Salt Marsh Trail.  Does it look familiar to anyone?

Update August 6th:  I’ve discovered that this plant is most likely Sea Radish which is in the Mustard family (cruciferae).

Canada Hawkweed is also a native plant, found growing along roadsides and railway tracks.  Since the trail along the salt marsh follows the old Blueberry Express train track, it’s no surprise that it’s found along there.  Rough Hawkweed, which has hairier stems, grows in my lawn in early July.  Usually considered a weed, it derives its name from the old belief that it was eaten by hawks to improve their eyesight.

A few Golden Rod plants are in bloom along the Salt Marsh Trail but not yet in my yard.  Ever since I was a child, their blooming has been a sign for me that the summer was winding down. There are numerous varieties of this plant.  Larger ones have very rigid stalks and can grow several feet tall.

Take time this month to drink in the beauty around you.  If you don’t have a garden of your own, take an extra bit of time to enjoy the flowers growing freely along roadsides.  Enjoy these golden days because…

Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

~ William Shakespeare

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Blooming Now

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.

~ Dale Carnegie

Wild roses are the only ones that grow in my yard.  The bushes are in full bloom at this point in the season, attracting bees and some years, providing a secure nesting place for Snowshoe Hares.

A vine of ‘Hagley Hybrid’ clematis clings to the south west corner of the house near the clothesline.  Their blooms are numerous and a pleasant greeting whenever I hang clothes out to dry.

Hollyhocks cover much of the west side of the house.  My grandfather had a similar arrangement of these flowers in the home where I grew up.  I used to help him water them every evening in the summer.  I tend to only water them when the tops of the stems curl down a little.  The singles are already in bloom and will soon be followed by double blooms of deep burgundy and peach.

Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men and animals.  Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident, others are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Jessica at The Magical Mundane has also written a post revealing what’s in bloom in her yard this week.  This is the time of year when many flowers are at their most luscious in the Northern Hemisphere.  What flowers are blooming in your yard today?

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Where Mermaids Arrange their Hair

This large, smooth stone near Rainbow Haven Beach is where mermaids sit at dusk and at dawn. And what do they do there at the rising and setting of the sun?  They arrange flowers in their hair… flowers they’ve found on the beach, growing just at the edge of the high tide line.

These pink-lavender Beach Peas  have tendrils that can easily be twirled and fixed into long mermaid hair.  Land dwellers may have the wind to be concerned about, but mermaids also have to worry about the currents messing with their hair.  It’s not easy to find ornaments that stay in place.

Can’t you just see a pretty mermaid placing one of these pink and white Morning Glories  above one of her ears as she sits on the stone at dawn.  These wild blooms are colorful enough to look striking both above and under the water.

Jacques Cousteau believed that Manatees were what sailors really saw when they thought they were seeing mermaids.  It’s sad that scientists often try to make up in research for what they sometimes lack in imagination.

There are thousands of stones on shores around the world, where mermaids fix their hair and look out to sea as they plan or reflect on the day.  Perhaps there’s one such stone near you.

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The Simplicity of Daisies

The daisy’s for simplicity and unaffected air.
~ Robert Burns

Daisies can be found almost anywhere, growing in gravel along the roadside as well as in carefully tended gardens.  Yet, regardless of where they find themselves, they are consistently unassumingly pretty flowers with a simple design:  Circles of yellow surrounded by numerous petals of white.  Throughout the day, daisies follow the sun in the sky, turning their faces slowly from east to west. 
As a child I often picked bouquets of daisies but found it difficult to find any that weren’t a magnet for tiny insects.  They are a favorite with bees and beetles.

I also used daisies to decorate mud pies and made daisy chains to wear around my neck.  Who has not plucked the petals from a daisy repeating, ‘he loves me, he loves me not?’  Daisies and childhood seem to go together.  They are a symbol of innocence and loyal love.

Their Latin name Bellis Perennis means perennial beauty.  A perennial is usually a flower that lives for more than two years.  The name daisy originates with Day’s eye, as they are open from dawn to dusk.

The daisy is a favorite of my friend Rhonda who is 28 today.  Like the daisy, she has retained her sweetness and simple country girl manner throughout the years.  Here’s a spiral of 28 daisies to mark the occasion.  In this day and age, staying sweet despite our years is no easy feat and an accomplishment well worth celebrating.

Child of the Year! that round dost run
Thy course, bold lover of the sun,
And cheerful when the day’s begun
As lark or leveret,
Thy long-lost praise thou shalt regain;
Nor be less dear to future men
Than in old time; -thou not in vain
Art Nature’s favourite.
~ William Wordsworth, To the Daisy

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Think Pink

Forget pink cotton candy, bubble gum, Elvis and Mary Kay’s pink cadillacs, pink slips and the Pink Panther.  Forget the color’s association with baby girls and all things feminine…  lipstick, nail polish and party dresses.  Just… think pink.

Pink, often called rose,  is considered one of the calmest colors to look at.  Its delicate blush is attractive, non-threatening and uplifting.  To look at the world through rose colored glasses is to see everything in a positive light.

You may already know that Picasso had a blue period of painting, characterized by sombre arrangements of melancholic, seemingly disconnected individuals.  But did you know that his blue style was superceded by a rose period?  It expressed a changed life of personal happiness for Picasso, marked by closer relationships with others.

In nature, flowers like peonies, clematis and wild roses paint garden and roadside scenes with joyful jots of pink and rose.  The rising and setting sun may also blush the sky and landscape with a rosy glow.  Perhaps a walk at dawn or sunset may be just the remedy for a sad disposition.  If you’re really feeling blue, it might be helpful to gaze into a pink flower for a few minutes and breathe in its color.  It certainly wouldn’t hurt.  Just keep an eye out for the bees!

Frequently the wood are pink –
Frequently are brown.
Frequently the hills undress
Behind my native town.
Oft a head is crested
I was wont to see –
And as oft a cranny
Where it used to be –
And the Earth — they tell me –
On its Axis turned!
Wonderful Rotation!
By but twelve performed!

~ Emily Dickinson

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Field of Dreams

Have you ever entered a clearing in a forest and suddenly discovered something so unexpectedly beautiful that it almost seemed otherworldly?  This happened to me this morning.  One moment I was on a familiar trail, and the next, I was stepping into unknown territory, lured by wildflowers on the edge of a small meadow.

It was very early morning, and in the twilight, the lupins looked like a blue haze over the green meadow grasses.  I wondered how many people had come upon this place at different times and felt a similar sense of awe.

In one corner, a gnarly tree, bare of leaves, looked over the clearing with its arms raised in exclamation.  It had likely seen this lovely display on numerous occasions during its lifetime.  But such loveliness never fails to impress, regardless of how many times one sees it.  Our long, harsh winters work hard to erase the memory of such visions from one year to the next. 

Such sights in late spring refresh the spirit and are well worth the effort of trodding off the beaten track into unknown territory.  In more places than one can imagine, fields of wildflowers are waiting to be discovered.  God has built them.  Will we come?

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Seeing Stars

Not all stars twinkle in the sky.  Some glisten on the shore or wink up at us from the grass beneath our feet.  Their shape is often best appreciated from above.  However, I drew the Queen Anne’s Lace flower, shown at top, from the perspective of an ant that might be looking up towards the sky from a position on the stem.

Star shapes consist of five or more points radiating from a centre.

These star polygons are given different names depending on how many points they have.  For example, a pentagram has five points while an octagram has eight. 

Many of these star shapes hold spiritual significance.  Pentagrams are considered magical and often used in occult practices.  The Star of David and the Seal of Solomon are both hexagrams, star polygons with six points. 

On land, the variety of star shaped flowers is endless.  In the water, echinoderms are marine animals that reveal radial symmetry in some part of their design at the adult stage.  Sea urchins, sand dollars and starfish are echinoderms that often wash up on Nova Scotia’s shores. 

Sometimes, the star structure of the polygon is not as obvious, as is the case with the hexagonal chambers of bees.  Like other shapes in nature, such as the circle, the branch, the spiral and the meander, these tiny hexagons form exquisite patterns and are the building blocks for larger things, in this case, the honeycomb. 

Over the past five Saturdays, I’ve examined five different shapes found frequently in nature as a lead-in to a Summer Scavenger Hunt.  Next Saturday on June 20th, Midsummer’s Eve, I’ll provide final details of the hunt.  Wherever you make your home on the planet, whether you live in the city or in the country, I hope you’ll consider taking part.

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In this my green world…

In this my green world
Flowers birds are hands
They hold me
I am loved all day
~ Kenneth Patchen

Refreshing rains and sunny skies have transformed the outdoors into a green wonderland. Though you may have seen each type of plant and creature many times before, everything looks brand new and is a joy to behold.  Ferns and small woodland plants cover the forest floor. Each one is so delicate that you hate to crush them beneath your feet as you walk through the woods…

These bright white flowers will transform into perky red bunchberries later this summer.

This year’s new light green growth adorns the evergreen trees. Eaten by deer, hares and squirrels, they are full of vitamin C. Hemlock, balsam fir and spruce needles are all edible and suitable for teas. Simply steep a few tips in a cup of hot water.

Snowshoe hares dine on the dandelions growing in the lawn.  They eat the green leaves, stems, flowers and puffballs.  I wonder if they taste as bitter to them as they do to us.  Hopefully there will be baby bunnies in the rosebushes again this year.

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