Where We Go, Nature Follows

My husband and I both love nature. We enjoy going to parks, hiking, gardening, etc. Nothing too wild, just the peace of being outdoors. Over the years we have had many wildlife sightings around our home. We have always had the usual blue jays, cardinals, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, finch, butterflies, bees, deer, fox, etc. But occasionally we have been blessed with some unusual visitors. These are some of my favorites!

A Praying Mantis on our Bee Box.We thought she had possibly left an egg case, but never saw any babies.










A large green frog on top of our hummingbird feeder.

     This beautiful family of barn swallows nested in the curve of our rain gutter.

 It was amazing to watch the parents make the nest, lay eggs, and eventually watch

 the babies crowding the nest as they learned to fly.

And these guys were my all time favorite. Our neighbor had an abandoned silo that a mother hawk decided was perfect for nesting. That summer, we had the privilege of watching the babies grow and fly around our home. You could hear their screeches each morning as they rested on the phone lines along our road.

Today, we were eating lunch and I looked out the window and noticed something moving in one of our trees.   Brian and I ran outside to find this big guy making his way to the ground. From what we could tell he is a rat snake. I'm not a huge fan of snakes, but he was pretty cool.

NOT my dream garden...

When my husband and I were just married and living in our country farm house our garden looked like this....

Raised beds
Honeysuckle arch
Grape arbor
and all the vegetables we could plant.











We were also surrounded by flowers of every sort.
Bleeding Heart
Phlox
Lilies
Blue Indigo
Sweet Peas.....

I could go on, and on, and on.....I'm a flower lover.


I loved being surrounded by nature and working hard to make something beautiful.

Now, 2 babies later,and a move to a small town, home and yard...if you can call it that.
Our garden looks like this....

Yikes! I know!

My husband and I weren't ready to completely give up our love of gardening. But due to lack of time, space, and the fact that most of our money is going to diapers and formula right now....this is what you get.

I have been impressed by how well our squash, zuccini, and cucumber are doing in....that's right folks....window boxes! They are self watering boxes that we had on our old house, but they are providing the plants with just the right amount of water, as you can see, they are thriving!

So while this isn't my dream garden. I am happy that my daughter went out and helped me plant seeds tonight. I am happy that we will have some fresh vegetables to feed our family. And I am happy that I haven't given up one of my passions, because life is crazy hectic and I need this.