Sunday 14 June 2009

Sunday safari...

Extract from A Secret Garden by Annie Bullen.

Each garden has a secret of its own.
Underneath the water in your pond, in tree branches,

in the shrubs and in the climbers on the wall, scurrying along the soil


and hidden in cracks and crevices are legs and fins and beaks and wings.

Heartbeats and wing beats, murder and new life.
Creatures that crawl, scurry and creep,
creatures that fly burrow and swim.
We see only a tiny part of what goes on and,
if we are able to act the part of silent watchers, we will find our own lives enriched by the daily drama of other creatures........
I've had a great Sunday, how about you??



31 comments:

Randy Emmitt said...

Cheryl,
Excellent post, reminds me of yesterdays Poets Walk in historic Hillsbough, NC USA that is.

Monica the Garden Faerie said...

It's warm and sunny here and I've been sitting at my computer for hours writing my next blog post: What's wrong with this picture? I love the squirrel, which is my favorite backyard wildlife. :) A friend is about to come over and we're going to have some of your tea!

Cheryl said...

Thank you Randy.....so kind.....

Cheryl said...

Hi Monica......enjoy....tell me what you think.....

beckie said...

Annie Bullen knows how to write and you know how to capture wonderful photos of the secret life in a garden. The bees look so happy as does the butterfly. Glad you have had such a good garden day.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I have had a most restful, peaceful Sunday. Did I ever need it. UGH... Your Safari is a pleasant interlude in my day. Thanks so much for taking the time to post. I love seeing that beautiful white dove again.

Pat said...

True, we only see a small part of what goes on in the garden.
Your post is like a poem...very sweet. I can tell you're still having problems with those spiders.

Liz said...

Wonderful photos, so much life around you how could you possibly not enjoy yourself?!!

It's been great here too, a nice relaxing day, just a shame it's back to work tomorrow!

Ruth said...

Your garden is like a little piece of heaven. We had a lovely day here and my garden is starting to come to its peak.

Rose said...

So true, Cheryl; if we just sit and watch for awhile, the garden holds so many surprises. Your garden has to be very healthy, because it's so full of life and not just blooms. Your photos, as always, are beautiful. After taking about twenty photos of bees on my catmint to get one mediocre picture, I am so impressed by your bees. As for my Sunday? I've been very lazy today, but since I babysat two of the grandkids last night, I guess that's understandable:)

SweetAnnee said...

wonderful..we went for a walk..I took NO camera..silly me..love your wildlife
Deena

Gail said...

Cheryl, Thank you for asking; I had a lovely day..a walk with my sweetie, and then a long brunch and wonderful conversation with dear friends. Then visiting the garden. It was a good day...I'm glad yours was too. gail

Wendy said...

We do only see a small part of what goes on in the garden. I agree to that. And it does enrich our lives. I think so anyway.

You weave your pics into this story beautifully. I like the white bird very much. Is it a dove?

I spent most of the day in the garden today. It was heaven on earth! Nice and sunny and warm. I also decided to wash all of our bed linen and hang in on the clothesline to dry. Sheets, blanket, comforter, mattress pad, pillow slips - the whole shebang! I get like that sometimes. Everything has to be clean and airdried - then we can have a nice restful sleep.
Happy gardening!

Q said...

Dear Cheryl,
Happy Sunday Safari!
I so enjoyed seeing all your wildlife! The Mallard Hens are sisters.....they seem to get along very well. I love the little bird at the nuts...a darling and your butterflies are gorgeous!
Always, always, always I love the bees.
I am forever changed by nature.
Today I sat with the Ebony Jewel Wings. I love them.
It was magical being one with them.
Thank you for Sunday Safari.
Thank you for celebrating nature.
Love and light,
Sherry

marmee said...

i love that our gardens always have stuff going on even if unseen...but taking the time to really see is so nice. so happy for you to have had a wonderful time in your garden today. we worked for a few hours early evening but the grands were here so i had to fix a nice dinner to all. what great days of sunshine we are having.

Cheryl said...

Hi Beckie....I just like her simplicity....it was a good day for wildlife in the garden...

Have a good week....

Cheryl said...

Hi Lisa.....the dove is beautiful.....it's mate is not around at the moment. I am hoping it is nest sitting ......

Cheryl said...

Hi Patsi......the spider has disappeared at the moment....it was not hunting on the Valerian yesterday......

Cheryl said...

Hi Liz.....the sun shone from start to finish yesterday...a beautiful day to be in the garden and for wildlife.....

Cheryl said...

Hi Ruth....I don't know about heaven....but I appreciate the good things that happen in the garden....

Cheryl said...

Hi Rose....it is good to be lazy here and there....it refreshes our spirit and our energy levels.....hope you managed to sit in the sun.....

I love to take photographs of bees......but I have to admit they are not easy. For me, much easier than birds......

Cheryl said...

Hi Deena and Gail....glad you had such a beautiful day......

Cheryl said...

Hi Wendy.....yes the white bird is a dove...beautiful...

Don't you just love it when the linen is washed and fresh....I love the fragrance as you get into bed......takes me back to my childhood.....we did not have much, but our beds and house were always clean and fresh......

Cheryl said...

Dear Sherry....it was a beautiful day and to see so much wildlife was a joy.....
I did not have to work hard to find the bugs etc.....they were just enjoying the warm weather and garden......
Have a good week.....

Cheryl said...

Dear Marmee......I love the fact that there are secrets in the gardens....things that we will never see....

Hope you are well and thinking of you......

Dawny P said...

Firstly, sorry I have not been about much, but my computer has had lots of problems so I didn't blog for a few weeks. It SEEMS to be fixed now but I am still keeping fingers and toes crossed.

This is such a beautiful post Cheryl. Your pictures never fail to move me - they are always so lovely. We thought about you yesterday a few times, because we were walking round our garden and yesterday there were so many bees - how wonderful. We had intended to go out for a bike ride but my bike has a huge puncture which we didn’t know about - Emma had used it and didn’t realize that she had ridden over a thorn. So we ended up going for a walk. We found this little path in the middle of the village which we have seen lots of times but basically ignored.

Cheryl, we could not believe it. We walked for almost 90 minutes and we didn’t see a soul. We walked through fields and woods, over little bridges and across semi-dried up streams The peace and tranquility was wonderful. And we felt a little ashamed that we had all this on our doorstep (how lucky) and didn’t realise. We even found the site of an old castle which dated back many hundreds of years – you can still see where the moat was. Well, Richard was in his element as he is a true country boy. He is having such a horrible time at the moment with his job that for an hour or so, he managed to find some inner peace, albeit short lived. As we walked, I said to him that you would have loved it. It isn’t what most people would call ‘pretty’; but it is stunning in a way that only nature can be. I know you will understand what I mean. And I wonder if maybe we weren’t meant to find it until such time as we needed to find it. Who knows how these things work.

I hope that all is well with you and Mr P and of course lovely Mich and the little ones. I’m just going to have a proper look at the other posts I’ve missed now –a stunning picture of a dragonfly caught my eye so that’s where I’m going first. Much love to you and yours, Dawny xxxx

NatureStop said...

Cheryl,
Sunday safari was great and loved your wildlife as much as we love your garden.

Roses and Lilacs said...

I agree that finding time to observe the things that go on in a garden can be enriching but also often sad.

I had a lovely Sunday and was sorry to see it end and Monday begin;)
Marnie

Cheryl said...

Hi Dawny.....you must never worry about not visiting my blog. I do understand that your life is full and time is precious....
I visit you to see how things are and to look at your pretty cards. It makes such a change from garden blogs...

How absolutely perfect. It sounds as though you have found a special place. Somewhere to visit when the pressures of life become too much. Mother natures landscape is much more beautiful than ours. We tweak and prune and sculpture, and in doing so lose something so very precious.
Maybe this will become your secret place....just yours.......and as time goes on it will hold wonderful memories for both you and Richard......

Thank you for telling me about it, it was like a breath of fresh air......

Cheryl said...

Naturestop.....you are just too kind, tku......

Cheryl said...

Hi Marnie....it can be sad sometimes....but all part and parcel of the world outside....