“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:7-8 ESV
Hello May! The first day of the month arrived with a lot of clouds but a brief break occurred at sunrise. It was a cool, quiet morning with the exception of a coyote yapping at me from over the hill. He knew I was around and had no intentions of revealing himself. We had plans for later in the day and hoped for sunshine. The day remained mostly cloudy, but that did not change our plans!
We ordered an inexpensive checked tablecloth to be used for a specific purpose and place. The tablecloth arrived on our doorstep Wednesday and we couldn’t wait to use it…
…and Friday was the chosen day. Cloudy, but no rain, so why not have a picnic? Our response to that question might be obvious. PJ filled a picnic basket with chicken salad sandwiches, chips, white chocolate macadamia cookies, and gala apples. We loaded up plates, the new tablecloth, napkins, sweet tea, ice and a few other items and headed about 1/2 mile into the woods behind our house! Our old picnic table that was in our yard until a couple of weeks ago now sits near the river beside our path.
We brought wild flowers from the field in a bucket of water and cut a few stems on-site and made a simple floral arrangement. Queen Anne’s lace and butterweed are currently abundant. And what is better than sweet iced tea in a Mason jar? Nothing I can think of! Mr. John Mason invented his jar in 1858. The Ball Brothers and the Ball Corporation licensed Mr. Mason’s product a little later, hence the “Ball Mason jar”. You can still purchase new ones today. Did I mention it was very still and quiet as we sat down to enjoy the enormous blessings of a small, simple country picnic? And yes, we did eat too much (mostly me)! We can get to this spot only on foot or an ATV. Those of our family who are somewhat younger also sometimes come on bicycles! It was an ATV day for Pam and me!
These two are very often found hanging out together, enjoying each others company. Honeysuckle (yellow and white blooms) find privet to be a perfect host for its fast growing vines. These two grow in the same habitat, bloom at the same time, and have wonderful fragrances. The two fragrances combine to fill the countryside with a sweet smell that announces spring. I go way back in associating the fragrances to days in high school when this signaled that summer vacation and graduation were soon to come. Even after all the years, a walk in the woods still takes me down memory lane to those thoughts!
And speaking of memories, WL had a memorable party on Wednesday. His mom made a cake (cupcakes too) creating the theme he requested, planes among the clouds. After a lot of pizza and cake, there were 2 hours of fun and games for around 25 kids to hopefully use up some “sugar” energy!
I think he likes posing for photos, stopping in mid-chew to give us a smile! Did I mention Pam and I helped with the eating of cake? It was so wonderful. Allison makes the best cakes!
I found a lone cornflower in the middle of a grown up area that has so many weeds, vines, briers, and other things growing that it seemed out of place. This is close to our pasture and not extremely far from where we had cornflowers in a wildflower garden last season!
I think our sunflowers are off to a good start with potential for a decent showing, this in spite of cows from a neighbor’s pasture walking through this raised bed when the plants were barely visible. We looked out the kitchen window late one afternoon and were very disturbed upon seeing 9 black angus cows behind the garden amongst the blueberry bushes. As you might imagine I put on a hasty cattle drive. We did not realize until the next morning that some of them walked through this raised bed. You can probably see where I have smoothed out most of the deep holes their hoofs made. Amazingly, most of the tracks were between the rows or outside the rows with only a few crushed plants!
From long ago, the owner of the old home place that once stood near Seth’s house had irises growing all around the historic house. Her flowers were always so lovely. Those flower beds are gone now, but on the bank of the road shoulder, irises just like those that once had a home nearby are now growing amongst the grasses. This is probably a Southern Blue Flag iris which is native to the southeast. This iris prefers a wet area or to live in a garden where the caretaker waters well, but I do believe these irises come from those that once thrived in a dear one’s flower beds that were only about 30 or 40 yards from where these volunteer plants are today!
As I traveled down the creek bank to check for blooms on a plant that I thought might be a spring spider lily, I spotted a very bright yellow object some distance away. Nothing else in the entire woods looked like it so curiosity led me to alter my path by about 100 yards…this to find a curled up, glowing, yellow leaf from a tulip tree. I don’t think they are even this colorful in the fall!
The detour to only discover a bright leaf did put me beside a small oak that was covered with Resurrection Fern. I am never able to get a close look at this fern because it is usually found on upper trunks or large limbs of trees that are high up and not in reach. The way it wrapped around the tree in net-like fashion was intriguing. Detours can frustrate but I suppose aren’t always bad!
The supposed spider lily was not yet in bloom. However, I enjoyed another spot upstream where water from recent rains was again channeling through the same grooves carved here by rushing waters from years gone by. I had a thought while considering this caption for a Sunday post…”Groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon”. This is a “groovy” spot. Some of our readers are asking, what in the world is groovy?!
Our Echinacea or coneflower has returned in force and already outgrown its space. Coneflower was used for medicinal purposes by Native Americans. Many people today believe it is helpful against the common cold and some respiratory problems, although it seems there are no conclusive studies to verify. It is a daisy family (Asteraceae) plant, and oddly enough, closely related to ragweed (same family) which deals a lot of people respiratory misery in autumn due to allergies!
We have one group of Plantain lilies (hosta) that are faring well although their spot now receives more sun after the removal of many, tall, nearby pines that were dying. The dappled sunlight seems to be no problem. We were not able to keep our hosta in another area since the roots were very entangled with those of a birch tree which was also removed. You possibly saw that ordeal in last weeks post!
The Creator’s natural world is such an astonishing thing. Last year we had a tall urn that sat beside this walk. I always want at least one purple petunia and that urn was the place selected to plant one. It bloomed so well for most of the summer. I was walking by yesterday and bent over to pull a couple of those aggravating weeds that always come through the cracks. I paused in amazement when I saw that one of my “weeds” was in fact a purple petunia growing from a crack between the rock and brick along the walkway. There’s no doubt where it came from and no doubt what it survived in order to be here!
Lord willing, there will be more picnics. We do plan to invite guests to the next outing, and the guest list is already complete. If I were to give a hint as to who will be invited, I would say…”The guests will be the ones who can ride their bicycles to the picnic.” A date has not been set, as we have one more birthday to celebrate first!
HAPPY FIRST WEEK OF MAY!
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Hebrews 13:8 ESV
Linking with:
Pieced Pastimes, Between Naps on the Porch, Katherines Corner, Follow The Yellow Brick Home,
Life and Linda
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