How Can Good And Beautiful Things Be Bad?

 There are so many good and beautiful things even deeds or intentions that sadly turns out bad!  One example is this beautiful bush that I was intrigued when I saw it at the edge of wooded area while walking my puppy.

At first I thought it was a type of dogwood but I was mistaken.  It is Bush Honeysuckle according to online search.  It is an invasive specie and plant experts say not to plant it in your yard.  But regardless of its negative classification I think it is pretty and makes my walk in a dreary Fall weather, when every colored leaves had turned brown, pleasant, because its leaves remain yellowish green until mid December in my area.  I also enjoyed watching the birds eat the red berries.  The last photo shows the bush with most of its yellow green leaves fallen to the ground and the berries are all gone.  To me it serves  three good qualities:  It grows easily, beautifies the woodland with its beautiful leaves, flowers and red berries; it feeds the birds.  I will watch this plant this coming Spring to enjoy its beautiful flowers.

My New Babies - 2 Bromeliads and 1 Orchid

I Need to see some flowers in winter time so I got these three plants.  I hope that I can take care of them properly to give them a long healthy life.

The plant on the left is a red Variesea Bromeliad,  the one in the center is a Phalaenopsis Orchid,  the one on the right is a yellow/orange Variesea Bromeliad.  Bromeliads and Orchids almost have the same care requirement, except perhaps on the method of watering:  The orchid, according to plant care instructions need to be watered with about 1/4 cup of warm water once a week and the Bromeliad needs tap water poured on the base (cup) of the leaves after emptying the bases of the leaves of the old water that remains on them.  They all look very healthy so hopefully I can keep them that way.

 

Deadheading

Now that it is Summer, we enjoy seeing so many different flowers blooming!  But did you know that most annuals or even perinneal need deadheading so that they will keep on blooming all summer long?  What does deadheading mean?  Deadheading is the act of removing by pinching or cutting a spent or dried out flower at its stem so that seeds do not develop.  The idea behind it is that plants bear flowers in order to produce seeds so that they can continue to live on year after year through their seeds.  Once they produce flowers and seeds are maturing, somehow the plants know this and they will stop putting out flowers because seeds had developed but if you pinched off the spent flowers, the plant knows that they need to produce flowers that will develop into seeds, so as long as you keep pinching off the flower head before the seeds mature, your repeat blooming annuals/perenials will keep on  blooming.  

The Old Woman And The Oak Tree

When she is raking the leaves of the black oak tree that is growing beside her back porch, she sighed, and muttered to herself:  It is tiring to clean after this Oak Tree, for it does not let its leaves fall all at once.  It sheds its dried leaves a few at a time from fall through the coming spring.  A gust of wind blew carrying a few leaves from the black oak tree and a dried leaf brushed gently against the old woman's wrinkled face and with the gust of wind she thought she heard the Black Oak whispered to her in response to her mutterings.
Why do you complain about my leaves falling to the ground a little bit at a time?  Oh impatient woman....lots of things must be done gradually and some things must be done all at once!  There is wisdom behind everything that happens in nature.  You only have to observe and learn.

The old woman looked up at the old Black Oak tree and she imagined its old wrinkled face and sturdy rugged knotty neck bending over her.  She is old but this Oak tree is much older than her and probably lived through lots of wonderful, terrible, sad and happy events that happened in the lives of the families that lived or are still living in this community.   This Oak tree is a silent non-judgmental witness to all the the lives lived by the people that lived there.

The Oak tree stands on a hill overlooking the little lake community of Black Oak Lake.  It stood there like a silent sentinel, ever watchful of the comings and goings of the people that live there.

Emily, the current occupant of the cabin that sits half hidden within the drooping branches of the old Black Oak, is a white haired lady whose countenance manifests a peaceful, happy disposition.  Although she had been a residence of this community for a number of years and almost every residents of the community knew her, very few people know the details of her private life.

A stranger would deduce that she loves animals for her dwelling is surrounded by feeding stations for different animals including birds.  But she does not have a domestic pet of any kind.