Sometimes You Just Have to Chill With Nature

The problem with writing about nature is that you have to get out and experience it. After a long winter it takes a longer time to emerge from the restful slumber of hibernation. It’s wise to take directions from your environment. It might be slow to get going, but when it does, well, you know how it goes.

Preparation is Key

This pace of life we call time, seems to speed up in the summer. The day trippers ebb and flow along the shallow sandy beach, the way breath becomes air. The call of the rural countryside goes out to the city dwellers to come and enjoy a different space close to nature. And they come, bracing through heavy traffic, greeted by full parking lots. In fact, it is recommended that you book ahead, as your favourite attraction may look like the overwhelmed tourist areas experiencing push back against the crowds.

There You Are

The best way to chill with nature is often the simplest way. Your back yard, your balcony are all you need. This way you eliminate the travel time, and fuel costs, giving you more time to chill.

If you do want to be more active, the best activity to become one with nature while beautifying your surroundings is gardening.

When Plants Become Weeds

From poppies to roses, each flower tries to outdo the previous bloom in the garden. There is also the matter of the garden nemesis – weeds. The naming of a weed is subjective. I have been overwhelmed with perennials which have become weeds in the garden. Real mean ones, like poison ivy and lily of the valley (in case you didn’t know the whole plant is poisonous). I have had to remove a whole bed of the thickest carpet of intertwined lily of the valley roots, while echoes of the lilies sweet fragrance filled the air.

It was a case of deja vu as I had removed what I thought was all of the lilies from the garden bed four years ago. Not only had I removed it, I had placed thick cardboard over the area and covered it with mulch. I am grateful for the period of time it took to return.

My next favourite task is cutting back the hostas. I do have a post on the best time to harvest hostas. That time had past in the garden, so I removed about half of the variegated varieties and all the extra single colour plants. I left boxes of hostas at the end of the driveway, and they were gone within a few hours. it’s nice to know the hostas will find new homes far and wide.

There is a lesson in perspective when gardening, specifically weeding. Weeding is like a meditation, it is a process of cleansing. One is removing that which no longer serves the garden. The clearing is a preparation for the creative process. The lesson in resilience and strength, of both the weeds and the gardener, is not lost. It is a time to give new, less invasive plants, a chance to shine in the garden bed.

It is a delicate balance, one gardener’s weeds is another’s prize plant. I tend to leave the mullein and milkweed for their beauty and respective utility for tea and monarch caterpillar food.

Now, after the storms, we have a heat wave, I will at some point jump in the lake just to cool off, but I know I have to push myself a little more to share all the organic things that have been happening. There is also smoke without fire as the forest fires are breaking wind across the Province, far from their source, causing air quality issues.

Wildlife in the Garden

Fawns visited my garden for the first time since I have lived here. They trotted through the shade garden, looked around and trotted away leaving memories of Bambi. The real thing is so much better than Disney. Luckily, I had time to grab the camera with a telephoto lens before they scampered off.

Skunk scent got into the house ventilation one night, how that happened I will never know. For the whole night it was like having a skunk in the room. Later I found out that the skunk my have fallen victim to something bigger.

A fox buried buried a wild turkey’s head in my neighbours garden. A snake got into the garage. All in all, it has been an eventful season. Nature allows one to be as self sufficient or reliant as you wish, and like everything else, it takes hard work and effort. Don’t be misled by the idea that you can get by with less time and effort, that does not work with nature. The physical and mental interaction while working in the garden adds to kinship with nature. The energy clings to you and is like electricity when you are around plants.

Everything is Blooming

As the master gardener in my own garden I get to oversee the gradual explosion of colour and fractual design of the plants as they emerge. In the background, the birds and insects are the chorus for this temporal space.

There is serenity and peace in the blooming garden, it is like a firewall against the chaos of the world, if only for a short time. This why gardens have such an important place in the human psyche. From hanging gardens to secret gardens, they have always been a space for refuge and restoration.

Nature is fascinating and goes through all the ups and downs that we do, because we are nature too. Once you have accomplished the required tasks, and even if you haven’t, allow yourself to relax and enjoy communion with nature. Bask in the sights and sounds which are frequencies for our well being.

As Chief Luther Standing Bear, Sicangu and Oglala Lakota Chief said:

“The elders were wise. They knew that a man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard; they knew that lack of respect for growing, living things, soon led to lack of respect for humans too.”

Wise words indeed, and if you would like more reasons to love nature, see here.