It’s been a few weeks since I’ve shared a Savoring Saturdays post, since I’ve been part of Slice of Life Story Challenge and #VerseLove throughout the months of March and April. Our Saturday traditions have been kicking right along, though. The intentional plan to carve time and enjoy coffee shop culture and linger in moments on weekends after a heavy work week is something we all deserve! We went to Senoia, Georgia (home of The Walking Dead) yesterday morning for coffee and muffins, and rode over to Peachtree City for a bag of birdseed – the kind from Pike Nurseries that brings a wide variety of birds. The day was filled with together time, mostly outdoors in nature, recharging our batteries by the soil of the good, fragrant earth – my husband on the tractor, me propagating plants and adding a couple of new ones.
A couple of years ago, Dad sent me home from St. Simons with a Bleeding Heart plant. I had one job: “This needs to be transplated immediately.” It was in a silver Rubbermaid tub, and I had all the best intentions of situating it in the shaded woodland at the edge of our pine trees. But life happened and happened and happened, and the Rubbermaid container still has the dead Bleeding Heart in it, right where it landed when we arrived home.
I thought of this yesterday while getting birdseed. I needed to at least replace the plant Dad intended me to have. I asked the flora specialist if they had any, and they immediately got on the radio and took me to the table where there were two left. I placed both on my cart and headed to the clearance planters. I’m not picky when it comes to planters. I chose two at half price, and my husband remembered I’d need the watering trays to go underneath them.
Then I remembered the succulents I’ve been needing to propagate, along with the hydrangea I was already planning to propagate. Plus the half-dead, half-alive gardenia bush and the jasmine plants in the front and back that seem to have been affected by the deep freeze back in December. More ceramic planters, and some rooting powder. Gotta have rooting powder. Plus Perlite, Peat Moss, and Potting Soil. The 3 Ps of Plant potting.
We grabbed a bag of birdseed and then I remembered my hummingbirds were out of nectar. We got a couple of containers of that, too. And replaced one of the feeders that has been broken since last summer. Oh, and suet cakes. I have ten suet feeders lined along the edge of the woods hanging on pine trees, and 8 of them need new cakes already this season, so I grabbed a box of those, too.
The oaks are draping too low across the driveway, so we added a branch trimmer for the Ryobi to the list also. Can’t have limbs scraping the top of the camper or any of the work equipment Briar often brings home.
Briar went out to move the car to the loading zone while I went through the register. I can handle the tears and pains of yard expense, but this has always been a struggle for him. Off he went to the parking lot, shaking his head. We came straight home and started our work – mowing, sprucing up the plants, breathing fresh air after the register slapping.
Briar called me to the bottom of a tree out front to identify a snake he’d found (yes, I’m the one who handles all the snakes here on the farm, while he handles the things with actual legs), and it was a sweet little Dekay’s Brown who was injured – probably from the mower. He won’t survive his injury, but as in the great ways of nature, he’ll slither off and become part of the dinner of the Great Horned Owls who live in these woods, or the Red Shouldered Hawk who was here just this week checking in on things, or some other predator who is hungry and on the hunt for its next meal. I hate it for the little guy, but anytime there is beautification of a yard, our animals also pay a high price at the register.
And then an evening of fireflies…..lovely, beautiful fireflies that have appeared this week for the first time this year. Here for us to savor as they light up the world and to remind us that our efforts in the yard don’t go unrewarded.
Common Threads 