Day 204 Among the Weeds


July 1, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70th years where I write and illustrate a blog on each day’s gift.)

 

I am a lousy gardener. It seems impossible to me that I planted poppy seeds (at least that’s what the seed package indicated) and now only weeds are thriving in that pot. How can it be that not one flower appears but instead, an abundance of weeds? 

When I examined the small white knots (blooms?) along the plant stems, tiny ants were having a feast. I also saw a small green insect that seemed to be a baby grasshopper without wings. Its body was no more than ½ inch, if that much, but its hind legs and antennae were four or five times the length of the body. I am surprised that I even saw it as it was camouflaged on the green plant. 

However, what surprised me even more was that when I enlarged a photo I took of  it, the insect was more beautiful than I could see with the naked eye. Its vibrant green body contained beautifully patterned segments with black dots, dashes and partial stripes. Bright orange markings stood out on its upper body. The antennae seemed to grow from two small black beads near the round bug eyes. 

There is an amazing layer of life beyond the ability of my eyes to see closely. If there had been a rainbow this afternoon, I would have looked in the distance at a beautiful sky. But there wasn’t a rainbow, so I took a close look at weeds and was rewarded with a tiny wonder. 

My gift today is a tiny wonder.
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~­ 

> Day 205: Mortality

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:


No comments:

Post a Comment

This space for your comments: