Tag: wildflowers

A Welcome Weed REPRINT

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Image result for dead nettle

From April 9, 2017

The first plant to come up in my wife’s little garden, this year and last year, is the purple deadnettle.

Hi, Mr. Nature here–and it’s called the “dead” nettle because it doesn’t have a sting like the real nettle. It’s a member of the mint family, memorable for its delicate purple flowers and its leaves that are arranged like a stack of dishes. It grows all over the place, around here.

Bob Bakker–the scientist who, more than anybody else, popularized the concept of warm-blooded, active dinosaurs–once told me one of the things that most draws him to God is the self-evident delight which the Creator takes in His creation. I agree! Even this fallen world, the Father stocks with beauty. Even the weeds!

I was happy when I read that a lot of people have come to appreciate the deadnettle for its beauty and are now planting it on purpose, usually as a border for a garden, and because it so delights our eyes.

Give thanks for the beauty of God’s handiwork: it tells us something good about its Maker.

The picture doesn’t do it justice, and yes it still comes up every year PD

Suddenly It’s Spring

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62 Types of Purple Flowers with Pictures | Flower Glossary

As if by magic–but it’s God’s magic, no one else’s–we have all kinds of little wildflowers springing up around our building. Our tulips are coming up, too; and I’ll have to take care to put a cage over them to keep the squirrels from biting off the buds, a bad habit of theirs.

We have these little purple things, bright purple, suddenly visible–where were they yesterday? And crocuses, daffodils, and these tiny white flowers that are everywhere, and Patty’s Lenten roses… they’re all over the place.

And it makes me think, yes, God renews His creation every spring. He is not remote from us, He is not an absentee landlord: He is right here, with us, all the time. That’s what all these flowers are telling us. They are hymns of color, hymns of life.

For which we give thanks in Jesus’ name, Amen.

We’ve Got Honeybees

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

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Enough of nooze, enough of politics: let’s look at some of God’s stuff instead. In this case, I only have to look out my living room window.

Because my wife has been so sick–she’s getting better now, praise God: and thank you all for your prayers, the Lord has heard them–we didn’t have a garden this year. We let our little garden plot grow wild, and by the end of the summer, had a lush growth of wonderful little white flowers. Queen Anne’s lace, they’re called.

And the bees just love ’em! Early in the morning, the bumblebees are already at work. Then come the little native bees. And a little later, hallelujah–honeybees!

We hear that honeybees are in trouble everywhere–disease and habitat destruction being the chief culprits. For a while there we weren’t seeing any honeybees at all. But wherever their hive is (we don’t know), the tiny white flowers of the Queen Anne’s Lace are bringing them here. Once the day warms up a little, we’ve always got honeybees. And it pleases us to think we’ve got something that they like–flowers that we never planted, but that God has provided.

Thank you for that, O Father!