The Garden is Rich by Chinook Psalter

Pastor Melissa O’Brien posted this wonderful prayer on her Website for The Peru Church at https://www.theperuchurch.org/sunday-gathering

The garden is rich with diversity
With plants of a hundred families
In the space between the trees
With all the colours and fragrances.
Basil, mint and lavender,

Great Mystery keep my remembrance pure,
Raspberry, Apple, Rose,

Great Mystery fill my heart with love,
Dill, anise, tansy,

Holy winds blow in me.
Rhododendron, zinnia,

May my prayer be beautiful
May my remembrance O Great Mystery
be as incense to thee
In the sacred grove of eternity

As I smell and remember
The ancient forests of earth.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA copyright Mary Ellen Ryall

In The Garden

June 22, 2020 – In the early morning at 7 AM, at the Saratoga Community Garden (SCG), there were six wild canaries (yellow Goldfinches) perching on flower stems in the cut flower garden. They ate seeds from the corn flowers (Bachelor buttons.) Maybe they wanted to fill up early because it is going to be 90 degrees F. today. Birds need to find refuge when it is hot out. Also, a European honey bee zoomed in for nectar at the Herb Bed. Goldfinch photo state bird of Iowa copyright QUORA.

Then I walked over to the Woodland Pollinator Garden, on the edge of the woodlands. I spotted a small butterfly, dark with white markings on its wing. It was the small Silver-spotted Skipper. Copyright Jeffrey Glassberg, NABA.

European honey bee copyright unknown

I don’t expect much activity of pollinators this week in the heat that is upon us. One thing I do know, we need to keep small shallow water dishes out for smaller insects, such as bees and butterflies. All creatures need water. There is an active birdbath in the Saratoga Community Garden, but a deep birdbath is too deep for the littlest of beings.