‘Gardening’ – a Bloggers for Peace post

I use the term gardening very loosely here.

Once, I had a vegetable patch in my garden, which fed us our greenery for the summer.  The first year was the best, but the second wasn’t too bad either – at the start anyway.

But by the end of the second year, we noticed what appeared to be giant slugs were eating our courgettes.  After some investigation, I caught our not-quite-a-puppy happily eating our crop: apparently he loves raw veggies.

We wouldn’t have minded a few courgettes going, but he also ate all the carrot tops before the carrots had grown enough to harvest, so the next summer we went for container growing…

That left us with a large muddy patch instead.

We haven’t know what exactly to do with it, but this spring we agreed to make it a wildlife garden. There’s a bird feeding station at one end, and where the seeds have fallen out, grasses are growing so the birds forced our hands a little bit.  It actually looked pretty good, for a while.  It’s back to mud now, unfortunately – but the birds are knocking new seeds down so hopefully we’ll get even more grasses next year.

But what does this have to do with peace?

Well, for me watching Mother Nature at work is very peaceful.  Seeing our resident robin as he pecks at the seeds, or the starlings and the blackbirds dig into peanuts – or the woodpecker destroy the wooden feeding post – are all sights that make me stop what I’m doing for a moment and watch.  Not trying to control the space has been liberating; and knowing the dropped seeds should form part of their diet the next year is unexpectedly gratifying.

This spring, I might throw some wildflower seeds over to get the bees involved too – the buzzing of a bee on a warm summer day is what gardens are all about.

And since I starting noticing nature, I’ve written more about it.  Long, lyrical poetry about walks in the countryside, or short pieces about tramping over snow-covered fields; it’s all helping me find a quiet, peaceful happiness in my environment.

So look at the birds, and the plants, and the insects.  You might find they give you a moment of peace too.

Happy writing,

EJ

🙂

Other posts you might find interesting:

Salud mi familia

Wouldn’t it be great if peace went viral?

Hob-nobbing for peace

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