Beauty

* This post is being linked to Home Sanctuary‘s Company Girl Coffee and Prairie Flower Farm’s Building Our Homes Together.

When I think about Homes and Sanctuary, I think of Beauty. When we first had to move to where we are now (back in October), I was not entirely happy. We had to leave a very rural area with a large yard & garden on a very private street, to a whole new county with smaller everything. We no longer had a private street and silent nights.

We now live near a military base where things are regularly exploded. We now live near a railway and a fire station. This combination can make for very noisy periods; and noise can drown out beauty – if you let it. The noises that made me cry the first night here, are now so routine, that I barely notice them.

I was worried when we moved here that we would not have the wildlife that we were used to seeing. Boy, was I wrong – the wildlife has just changed. Before, we had wide open spaces, so we saw many deer and large birds. We were near cattle and horse farms so we saw many large animals. Here, we have trees, so we see squirrels, rabbits, groundhogs, chipmunks, and many varieties of small birds.

Spring came; so did the flowers and baby animals. Our landlord did an amazing job of planting so many surprises that each week seems to bring something new. While I’m not as good as catching wildlife on film, I have gone on a tour of my yard this week and captured much beauty in our flowers.

For the most part, I have no idea what these flowers are, I just thought they were beautiful. I hope you enjoy:

I think this is Echinacea.

At first, I thought the black spots were part of this flower, but upon closer inspection, I found that they were ants!

The hummingbirds love this one – they can only see the color red!

Here’s a close-up of those flowers – love all the colors in this!

I love that God gave us so much functional beauty in this world! Ya know, it wasn’t until I studied botany with my children, that I learned just how important flowers are! Either I didn’t pay enough attention in school, or I was never taught how God created these beauties to benefit us in more ways than just to appeal to our eyes. Without flowers, we wouldn’t have many of the fruits and vegetables we rely on for nourishment. I didn’t know.

God is an incredible designer – His palette is truly amazing!