Tag Archives: Photography

Love Is All You Need | Rescue and Thrive

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A couple months ago, a neighbor was planning to discard half a dozen orchids she thought were dead or dying and asked me if I wanted them before they ended up in the trash.

That really broke my heart, as I have a soft spot for animals and plants (and a few humans) that might benefit from some kindness and attention, so I took them all.

When I brought them home, they were sad little things; dried up, starving, and so thirsty that I could feel their pain, so I immediately submerged them in filtered water and set them in a quiet and shady place to drink all they needed.

I pruned some of the withered bits, found pretty pots for all, and decided to give them some time to heal in a loving environment.

This is the first orchid that has rewarded my caregiving with a spike of stunning color!

Let me introduce my rescued baby, a pink Phalaenopsis Elastic Love, also called Moth Orchid.

She is SUCH a drama queen and thrives as the center of attention!

The remainder of the rescues all have new growth and are throwing spikes, too, which brings an overwhelming sense of joy! All they needed was a little tender, loving care.

What an absolutely amazing way to start a new month!

Don’t Cry, Baby Girl

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When plants cry…not at all like Prince’s When Doves Cry…

I was beyond ecstatic when my mini-Monstera began to unfurl the first new leaf since I brought her home. When I checked on her progress this morning, I noticed that she appeared to be crying.

Why so sad, baby girl?

I try to do everything to make her happy and healthy; water, fertilizer, the right amount of sun, and I adorned her with a beautiful, thrifted Satsuma pot.

This tear looks like it’s coming from her alien-eye, the classic Monstera fenestration.

They’re not tears of sadness nor joy; they’re actually due to a process called guttation.

Guttation is a mixture of xylem and phloem fluid, which contains sugars and other chemicals produced in the leaves that are exuded overnight by the plant.

Guttation is one way houseplants attempt to regulate their growing conditions. This response can occur when a plant has been overwatered or under stress, or the plant could be perfectly fine and want to balance its nutrients or minerals.

Aren’t plants SO smart?

I confess that sometimes I love my plants too much, as in too much watering, and I hope this isn’t the reason because I adore this new leaf baby and her brothers and sisters love her, too.

Don’t shed any more tears, little one! I promise to try and not love you to death!

Enchanting Friends

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As if on cue, summer finally arrived during the solstice with intense heat and abundant sunshine. Around Casa de Enchanted Seashells, a couple new friends visit every day.

Here’s my Red Shouldered hawk, who looks directly at me as he scouts the garden for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He’s so, so gorgeous.

He’s always on the same branch in my ash tree.

This BIG skunk is probably the same one who sprayed my neighbor’s dog not once, but twice. The photo is a bit grainy because it was almost dark and I was way closer than I should have been. If I had startled him, I’d still be bathing in tomato juice right now!

Happy Monday!

UNbroken 🦋

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I helped this monarch butterfly escape from being trapped in the fence and she flew away unharmed.

Photo credit Enchanted Seashells

And just when the darkness
became too much to bear
and the struggle too hard,
the light broke through
and the caterpillar emerged
a butterfly
delicate but unbroken,
wild and gentle,
finally free to spread its lovely wings
and fly away on the wind. --L.R. Knost

Today is a Day

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“I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep today.”

I looked up to see a resting-for-just-a-minute hummingbird as he perched in the bottlebrush tree. This time I was able to quickly snap a photo before he took off. At some point, we all need stillness.

Credit to Enchanted Seashells

Today I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word.
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.

The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.

But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I’m traveling
a terrific distance.

Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.

Today by Mary Oliver

Photo Scrapbook

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I spent a frustrating couple of hours attempting to install new, adhesive shelf liners in the kitchen and bathroom. If you’ve ever done the same, frustrating doesn’t even describe the feeling of trying to smoothly stick the paper without bumps, lumps, or having it fold over and stick to itself. I did a HORRIBLE job, gave up, admitted defeat, and put all the items back under the bathroom and kitchen sinks to cover up the mistakes. I hate to fail at a task, but this was a fight I couldn’t win. That’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back, that’s for sure.

After a much needed break with a mug of lovely ginger tea, I reviewed some of my favorite photos snapped in the last few days:

Another photo I sent to the original Angel Boy to make him miss SoCal surfing and come down for a visit!

While I was looking at the surf, a bunny behind bars came to visit.

I was enchanted by pretty cactus flowers all in a row.

My mulberry tree is going crazy this year. In the past, I’ve harvested and made jam and frozen quarts and quarts of them for cobblers and to sweeten smoothies, but I’m not taking on that burden this year. That leaves more for the birds and the RATS. Eww.

A Shasta Daisy and The Fibonacci Sequence

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Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food, and medicine for the soul.” – Luther Burbank

With no rain in sight, my plants are becoming thirsty and I have to water them so they don’t dry out. I stopped for a minute to contemplate the droplets on a perfectly perfect Shasta daisy.

Nature is amazing. Everything is related to everything. Nothing is simply what it seems.

Many flowers exhibit a petal count that corresponds to Fibonacci numbers. Shasta daisies have twenty-one. This is something I didn’t even know about until recently. If they taught it in school, it’s another one of those days when I wasn’t paying attention.

In the 13th century an Italian mathematician, Leonardo de Pisa, better known today as Fibonacci, published a book called Liber Abaci. He introduced a number sequence that became known as the Fibonacci sequence. Starting with 0 and 1, each new number in the sequence is the sum of the two before it.  0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377.

The golden mean or the golden ratio is a special number found by dividing a line into two parts.

The golden mean and the Fibonacci spiral are connected to life, even spiritual life. They can be found in nature in the number of petals of flowers, the way the tiniest stem
unfurls, in spirals in seashells, and more. 

The golden proportion of 1.618 is found in key proportions of the body in humans, animals, insects, and in DNA. Our perceptions of beauty support that phi is a factor in what we find attractive.https://energeticgeometry.com/

That’s a pretty weighty concept for my brain to absorb or even understand. The possibilities seem endless, one more mystery of the universe.

I’m an uncomplicated person. All I know for sure is that I love the way Shasta daisies spread to fill in the empty spaces like they fill my heart and make me happy.

“Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.” – Theodore Roethke.

Stargazing

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After being subjected to the real world for a while by the trial and guilty verdict of an ex-President — as I shake my head and wonder how ANYONE could have voted for that narcissistic orange blowhard, it’s time to recover with the simple, joyful, garden beauty of a Stargazer Lily — like a palate cleanser, but instead for my brain.

I’m super allergic to the alluring fragrance of most cut flowers in a vase, but I can enjoy them in the garden without sneezing. Stargazers return every year; this is the first bloom to fully open, but you can see all the others waiting their turn.

Scott’s Oriole

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In one of my favorite photos, my resident family of Scott’s Orioles rarely stay in one place long enough to take a pic that’s not blurry, but I got lucky this time. This guy impatiently waits for the grapes to ripen.

Photo by Enchanted Seashells

What I’m Reading: Crow Planet

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Because my human family understands the special love I feel for my crow family (I refer to them as my cousins), I was gifted Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt.

These are some of my garden “cousins” who greet me in the morning.


“Grandma, I know you love crows so much, but do you think they’re a little scary?”

Angel Boy asked that question because the crows in their neighborhood seem to know when they’re eating outside in the garden, and perch in the trees and on the garage to patiently wait for fallen morsels.

“I’m not afraid of them because I don’t believe they would ever cause me harm. The crows who visit me at home leave shiny little gifts. These guys simply want to share your dinner.”

I didn’t think it was the right time to tell him that if he tried – he could get them to eat out of his hand — but one day I might.

Crows are considered to be among the most intelligent animals in the world with brains that are similar in size to humans and make up almost two percent of their body mass. They’re known for their ability to solve complex problems, and some say they have the intelligence of a two to seven-year-old child.

Haupt is a Seattle-based author, naturalist, and speaker. “My work explores the beautiful, complicated connections between humans and the wild, natural world.” She has created and directed educational programs for Seattle Audubon, worked in raptor rehabilitation in Vermont, and as a seabird researcher for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the remote tropical Pacific. (Curated from https://www.lyandalynnhaupt.com/)

If you love crows like I do, you will LOVE Crow Planet.

What are YOU reading now?