Garden Of Discovery

Not the most popular subject perhaps, but God loves slugs too... Pic by Ella Thomson👍

A mix of flowering, fruiting and beauty in decay as summer contemplates autumn, and in the beds under the plane tree, a foretaste of things to come.

High summer in the garden with flowers in bloom adorned with sunbathing butterflies, including a beautiful golden-orange comma, who was still in position when one of the young peoples Sunday morning groups came out looking for leaves and all got to see and marvel at him/her. And amongst the delicate, architectural grasses could be seen a laminated acorn, hidden by one of the children while learning about relationships in nature during an all-age service over month before. Clearly they would make an excellent squirrel:)

Countryfile covers a nature reserve saved and managed by the openly Christian conservation charity Arocha. They do this BECAUSE they are Christians. How we need more Christians to understand this. (From 12:35 mins into the programme).

Countryfile, Essex Ellie is at the country's only nature reserve managed specifically for dragonflies.

Mobile life in the garden, with the (little) hunting spiders sunbathing on leaves, and ermine moth caterpillars (thanks to expertise from Vicky Knight) feeding from their silken web which they spin to help camouflage them from predators.

Spring highlights in the garden. These were taken over a couple of week so due to the ever changing nature of nature, some of these may no longer be with us, but by the same token, where one has disappeared, there will always be something new to see. And while some of this can be predicted, the unexpected is always waiting to be discovered with just a little time and observation.

Apologies for posting nearly the same pictures as last week, but no apologies as it all just looks so good, even/especially in the rain.

Spring arrives!

Good morning of relational bark-spreading and willow chopping with Val, Simon and Dominic.

New life emerging from the debris of the old. An appropriate image for a church garden, but as often in human life and elsewhere in the natural world, it's not as simple as that, as simple as just obliterating and sweeping away the old and perhaps regretted or untidy, because the processes of God’s grace and natural decay respectively make use of the old, which we would rather sweep away, to make something better and more valuable than we alone could conceive. So it is that last years fallen leaves have provided insulating protection for waiting seeds and eggs which by Sunday had grown into snowdrops, crocuses and hunting spiders. This value continues for the later-emerging plants and animals currently in the wings, but now it also extends to creating hunting grounds and hiding places for the spiders and myriad other hidden creatures benefitting from the on-going demise of last years life.

The photos in the last post were taken two weeks ago, with the plane tree outside the garden in full leaf. Now a fortnight and one wet and windy night later, and all the leaves have moved to the garden. They will need clearing but the the meantime, we declare the leaf-kicking season officialy OPEN! Come and join in:)

You won't see scenes like this in the garden today - taken a while to post them, but on another day they'll be back. To adapt Oasis, What's the story? Autumn glory.