On this visit to the botanical garden there wasn’t much change in the American columbo’s flowering stalk, but we’ll keep checking back. In the meantime there were more new blooms to appreciate as spring continues along its way.
Paradoxical as it may seem, the purposeful life has no content, no point. It hurries on and on, and misses everything. Not hurrying, the purposeless life misses nothing, for it is only when there is no goal and no rush that the human senses are fully open to receive the world.
~ Alan Watts
(The Way of Zen)
Back in Connecticut we had eastern blue-eyed grass.
I heard a towhee singing “drink your tea” and was determined to locate him somewhere in a nearby tree. At last I spotted him and did my best to get a picture of the elusive bird. My last attempt was in 2020, when we heard one rummaging around in the brush on the ground. If you’re interested see this post, eastern towhee. What a treat to get a picture of him singing!
It is only when singing that the Towhee is fully at rest. Then a change comes over him; he is in love, and mounting a low branch, he repeatedly utters his sweet bird s-i-n-n-g with convincing earnestness.
~ Frank Michler Chapman
(Life Histories of Familiar North American Birds)
2009 NC Wildflower of the Year
(these reminded me of the Sno-Caps candy I used to love)
As for the wild spontaneous Flowers of this Country, Nature has been so liberal, that I cannot name one tenth of the valuable ones.
~ John Lawson, describing North Carolina in 1709
(Carolina Comments, January 1982)
The finches seemed to be a pair. He kept coming down from the tree to the feeder but she wouldn’t follow him. Wish I could have gotten a picture of them together. And so ended another lovely morning in the garden.
wonderful, all of it
Thank you, Leelah! Sending you a big hug! 💙
Another nice outing with some good sightings. Love the Marshallia, very pretty. I love towhees, but they are uncommon here.
Apparently marshallia is native to the southeastern and south-central states. I’m in love and I found out a common name for it is Barbara’s buttons. I used to hear towhees once in a blue moon in Connecticut but I only actually got to see one of them, and it wasn’t singing. Fond memories of my father identifying their pretty song on our walks in the woods.
Oh Barbara, I so enjoy your photos, especially since you moved to NC, my home state. I gave up my blog when life got busy again after COVID but I still get yours in my inbox. I’ll be in Raleigh visiting a friend soon and requested that we visit the botanical gardens because of your photos! Glad to see you are still venturing into the woods.
Anna, how lovely to hear from you! I often wondered what happened to you and your blog. I hope you and your friend enjoy your visit to the botanical garden and if you have time and feel like a walk in the woods afterwards the Piedmont Nature Trails are right behind it. It warms my heart to know you’re still reading my blog and I’m glad to know all is well with you.
I love your birds, Barbara — particularly the woodpecker. I had to Google for the sound a towhee makes, and that trilling at the tail of their call is mighty distinctive. The marshallia looks like lace!
Thank you, Debbie! That woodpecker was tricky to catch as he was so busy flitting around. Sometimes if I keep shooting discover a good shot when I get home. I’m in love with the marshallia — it does look like lace!
Hi Barbara, I also had interest in googling for the sound of your Eastern Towhee with its Drink Your Tea slogan! My backyard birds has a good one posted. That certainly does sound like what it is saying!!! Glad you noticed it and danced around to find it for photos. Great fun!
I was so determined to actually see that towhee! My father taught me the song when I was very little but we never saw one. When I finally did see one, after my father died, it was because Tim & I heard a lot of rustling on the ground a few feet off the path. That one wasn’t singing. So to hear this one singing AND find it in the tree was a thrill for me!
I like the quote and think I may have achieved the purposeless life! Of course it took years to get this purposeless. The marshallia is pretty & unique. I’m not familiar with it.
Same here, Ally, it took years to realize that purposelessness was a completely viable and valid approach to life. I had also never seen the enchanting marshallia before — apparently it’s a southern flower.
Enjoying your photos as always! Very nice on the towhee! I’ve got flower photos filling up my memory card, but just haven’t gotten to the blog recently. Hopefully soon! Thank you for always having something pretty to look at.
Thank you, Karma! It’s good to know you’re enjoying all the pictures. I have plenty of time to take them but I keep putting off deleting all the duds – not as much fun. You’ve got a lot on your plate right now but I look forward to seeing your flowers pictures soon!
I like how most of the post was in purple flowers and yes, those marshallia did look like Sno-Caps candy. The Eastern Towee is beautiful and boy could he/she sing … you were lucky that it was in full warble when you took that photo. I went back to your original post and could like or comment on it unfortunately. We must have started following one another later that year … I can’t see that I missed that post. Yes, the chairs outside at the onset of the pandemic; I would not have sat in them either. How beautiful this garden is Barbara – every walk unearths a new set of treasures.
Sometimes purple nudges blue out as my favorite color. 💜 Hearing and seeing that towhee singing was quite a thrill for me. Going back to that post, four years ago, stirred up intense feelings of wistful longing in me, not just for the Connecticut woods, but for the beginning of the pandemic when Tim & I had so much time together, just us. I wish I could remember when you and I started following each other but I’m glad we still are! I do remember it was sometime during the pandemic, which changed all of our lives in so many ways.
Purple is pretty, especially two tones together. I remember you liked those two-toned purple crocuses. I hope to see a towhee one day. I need to learn more birds. I bought a wildflower and bird book for Michigan only – I need to use it instead of Google Image Search. The pandemic did have some good things …especially for you and Tim. You could still go out and enjoy nature, away from others, but that didn’t change, where so many other things did. I am trying to remember how we followed each other too and I am thinking it might have been when Ally Bean had one of her blogroll posts where she invited her followers to try out three different blogs of her list of followers? I tried out three one time – still with two of them, the other stopped posting. I think Ally did that blogroll invitation twice if I recall.
That’s great you found a book for birds and wildflowers for your state. I miss using my Connecticut bird book. I haven’t found a book for North Carolina birds yet. I have two about birding in NC, but they only tell where the good birding spots are. But no field guide to the specific birds to be found here. I still rely on the What’s this Bird? – American Birding Association (ABA) Facebook group to identify the birds I don’t recognize. I don’t think I would have been able to identify that little brown-headed nuthatch without their help, even if I had thumbed through a field guide.
I think I found your first comment on my blog on September 3, 2020.
https://www.ingebrita.net/2020/09/throwback-thursday-2/
And I’m pretty sure my first comment on your blog was on September 6, 2020.
https://lindaschaubblog.net/2020/09/04/walk-the-walk/
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Ally Bean had something to do with the connection! 🙂
I still have my “Audubon Field Guide to North American Birds” which I got as a young girl. It is downstairs in my desk but I can’t reach the desk to pull out the drawer as I have Rubbermaid tubs in front of it … at the time I put all those tubs there (filled with paperback books my mom read but I didn’t yet and also jigsaw puzzles she did and I thought I would save and do them), I wasn’t out walking or at nature sites. The What’s This Bird group on FB is good and they are nice people there – remember they told me my mystery bird was a Juvenile Starling and everyone said “it wasn’t easy to tell” but they knew right away.
I just went back to both blog sites. Thank you for sending the links. I didn’t realize it was that long ago we followed one another. COVID and early in the pandemic still. I suspect it might have been Ally as well, especially since everyone was in their bubble and reluctant to go anywhere to interact with others. Are you planning on getting a Spring COVID shot or just waiting until Fall to get it with the flu shot? I am conflicted whether to get one. I am the only person at the store anymore who is wearing a mask or anywhere else for that matter. I was told at CVS to get the two-part hepatitis series. They gave me one type of hepatitis shot last year, but this is different.
We got our covid booster in March, as soon as it was approved. We got one in September and will get another one this coming September so they will be evenly spaced. They say 1 in 4 Americans haven’t caught covid yet and we’re doing our best to remain “covid virgins!” We only feel the need to wear masks in crowded places and medical offices where the viral load is heavier.
I think I will try to get in next week then. I am still unscathed, a “covid virgin” as well and hope to keep it that way … perhaps I can stop wearing the mask at parks then. I still wear an N-95 mask to grocery stores and medical offices. I still have not been to get my hair cut since 2019 and have been cutting it myself, but all the layers are gone now – layers I can’t do.
I’ve gotten my hair cut a couple of times, usually two weeks after a vaccination and I keep a mask on while they’re cutting it. I don’t think masks are needed when outside in the park, unless you’re in the middle of a mob. There isn’t much chance of you getting enough viral load in the fresh air to infect you.
I do need to get a good haircut – maybe this Summer with an N-95 that goes behind the ears. My N-95 mask style I use for grocery shopping/errands and the allergist goes around the head, so that wouldn’t work. I am going for my COVID shot this week. I’m not eligible to go until May 18th – the pharmacist said coming a little earlier was fine. I hesitated as I’d rather go October/April and wish I had not waited to long in Spring 2023 to get the booster. So I thought with the very hot Summer, maybe I’d skip it and just get it in mid-September, but thought better of it. I know I am over-protective of myself, but …. I try to be prudent as well.
I am not a bird….but…I totally agree that singing is very calming.
It helps me to remember to breathe deeply!
I had to laugh, listening to birds and people singing is calming for me, but since I cannot carry a tune I have to rely on yoga to help me remember to breathe deeply!