Isn't Mother Nature Wonderful?

As many of you know, I have been a little busy lately. I just came back from California (see my Ca. post) and I have been consumed with getting 150 very large wedding cake cookies baked, iced and decorated and packaged for my nephew's Sep. 4th wedding. I have made so many batches of Royal Icing, my teeth hurt just thinking about it. I decided to take a break from all that. For the last couple of days I have gone outside with my trusty digital and tried to capture the beauty of Mother Nature. I am proud to present my version of 'Why Mother Nature Rocks"...Enjoy!

To start with, let me share my perky Cosmos. I love this flower for it's beautiful colors and for the fact that it starts to blooms toward the end of the summer when everything is starting to fade. Here in Virginia they are naturalized all along the road sides..so pretty, pinks, white, reds, yellow and orange. They are also virtually pest and maintenance free...love that!

Upon returning home from California, I found that our Pink Pineapple plant was blooming. This is such a wonderful and tropical looking plant. Although the pink flower is fabulous, it is not done yet...it will also sprout tiny purple flowers inside the big pink one. I wonder if the pink is really the flower at all, but just a continuation of the plant...I feel a Google fit coming on ;-) If you look close you can see the beginnings of the purple flowers. I like to refer to this as my PP plant...pretty and prickly...ouch!

Yesterday evening I spotted a hummingbird searching for his dinner. Do you see him? In the middle of the photo and above the petunias. I get quite a few hummers and if you have never seen hummers do battle in midair...you are in for a treat. Star Wars has nothing on these little guys!

While strolling with my camera I heard some frantic chirping going on. I knew I had a Robins nest in one of my Leland Cypress trees off the back deck. I have been watching mom making her many trips back and forth with a beak full of bugs and worms. This chirping was more frantic than usual and as I looked around the back yard...there it was...........

An adorable little baby Robin must have fallen out of it's nest. It could not fly more than a foot or so. He kept hopping over towards the road and I had to keep shooing him back. Anyone watching me would have thought I was crazy. The look on his face was so funny...he kept looking over his wing to see if I was still following him. I later watched as mom found him and fed him while he sat in the grass. I worried about him all night, we have foxes here! To my delight, I found him sitting happily in the grass under his nesting tree, with mom nearby. Robins are such good parents.

The photo above shows my potted Geranium and to our surprise, we have grape tomatoes growing. We did not plant any grape tomatoes! Seems my hubby top dressed all my containers with our compost and now I have tomatoes, cantaloupes and watermelons growing in all my pots. So ironic...when you want these plants to grow, they don't. But when you give up..they sprout every where! I give up....after I enjoy the veggies that is ;-)

We had a storm blow through Saturday evening. I love how the whole sky got very dark and windy and in the midst of it all there was this one little pink cloud. Sometimes the simplest thing are the most beautiful. It is like God saying "be afraid, but don't be petrified" things are never as bad as you think.

This poor jet airliner looked like he was being diverted around our storm. What a fabulous view they must have had. I adore clouds.

I am also in awe of the design Mother Nature is capable of. If you think about it, this spiders web is an architectural wonder. To think he spun this in one night...amazing! Of course if the spider is a huge one...that baby is coming down!!!! Mother nature is cool, but I do have my limits.

And finally just when you think you have seen all Mother Nature has to offer...she throws a curve 'ball' at you(no pun intended..he, he). I found this tomato at my local Farmers Market here in Warrenton. Their was no way I was not bringing this specimen home with me. My hubby just shook his head and has refused to cut into it. I think he feels some kind of kinship with this guy. My little tomato sits on my kitchen counter and I smile every time I look at him. I will keep him around until the fruit flies tell me otherwise...just like my man ;-)

Now go be one with Mother Nature...be kind and stay creative.