Sunday Gratitude

"Every moment is a gift" - I just read this yesterday evening in a book, and I thought this is so true. When I look back at the past week I can see many moments that were a gift.

Our friend D, who has cancer and just finished her chemo, joined us for dinner one evening. We spent a wonderful time together, laughing a lot. I admire her attitude, she is so inspiring. Her surgery is in May and we all hope that things will look so much better for her afterward.

I spent a few hours with my friend K. We meet every Wednesday and just do some creative stuff together. She usually works on albums for one member in her family, and I brought my knitting this time. I'm currently knitting a summer sweater for Kaefer for her 17th birthday later this week. She chose the yellow sparkly yarn and I chose the pattern that I found on Ravelry. My "moment" was when I arrived at K's home and her dogs just stormed to the door to greet me. So heart warming!

When I came back home around 2:30pm that day I found a deer lounging in the shade below my kitchen window! That was a surprise. I am used to them coming into my garden and fill their bellies, but settling down for a siesta? That was a first. It then occurred to me that this actually meant I had achieved with my front garden what I wanted - a wildlife habitat!

The garden gives me many beautiful moments - butterflies twirling from flower to flower, scrub jays nesting, hummingbirds feeding on the nectar, orioles chatting, California towhees hopping through the plants, bees buzzing around the Spanish lavender. It provides many, many moments of gratitude.

And I'm happily planning my backyard. The past three years I mainly focused on the front garden, but now I will also work on my backyard. I want to change it into a beautiful garden as well, also a wildlife habitat where birds, bees, and butterflies find food, water and shelter. It will certainly take some years. At the moment it just has a dead lawn, some border beds, a few trees and raised beds. I love to spend lazy Sunday mornings searching Pinterest for ideas - so much inspiration to find there.

One morning I also managed to walk around my lake and I saw one of my beloved Black-crowned night herons. He was just a few feet away and thankfully stayed long enough for me to take a couple pictures before he took off. It was so beautiful to walk the trails around the lake. It always feeds my
soul.

So much to be grateful for. What about you?