The Summer is drawing to a close. Next week, my daughter leaves for college to pursue a degree in Biology. When she asked me to go on a walk with her today despite the weather app saying it was 95 degrees with a real feel of 110 degrees, I decided to go with her as to not miss an opportunity to spend some time with my daughter. I saw many beautiful flowers and a few cool critters.
As I continue to get older, I have developed a love for flowers. These are blue bells. They are shaped like little blue stars.
The yellow flowers are known as Wingstem or Yellow Ironweed. Yellow is one of my favorite colors for any flower because it is such a cheerful, bright color. As I write this, I think of Sunshine Bear who was bright yellow with a sun on his abdomen.
After we walked for a bit, I took a moment to pull three cards from Nature Spirit Tarot by Jean Marie Herzel. Tarot tells a story and this immediately made sense to me. The Two of Cups is symbolized by the two white lillies that intertwine like a caduceus at the very center while surrounded by the Queen of Pentacles, a honey bee tending to a flower, and The Empress, a bird tending to her eggs. I will be working with a new school district this year as a school nurse, a position that I will start next week. I will have many children to tend to so this reading made a lot of sense to me in an obvious way. I am enjoying my last week off for Summer prior to all the busy tasks that accompany a new school year and my daughter's dorm move in.
We saw a curious deer observe us as we walked who was followed by another deer. The deer observed us for a while prior to us getting closer to him prior to taking refuge in the woods.
Maddie was the first to spot the elusive blue tailed skink! She moved a log a bit towards us when out he came! His tail was such a bright, beautiful blue!
I have seen this red trumpet flower on a different walk that I took with family over the Summer at the Powder Valley Nature and Wildlife Reserve. It is such a beautiful shade of orange-red and surely a good sleeping place for a tired bee to catch a nap.
I saw what appeared to be a giant ant quickly making its way across the pavement. I looked it up to discover that it is called a red velvet ant but isn't really an ant at all but instead a parasitic wasp that has a painful sting. From what I can read via Google, this appears to be a female. Apparently, red velvet ants can sting which can be painful (go figure) and are much more difficult to eliminate because of their tough, round bodies. I learned something new today because I don't remember seeing one of these guys. I had a time getting this picture because it was quickly walking.
After an hour and a half or so, we finished what was just over a three mile walk in this heat. No, I am not a fan of the hot, humid weather we have been having although I did enjoy the walk that I had with my daughter and am glad that I didn't say no because of my abhorrence of sweating profusely and appearing like I am dying. Seriously!
We went by the grocery store after our walk to pick up some things for supper when I saw this car freshener with "Manifest it" written below the moon. Yes, this could be a coincidence. However, I smiled as I put this into my cart, thinking about how I smiled through a hot, humid day to spend time with my daughter. It also served as a reminder that this is another phase in life. Here is to more walks and choosing to do things that are outside my comfort zone such as walking outdoors with a high heat index!
Until next time,
Kat