Marilyn's Garden

Friday, June 21:  Summer Solstice. I am in Detroit visiting my sister, Ruthanne and my brother-in-law, Terry. We had hoped to go to Frankenmuth on Thursday but we got rained out. Instead, we drove over to Sommerset Mall and walked almost three miles looking in all the fancy shops and just having a good time. It's always nice to see them! We played a few games at night and watched Father of the Bride I and II while laughing our heads off.

Friday morning was beautiful, so we walked around their street corner to Marilyn's house (a friend of the family) to be amazed by her enormously beautiful gardens. SO beautiful!

 Marilyn has been growing these gardens for more than 30 years. She is a beautiful person. I loved listening to her as she told the history of her back yard and how the gardens have progressed over the years. She works hard at this, and it certainly shows. We were blessed right down to our toes. I'm going to make her a card to thank her for being so generous with her time. She is a very gracious person.

 Here are Marilyn, Terry, and Ruthanne.

 Super peaceful. Quiet. Gorgeous.

 These are Sweet Williams' ... aren't they beautiful?

 It would be difficult to pick out a favorite place back here.

 GREEN. SO GREEN!

 Marilyn says she doesn't know a single thing about gardening! Hah! She says she has an "artistic eye" (quite an understatement) for designing where each plant will go and placing the little houses and garden scuptures around. 

 Wow, God --- You certainly are an amazing Creator!

 I'm not terribly fond of yellow jackets ... but this little fellow allowed me to take a bit of time snapping his picture, so ... I like him!

Ruthanne and Terry told me an interesting story about the robins who built a nest on top of the light fixture on their front porch this year. This is the second year in a row that they've had a nest on that light. They told me that the parent robins faithfully fed their three babies, all day long bringing them worms to eat. The nest was quite small for THREE baby birds, but that's how it was! After each feeding, the parent robin would put its beak way into the nest and retrieve a little white sack, grab it in their beak and fly away with it. This happened at each and every feeding. Ruthanne and Terry looked this up and discovered that this white sack was actually the baby birds' bodily waste, and since the parents didn't want the babies sitting around in their own waste, they carefully remove it from the nest! Good parents! And another amazing thing! Once the baby birds fly out of the nest, they no longer produce a sack for their waste but just let loose any place they choose. I think it's pretty amazing that God designed them to make this possible. We have an amazing God!