CONSIDER THE HONEYSUCKLE
By Julie Lavender

I’ve taken a different path during my morning walks with God recently. The bigger road that leads to our neighborhood is less-traveled with many working from home, so I often walk that road now, as it eventually leads to a cow pasture. With social distancing, it seems that I’ve taken to chatting with the bovines.

CONSIDER THE BUTTONBUSH

by Julie Lavender

On a recent afternoon at our family riverhouse, my husband and I paddled downstream and wandered along the banks in a couple of places. One of my favorite shrubs along the water’s edge is the buttonbush.

CONSIDER THE LAVENDER
by Julie Lavender

My walk with God this week took me to Black Mountain, North Carolina, where I quite deliberately walked past shrubs of lavender plants. The piney floral scent enveloped me and made me smile.

Partial to Purple

You see, I’m kinda partial to the lavender herb (and, quite honestly, anything purple since the day I fell in love with my sweetie and ultimately took his last name).

CONSIDER THE APHID
by Julie Lavender

I took a different path on my morning walk today that led me past the ditch in our back yard. A couple of ladybugs, or as my biologist husband would correctly identify them, ladybird beetles, caught my eye and I looked closer at the weeds growing near the water’s edge.

“Aphids. Lots of them.”

CONSIDER THE HONEYBEE
by Julie Lavender

     

A walk this time of year sometimes gives me the sniffles, but that same pollen that tickles my nostrils is much sought after by many of God’s itty bitty creations.

One of the most fascinating pollen-seekers is the honeybee.

When a honeybee discovers a flower, it attempts to collect and pack as much pollen onto its hind legs as it possibly can before returning to its hive. The pollen and nectar the honeybee collects is used for food for the honeybee colony.