….that is, if I could sing!  I sing so badly my first graders once asked me not to sing along.  But the Bible says make a joyful noise, and nothing was said about how pretty it had to sound.  So I make joyful noises!

Today was one of those days that I want to be Julie Andrews standing on that mountain singing The Hills Are Alive, because that’s exactly where I was today.  I went on a scouting trip with two fellows from the Georgia Native Plant Society, seeing if there were any plants of interest to be rescued before the bulldozers move in.

One of the scouters I greatly admire.  He’s been involved with the GNPS so long that he seems to know everything.  We hiked up and down hills, through brambles, over fallen logs, across mucky stream beds, and through some pretty rough ground.  I’ve never enjoyed myself more.  We found so many wonderful plants-thousands of Christmas ferns, Royal Ferns, Lady Ferns, Ebony Spleenwort, native azaleas, pawpaw trees, sourwoods, foamflower, ginger, whew-the list goes on and on.

We’ll start planning a rescue in the next two weeks, and I’ll be bringing a truck load of stuff for my yard, Dianne’s yard, the Buffalo Creek trail, the Native Plant Society plant sales.  This week we are rescuing a site here in Carroll County before it gets logged and turned into a cow pasture.  Next week, it’s off to Paulding to a site we haven’t dug in over a year.  Hope to find lots of Iris cristata, rue anemone, ferns, rattlesnake plantain.   Then after that, it’s off to Fayette Co. to scout a possible site there.

It breaks my heart when we enter these undisturbed wooded areas to scout and rescue, knowing that the bulldozers will be moving in soon.  But we are not in the business of trying to stop ‘progress’, just trying to save a little bit of the heaven before it’s too late.  And so, I’m creating a little piece of heaven here in my own yard, and I can sit on the deck or the patio, or out on a garden bench and enjoy what someone else so easily gave away.

I just wish everyone would take time to learn more about how important our native plants are for wildlife and to us.  No native plants= no native bees or butterflies. our main pollinators.  No pollinators= less food for us.  Scary what’s happening in our world today.

So, off my soapbox to share a few of my native plant pictures from my own little slice of heaven……