Flower for the Day Day Lily II 6-21-24

Recently I was feeling great about how my day lilies were turning out, well really a little smug.

The very next day an entire stand of flowers and buds were gone - eaten by my deer population overnight.

Over the next few weeks more day lilies have appeared. Good thing I have the numbers or it would look pretty bleak.

Here are some of the replacements.

And more to come.

The Summer Day

Who made the world?

Who made the swan,  and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper I mean—

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention,  how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me,  what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver