Ten Little Celebrations - May 2025
/So many places close to home to visit…flowers everywhere. Also a new volunteering activity…with butterflies.
Roston Butterfly House. The native butterfly house at Springfield Botanical Gardens opened in May…and I had my first volunteer shift there…celebrating the butterflies and the people that come to visit them!
Butterfly tour for first graders. There are so many little celebrations to observe and participate in on field trips with first graders: their exuberance at being outdoors, their awe of butterflies in general and joy when on alights on their shoulder or finger…celebration frequently rippling through the whole group.
Harold Prairie. I celebrated visting a narrow swath of never plowed prairie in need of restoration…the flowers beginning to bloom after the recent mowing and the prospect of volunteer hours in the future.
Noah Brown’s Prairie. Getting to see 3 different prairie situations in a short walk is worth celebrating: a never plowed prairie recently burned, a never plowed prairie that is due to be burned in the fall, and a prairie restoration project. There was plenty to see in all three areas!
Linden’s Prairie. Another never plowed area…celebrating seeing some new species and some ones I had seen in the previous prairies.
Ag Academy. I celebrated the 5th grade Ag Academy students that were selling seedlings as a fund raiser….and getting some milkweed, zinnias, and coneflowers to plant in a big pot for my patio.
Irises. Big beautiful flowers…one of the big celebrations in my yard in May.
More native plants. I added an American Spikenard, red buckeye, and native columbines to my yard in May…celebrating that they were easy to find at a local native plant sale and that I got them planted the day after I bought them.
Successful surgery. Often times things that cause a lot of anxiety (like pending surgery) result in a celebration when the best happens…rather than the worst. That happened for my husband this month.
Young robins. I celebrated seeing fledgling/juvenile robins…and realizing what they were…in my newly creating spikenard/hosta garden. They seem to be finding things to eat in the pine needle mulch!
