A Little Garden in the Woods...

Next to Lilies-of-the-Valley, Grape Hyacinths are one of the sweetest flowers, I think. And they smell heavenly too if you can get down close enough to the ground to smell them. In the past I've only admired them in others' gardens, but this year I bought some to plant in my own little garden in the woods.
Tucked among them are these cute, mini garden gnomes.
While landscaping last weekend, Hub and I would come and stretch out on the grass that slopes down to my little garden and gaze upon this pretty plot of colorful space when we needed a bit of a break.
This one is a wee bit lazy (and blurry!). But I'll be putting him to work soon enough as I have plans to expand my little garden in the woods.
Recently, Hub found this big mossy rock poking out of the ground near my garden and he determined it might be a good rock to dig up and utilize in our landscaping. There are rocks all over our property as the ground here is so very…rocky? I like to ponder how all the rocks that are or ever will be in existence are here today and no more can ever be made. Well, except for fake rocks, right. Or unless God decided to create more I suppose. I ponder odd things along these lines sometimes. Like how no one, that I’m aware of, can propagate morel mushrooms. They just have to be found out in the wild. As with truffles too. I don’t think anyone can grow truffles either, otherwise they wouldn't be so precious and costly. You can correct me if I'm wrong, but although humans can do a lot of amazing things, there are just some things in nature that exist that cannot be recreated by humans. But back to the big rock... He was going at it with such determination and the rock wasn't budging. And you know guys and a challenge... I looked over at him when I suddenly heard no more battle sounds and well...the rock won. It did not want to be moved. We have since bought more shovels (requisite for landscaping project) and I’m pretty certain Hub will have another go at it very soon.
On a sad wildflower note, this sweet Dutchman Breeches plant, my special little discovery that I was waiting and watching for, was just about to bloom. I took some photos of it in anticipation of its blooming, which I was certain would happen in the next day or two. And the next day I went to check on it, it was almost entirely eaten except for a few sad little flower buds strewn about and roots savagely plucked from its home in the ground. Oh was I mad. Mad at the beast that would so carelessly eat a precious, defenseless wildflower. Was it a deer? Or a rabbit? Or some other careless critter? I’m still a bit miffed about this so they better stay out of our yard for a while. And just to be safe I sprayed my other flowers and plants too.
This was a photo I'd taken of it last year, when we first discovered it growing in our woods. I was so smitten and happy to find it. It was a flower I'd only seen previously in the pages of our wildflower books and had always thought it would be so fun to see one in person. So imagine my delight to find one growing on our property! I guess I'll have to wait for next year, with my deer-off spray in hand.

And on a final garden gnome note...thank you to my favorite Chatty Clan for your kind, thoughtful birthday gift. He is just too cute. For now he's keeping watch at the door but rest assured he will very soon make his way into my little garden in the woods. :)