Do you know what a group of hawks is called? It's called a cast. I learned this because I was out enjoying my coffee and watching my chickens peck about in the garden early one morning, when suddenly a wild cacophony of bird noises erupted from the opposite end of my yard. I walked over to see what was going on and I spotted not one, not two, but three red-shouldered hawks in the trees, a mere 15 feet above me. We are used to seeing a hawk or two (which often seem a little too interested in our chickens . . . ), but three was unusual. Then I spotted what they were making all of the banging, blaring commotion over - a parliament of barn owls was trying to stake a claim to a branch in one of the trees. These hawks were not having it. They screeched and they squawked and pecked and poked, and finally the owls silently took flight across the road, with a cast of hawks in hot pursuit and a not-to-be-left-out scold of blue jays close in tow. I'm not going to lie, it was a wild morning in the garden.
And while all of the noise was a little alarming, it only added a little adventure to my morning. One of my favorite things to do is to take my coffee and check on my gardens. Sometimes it is investigating the veggie garden to check for bugs and see how our tomatoes and peppers are coming along. Other mornings it is giving the rose garden a little prune, but my favorite mornings are checking on my plant collection (that's a few of them pictured below). Their unique beauty always puts me in good spirits for the day. Gardening of any type is definitely a part of my self-care routine. What's your plant ritual? How do you take care of your plants and more importantly, how do you let your plants take care of you?