Sunday, January 01, 2012

Attention to Detail

or stop & take a closer look.

Something I have learned relatively recently is that planning & planting a garden doesn't always work out quite how you had envisioned it. It can also be a whole new level of anticlimax when you are gardening in pots & the city is put on water restrictions for the summer. 
Terracotta & clay pots become a nightmare as they dry out particularly quickly compared to plastic pots ....which I loathe - so I'm betting you can guess which kind of pots I have. So pots & water restrictions just don't play nice together...unless you have planted cactus....which I hadn't.

Years ago, in my gardening hey day, I learned how to zoom in from a less than ideal large garden grouping (often a grouping that looked a little too formal for my taste or simply an error in the choice of a certain plant) & focus on the individual plants, look closer & take them for what they had to offer rather than as how they fitted within the bigger picture of a group.To focus on the each plants unique features you can't help but view them in a positive light.

It's not something I consciously learned to do it just happened - perhaps to avoid disappointment or, more likely, the constant disturbance of plants as I felt the need to move them to somewhere they might fit in better ;)

Somewhere along the way it gave it me a good grounding for life in general. Again it wasn't a conscious effort - it just evolved somehow. I've realised that recently I've applied the zooming in process in light of what is happening here. The ability to zoom in, shut out the bigger picture, & take a closer look at things & see if I can find positives - and I always do.

Taking a 'macro' look at one thing in particular forces the brain to shut out the rest in order to be able to absorb the detail. This is not a bad thing. I've realised that no matter what, there is always beauty somewhere & often all we have to do to find it is look a little closer....pay attention to detail.

You just never know what you might find!!

2 comments:

Sharon Driscoll said...

A Very thoughtful post Deb. I totally agree with you. The plant is beautiful but the bug looks a little scary...although he's just doing his job.

Deb said...

Sharon that's a bumble bee with it's proboscis/tongue extended ready to gather pollen. They were really busy yesterday...yet they are quite docile, I could stick my hand right beside where they were to pull a piece of plant aside to get a clear photo & they don't seem to mind.

It's the first time I've ever seen one with it's tongue out.lol!