S04E075, Goldfinches and Hedge trimmers, Andy B 2 Minute Video
We’re enjoying the mature garden we’ve inherited with our home. It’s stunning to see all sorts of flowers, bushes and wildlife taking shelter in the various places that such a garden creates. Our house sits in ¼ acre, so there is plenty of it!
We’ve spent time, recently, mowing the grass, and trimming the hedges - our home is almost completely hedged in by hedges, which we love!
We’ve been blessed by the garden, and the hedges. But, with the changing of the seasons, it is all growing quite rapidly.
That growth is a good sign of health in the vegetation, although it also means we have to get out the mower and hedge trimmer to keep it all under control.
One of those bushes, however, is sitting untouched by us. When you see all the neatly trimmed hedges around it, that mess stands out even more! Because, you see, this particular bush is also home to a pair of goldfinches and their nest.
We watched them busily building it, and now Mrs Goldfinch is sitting in there waiting for those eggs to hatch.
It’s amazing!
In life we can see mess in someone’s life, but that mess can be a really good sign of growth. So, let’s not mistake mess, for something bad. It could, just as easily, be due to growth.
Just a thought...
Andy B
Listen
Download
Transcript
0:00
So, another Andy B 2 Minute Video, and there's sort of a horticultural pattern emerging in the last few Andy Bs, because I've been down the garden a little bit. We've done a little bit of work trimming some hedges. We've been doing the grass. What else have we been doing? We've been sorting out a mobile phone mast against the wall, so it works better for our own internet signal. So I've been out and about quite a bit.
0:27
Now one of the bushes in our garden is quite special to us, because although we've only been here a few months, there's some goldfinches now nesting in this bush. And it's amazing. I love the goldfinch. There's a photo for you to look at. The Goldfinch is just a stunningly, beautiful, little bird. They've been busily coming and going as they've been building the nest. And now if you look really carefully in the bush, you can see Mrs. Goldfinch sitting there, waiting to hatch some eggs, which is awesome. It's just stunning, seeing God's nature so close to our lounge window. And we can stand and look and not scare them. We see them coming and go and it's brilliant.
1:02
But here's the thing. We've been trying to tidy the garden up, which means getting a hedgetrimmer out. Which means we've been going around all the hedges and trimming them, cutting the grass. Where this bush is, it's the only way we can walk out of one part of our house, so we're always walking to and fro past the bush. Now we don't go charging past, and we're not going to trim the hedge! But it's looking quite unsightly. But I'm quite happy with it not looking very pretty right now because, ultimately, there's a little Goldfinch in there, and it's trying to have a nest, and we don't want to scare it off 'cos it's a beautiful looking little bird.
1:35
In our lives, it's quite often the case, isn't it? We look at ourselves and think, oh that's a bit messy that part. But the thing about mess, is mess, often is a sign of growth. The hedges in our garden became quite wild, the grass overgrown, but it was a good healthy sign of growth. Yes, it's lovely having nice, neat, equally high grass.
1:55
It's wonderful having a perfectly arbred bush, or hedge. But we're not touching this one hedge. And it's looking a right mess. And it's, even now, looking more of a mess, because all the bushes that are 15, 20 foot away, are being pruned by us, and we're caring for them. Apart from this one little bush.
2:15
Are thre parts in other people's lives that look a bit of a mess. We need to be careful, don't we, that we don't look at their lives and think well that's a bit of a mess that. That's not very good.
2:23
Actually, that mess may also be a really good, healthy, sign of growth.
2:28
Just a thought.
Andy B, 18/05/2022