More Butterflies, Garden & Trains

As part of a community beautification project called Greening of the Depot in Seneca, SC, our local Reading Room adopted a garden plot. It's been an ambitious garden, 80 X 40, filled with plants that attract butterflies and hummingbirds, and has been a labor of love. Initially there were many hours of hard work donated by various volunteers from the community and church that all came together to make the Depot project a success. This area is now filled with beautiful gardens with our garden in the center of what was previously a neglected field along the railroad tracks. The beautification project had many facets that included encouraging Norfolk & Southern Railway Lines to repaint the historic train depot in lovely paint colors, local businesses adopting portions of that once neglected area, replacing with unique and colorful gardens and plantings, and that also included a planting of a new park across from the library on another abandoned lot and that local garden clubs continue to maintain. All in all, a huge success.

It has been a joy and pleasure to watch the plants maturing and adding to the beautification of the area since it was started. The Reading Room garden has experienced a bit of neglect the past couple of years. As assistant librarian when the garden was started, I had been delegated as the main gardener and each year seemed to have fewer helpers able to help out. Some life events kept me away as well from spending much time in the garden, and so for the past couple of years the garden has looked rather neglected and overgrown with weeds. Many plants have grown into beautiful, large specimens. Some have died away. But many, many weeds have tried to take over, obscuring the steppings stones with some growing up as large as some of the plants.

The cooler weather and more available time have inspired me to work once again in the garden. With the help of two workers we mowed the weeds, dug up dead plants, planted new ones, sprayed, spread new mulch, replaced the stepping stones, did lots of pruning of various overgrown plantings, we were able to restore order once again to our garden.

I'm grateful to have had occasion to spend many quiet hours working in the garden this week. This afforded me opportunities to take the time to watch and enjoy the many butterflies that love to drink the nectar of the large Lantana plants that have grown into large shrubs. These butterflies that hatched from large caterpillars that fed on the caraway plants we planted years ago that they so love are now those brilliant orange flights of joy. Plus the watching of the many types of birds that played, flying in and out of the branches, especially the mockingbirds, and also discovering the many types of insects (including two praying mantis!), plus enjoying the warm, fall sunshine, all added to my overall enjoyment and pleasure this week as I worked each day staying present with each moment filled me with awe.

And the TRAINS! You don't realize there are as many trains using those tracks until you spend several days working alongside them. It was fun to have the excuse to stop trimming for a few minutes and wave to the engineers (who always waved back), and then count the number of cars moving down the tracks behind each engine.....68 on one heading north, 98 on the one heading south a short time later, then another heading north, this one with double engines and travelling especially fast, pulling 102 different cars! All of the trains. All filled with various types of commerce, travelling up and down this north/south railway that until spending time there alongside, I had not appreciated their numbers. It all evoked a real nostalgia within me filling me with peaceful feelings. Sounds a bit strange to say peaceful all the while standing so close and listening to the loud clickety-clack of their wheels moving down the tracks plus the very loud, plaintive peals of the train whistles blaring as they roared past me, but that's what I felt.....peaceful.

I'm glad to have the garden neat and trim once again, and very grateful for the at-one-ment experience with nature and trains.