The Likes of Which We've Never Seen!

Wednesday, August 16, 2017


Since purchasing our place in the mountains there have been many times I've felt like a little girl again, as time and time again I am filled with such wonder and excitement over the views, creeks, waterfalls, and nature surrounding us in our neck of the NC Smokey Mountains.

On this special day, we saw the likes of which we've never seen!


You see, we purchased our fixer upper back in December and have every weekend since headed to the mountains to work on it, except for Christmas and weekends when we've had family birthdays to celebrate.  Over those many weekends we've enjoyed taking breaks here and there to enjoy the rushing creeks that border our property, watch the wildlife that strolls through and also to take notice of the trees and plants; I've shared much of these here.  We want to keep the creeks in view from the cabin but decided to wait for everything around us to bloom through all four seasons before deciding to remove anything.



There are two raised beds by the front creek and what began as small green shoots growing back in February, very slowly grew to be 4' tall by the end of May.  With still no idea of what was to become of them, we waited and waited, and by June there were finally a few red blooms and that's when we learned these are bee balm plants.



It was July before most of these fanciful red blooms began opening and we noticed that bees and hummingbirds liked them.  The flower is pretty, and we love bees and hummingbirds, but the bed blocks the creek so I planned on pulling up the plants and removing the raised beds once the flowers faded.



All that changed as we drove down the drive this past weekend.
We turned in the drive and made our way around the cabin and were in awe as we began seeing butterflies flying everywhere!  They were flying across our truck, throughout the front property and as we looked toward the bee balm we were utterly amazed!  The bee balm was swarming with hundreds of fluttering butterflies; it was truly a sight to behold.

Most were black swallowtail butterflies but there were yellow eastern tiger swallowtails and others too.








I took many videos trying to capture this magnificent sight and of course none came close to how amazing it is to see this in person, but they are beautiful to watch.
I wanted to share these two with you; one is farther away and one is up close.
(Some parts are a little shaky, sorry...but it does come into focus.
To view:  choose "YouTube" and then "theatre.") 

  







I hope you enjoyed the videos!  It was the likes of which we've never seen; truly God's handiwork!  I am glad waited for all things to bloom through each season as these plants will surely stay!

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
2 Corinthians 5:17

Follow along to see how our creekside mountain cabin fixer upper turns out...see it all right here.



Join us each Sunday evening for Amaze Me Monday...




Sharing with: Home Sweet Home 

14 comments:

  1. Hi Cindy, How blessed you are to have the cabin as a getaway. Love the bushes-almost look like Cone Flower, but I don't think that is it. Love the butterflies. We have coneflower in our yard and I've noticed many butterflies on it. Now that they are dying, I'm sure the birds will come for the seeds.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Noreen

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  2. Oh my those butterfly's are stunning and like you, I would not be pulling them up. What a beautiful place for your weekend get away. I have a lot of milk weed for the butterfly's, they really like that also.

    enjoy your weekend.

    Mary

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  3. What a gift from God! Thank you for sharing this. I really needed to be reminded of God's blessings today.

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  4. I'm planting bee balm next year.. just beautiful '

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  5. Your photos are awesome, Cindy...you are blessed to have place where beauty and nature abounds. I feel so much of the same when we are in NC. We have it all, don't we?

    Jane xxx

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  6. How lucky you are to have such a beautiful place in the mountains.Loved seeing the butterflies. It was truly a great surprise.I would be leaving the bee balm for sure. Enjoy your time spent there.

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  7. Amazing!! God's creation is wonderful:) Glad to know that you will not be getting rid of this habitat. Loved the video.

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  8. The wonderment of the world..don't think I've ever seen "black" butterflies before.

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  9. Thank You! Our Creator is soooo wonderful! We all need to slow down and take it all in! Wonderful video. Please continue to help us see His beauty! You can move your bee balm. Cut short, dig and move. It is very hardy and your winged friends will be back next year!

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  10. A true gift and a blessing to your cabin! I am so glad you let everything go through a season before you decided to make any major changes...that was so smart of you. Bee balm is very adaptable and transplants readily if you want to move it. Hope you have a great Wednesday afternoon! xo Diana

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  11. My butterfly garden is alive with so much activity right now!

    Don't pull up your beebalm. It really is worth a blocked few for a short time to have this spectacular view in it's place. And wait until they go to seed, you'll have even more beautiful visitors. then.

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  12. WOW...what a beautiful looking place! Loving the creek running along side your place. Nice photos.

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  13. The butterflies! So beautiful in the video, and gorgeous photos too!

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  14. How fantastic Cindy! Our butterfly bush is the same with painted ladies. The. Black swallowtail are here though, the parsley is full of caterpillars. Thanks for sharing at Home Sweet Home.

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