Extracting Happiness From Common Things

“The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.”
Henry Ward Beecher

Random things that make me stop and appreciate them…things of nature.

Last week our power downstairs kept going out and when we traced it we found that the pump in our outdoor fountain was bad. We got out moneys worth…it has been running 24/7 for over three years. So, we bought a new pump and I set about to clean out the fountain and replace the pump. Bob the builder was busy building a new table.

When Bob built the fountain three years ago I took these photos for a blog post. It is a big terracotta pot with a plastic pot upside down inside. The pump has a plastic tube that feeds through a hole in the bottom of plastic pot. The plastic pot fits tight in the bottom of the terracotta pot. He cut out a small square of the rim so that water can get in and the pump cord can come out.

When the plastic pot is placed inside the big pot it is really tight. I then fill the terracotta pot with small rocks. To clean the fountain all of the small rocks have to be taken out. Once I get most of the rocks out I can force the plastic pot loose.

Then we placed another terracotta pot on top, fed the tube through that and added more rocks. It made a lovely sound.

Now, I’ve told you all of that…to share this photo. When I pulled the plastic pot out to remove the old pump and finish cleaning the fountain…this cute guy greeted me.

My question is…how the heck did he get inside the upside down plastic pot that was packed in with small rocks? You can see there are still rocks in the bottom. So, how did he get there and how did he survive?

We gently lifted him out and placed him in our birdbath where he hung out for a few minutes before hopping out and going who knows where. We hope he is living somewhere in our garden and then returning to the birdbath or to the fountain when he needs water. There aren’t many other sources of water around. He certainly brought a smile to our faces.

Oh and our new pump came with different flow nozzles so we eliminated the top pot. I like this one and the sound it makes is wonderful.

Then there are the bees that recently started sleeping on some dried flowers we have hanging on the patio. I say sleeping because they arrive in the evening and attach themselves to the flower stem with their mandibles. They then fly away during the day.

Sorry but it was windy so the flowers kept moving. Didn’t bother the bee though.

It makes us happy that our garden is a safe haven for nature’s creatures.

A couple of mornings ago we walked out our front door to head to the beach. We were greeted by all of these beautiful Swallows sitting on the wires.

Did you know that a group of Swallows is called: a flight, a gulp, a herd, a kettle, a richness, or a swoop? I like a gulp because they gulp the bugs as they fly.