March 31, 2013

with beauty

at Easter a prayer  and a blessing ~ 


With beauty before me,
May I walk
With beauty behind me,
May I walk
With beauty above me,
May I walk
With beauty below me,
May I walk
With beauty all around me,
May I walk
Wandering on a trail of beauty,
Lively, I walk.  ~Navajo

May we all always walk in beauty. ~walking 

March 28, 2013

March 27, 2013

on other side of March

March is maple syrup month and that pretty well sums up the month.  Cold nights, warm days are the magic combo that make syrup.  March does this so well ~ wicked cold nights and strong sunny days with some snow or rain thrown in.
Getting up and out with Shunka and Indigo first thing in the morning is wonderful  We walk across the still crusted snow all over the fields with the sun making LONG shadows.  Their noses are working over time sniffing the night critters smell.  I can't see any tracks as the snow is too hard.  By afternoon their will be less snow and it will be too soft to walk comfortably.  Loving the freedom to walk in the mornings. Geese are honking their way back.
We are hoping that major snows are done and ground will totally reappear soonish, driveway will unmud and temperatures will be consistently warm.  AND all of this will happen when it is time.  Natural goes at her speed, not mine.  All good things in time as they say.
ps.  Ducks have arrived in the pond...another sign of March ending....




March 22, 2013

trouble in paradise


We have a problem in the dome.  Although there is snow outside and cold temps the dome inside is warming up right smartly with the Spring sun.  32 at night shoots up to 80 during the day.  Today I noticed life in the pond.  Frogs? tadpoles?  That would be pleasant.  

Well Tim rained on my parade saying it was mosquito larvae.  He was right.  We pulled one out and looked at it with a microscope.  

Fish we decided.  Off to Walmart to get fish, but on the way Tim suggested live bait from the bait shop so we now have 3 dozen little live bait in the pond hopefully eating up lovely mosquito treats.  And when we run out of mosquitos, bread we were told.

32/82

March 20, 2013

March 18, 2013

ah yes spring

Otherwise stated as:

Spring is such a tease.
Where we live spring comes s-l-o-w-l-y.
March however has those magic moments where we forget.
The sun is warm.  Brown earth appears,  2 feet of snows melts down to 2 inches and
one's heart hopes and prays that we are there, in the midst of spring.
In two days the calendar says SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
Spring yes....but,

the reality of New England and Maine sets in - the temperatures drop,
the skies cloud over,  darken 
and 
the flakes fall.
an inch or two or fourteen.
The other half of this is that spring snows don't last
because it is spring
coming slowly.




March 16, 2013

am I?

curmudgeon

A curmudgeon often has a black sense of humor. They don't just complain about things, they do it with flair, style, panache, satire, and a sardonic view of life! That's what makes them memorable. They also, deep down (very deep down), believe that by saying something about it and by sharing it it might be fixed!.

Curmudgeons are different from your basic grumps, grouches, or complainers in subtle ways. "Cantankerous" means to be peevish, hard to get along with and generally grumpy. But that's not quite a curmudgeon, regardless of what the dictionary says.
Your average grump and grouch are just complainers. They moan and groan about how things are going wrong, they don't like this and they don't like that. But a curmudgeon has a world outlook. They see that entire societies and civilizations are going to Hell in a hand-basket!
Of late I have felt myself one.
Who'd have thought?
Sweet lovable moi.

March 14, 2013

started and stopped

I was reminded today that I used to step outside first thing in the morning 
and last thing at night and stand on the earth in my bare feet 
and give thanks.  Very simple, very powerful connection 
to the earth, the universe, a mini meditation.  
No matter the weather or my inclination to or not to I did this for years.  
Now I don't.  I don't know when or why I started nor why I stopped.  

In revisiting this, it seems  worthwhile to be doing now 
for me and for the world.  

March 12, 2013

spring rains

When it rains and fogs when there is still snow on the ground, 
the snow goes off in a nice way.  
It takes forever for the sun to melt it off, 
but a good rain like today's drives it down while the fog lifts it.  
Double whammy.
Snow today has been disappearing wonderfully.  
Pond is reappearing and is big enough that spring ducks are back.  
Red winged blackbird call yesterday- Oh oh. To me that is the first sign of spring. 
Deep in my soul I understand that  it is not spring.  
It is the second week of March yet one feels spring a little bit, 
even when it is wet and chilly.  
The shift from one season to the next is subtle 
and subject to change 
but at least one knows the days are longer, the sun warm, the birds returning, 
we have made it over the hump.

March 10, 2013

simple things, great pleasure

My strainer with light coming through it made me extremely happy.  How lovely that it takes so little to please.

March 8, 2013

virginia opossum here


Not usual in Maine the opossum has found it way to our yard which is making the dogs extremely excited.  We had opossum in Maryand that fed with the outside cats and life was pretty peaceful.  Not sure about these dogs with this critter.  Would hate to see it hurt or killed or them hurt.
This one played possum with Shunka earlier in the day.  Not sure but believe it is living in the woodpile down below the house or at least that is where Shunka is indicating something is going on.








To “play ’possum” is an expression that comes from the opossum’s strange habit of feigning death when frightened. It goes limp and rolls on its side, with eyes shut, mouth agape, tongue out, and tail and body curled. It will even shrivel up its large, round, black and white ears.


“They send off this horrible scent of death from a scent gland in the back,” said Richardson.


Opossums can play dead, unmoving, for hours, waiting for the confused predator to leave them alone. And surprisingly, this tactic is effective. It tends to puzzle dogs, foxes and other animals that don’t eat carrion.

March 2, 2013

not invited?

When I was a young age, and I am not sure that age 8, 9ish something happened in my world that shaped me.  I lived in a good neighborhood and my best friend lived across the street.  We played together and we were carpooled to school as we went to schools near each other, but not the same schools.  We had always shared birthdays, all the birthdays.  Yet on this birthday, my friend didn't share.  It was her birthday and others were arriving.  I went across the street and the door opened and my friend's mother came out and told me that this was a party for my friend's school friends and I was not invited.  She closed the door.  Closed the door and left me confused and alone standing on the porch, not invited. I remember walking back across the street.  
To this day it still hurts and yes "don't take things personally", but  - I am young and a best friend does not want me at her birthday party .... ? because we don't go to the same school? We couldn't find a place for me at the table to meet her school friends?  I am there, dressed up and not invited in?  

This was the hugest, biggest lesson in my life.   let me tell you no one will ever not be welcomed in my space.  I will not shut the door.   No one will ever suffer the hurt of not being "invited"   Not having the door opened.  People makes choices every day to be kind, to open doors or to shut doors. 
 I  remember that day.  I can picture the street, the porch, the trees, and Mrs. Penn saying this is a party for Susan's school friends

morning thoughts

There are squirrels galore this morning.  Gray squirrels  may be in mating mode. Sitting her watching them up the trees, down the trees, across the snows.

Rosemary - 
The Treasury of Botany says:
'There is a vulgar belief in Gloucestershire and other counties, that Rosemary will not grow well unless where the mistress is "master"; and so touchy are some of the lords of creation upon this point, that we have more than once had reason to suspect them of privately injuring a growing rosemary in order to destroy this evidence of their want of authority.'

March 1, 2013

new word

simple beauty everywhere

light hitting the ceiling above my desk quite happy making.