web and mosses stunning

up and down

in nature

My profession is to always be

on the alert to find God in nature, 

 to know his lurking places,

and

to attend all the oratorios,

the operas,

in nature.

Henry David Thoreau

in and out

I sit at my window gazing
The world passes by, nods to me
And is gone.

~Rabindranath Tagore

busy always busy

Perhaps always is incorrect.  

Shunka is rather good at sitting staring at his kingdom

and snoozing / sleeping, particularly in the heat of summers.

When out though, he is in constant motion, busy.

No wonder he is in such good condition.

Here is barking at our dead mower which he knows 

does not belong where it is.  

Good he takes care of these things so we remain safe.

Below with his well worn fire hose.

He seldom walks without one of his toys, be it a ball, hose, belt.

He demands that you too play which makes for a very

disjointed sort of walk.  

Best is when he runs hard, 

rockets full tilt in circle around the house 

or across the fields.

refreshing on a warm evening

Other than the fact that I enjoy whites more than reds overall, 

there is much to be said about chilled on a warm night.  

It looks cool and refreshing while red just sits there.

playing with the camera

Neat things all around us all the time.  What fun to SEE them.

old fashioned

Hollyhocks are way older than just old fashioned.  Holy cow!

"The hollyhock has been around for a very long time. 

The common name comes from 

“holy” plus hoc, “mallow.” 

Possibly it was called “hock leaf” because it was used to 

reduce swelling in horses’ hocks 

when Crusading soldiers brought it to Britain. 

It has been grown for so long in the western world 

that the origins of the name are not clear. 

Herbs found in the fifty-thousand-year-old grave of a Neanderthal man 

included the 

remains of hollyhocks. "

When Hollyhocks come to mind, cottage gardens and thached roofs come to mind.  

Maybe it all the prints showing them right there by the door

.

Koviashuvik—

an Eskimo word meaning~  

living in the present moment with 

quiet joy and happiness.

Koviashuvik—

I learned this word from reading Walden on Wheels.

I meant to bookmark the word, but forgot and returned the book

and lost this fine word.

I wrote the author asking if he would tell me the word 

never expecting to hear from him.

 Ken Ilgunas surprised and pleased me 

by sharing this fine word with me once again.

home of fish and snails

Pond in the dome keeps me busy.  It is home to 12 or ? bait fish 

who eat mosquitoes.

We also home a huge number of snails who came with the plants.  

Both the plants and the snails are happily multiplying.
Fish food was expensive and a young man at the store that sold me
plants said they feed  their fish dog food.  Fish and snails both seem to enjoy it.
Who'd of known!

the other season ~

Are we ever satisfied?

In winter I want the end of snow and ice.  

In the buggy hot humid  of summer 

particularly the sweltering nights,

winter looks pretty cool.

dogs never die ~

Sir Guy of Gisburn GIS

"Some of you, particularly those who think they have recently lost a dog to 'death', don’t really understand this. I’ve had no desire to explain, but won’t be around forever and must.

Dogs never die. They don’t know how to. They get tired, and very old, and their bones hurt. Of course they don’t die. If they did they would not want to always go for a walk, even long after their old bones say: 'No, no, not a good idea. Let's not go for a walk.' Nope, dogs always want to go for a walk. They might get one step before their aging tendons collapse them into a heap on the floor, but that's what dogs are. They walk.

It’s not that they dislike your company. On the contrary, a walk with you is all there is. Their boss, and the cacaphonic symphony of odor that the world is. Cat poop, another dog’s mark, a rotting chicken bone (exultation), and you. That’s what makes their world perfect, and in a perfect world death has no place.

However, dogs get very very sleepy. That’s the thing, you see. They don't teach you that at the fancy university where they explain about quarks, gluons, and Keynesian economics. They know so much they forget that dogs never die. It’s a shame, really. Dogs have so much to offer and people just talk a lot.

When you think your dog has died, it has just fallen asleep in your heart. And by the way, it is wagging its tail madly, you see, and that’s why your chest hurts so much and you cry all the time. Who would not cry with a happy dog wagging its tail in their chest. Ouch! Wap wap wap wap wap, that hurts. But they only wag when they wake up. That’s when they say: 'Thanks Boss! Thanks for a warm place to sleep and always next to your heart, the best place.'

When they first fall asleep, they wake up all the time, and that’s why, of course, you cry all the time. Wap, wap, wap. After a while they sleep more. (remember, a dog while is not a human while. You take your dog for walk, it’s a day full of adventure in an hour. Then you come home and it's a week, well one of your days, but a week, really, before the dog gets another walk. No WONDER they love walks.)

Anyway, like I was saying, they fall asleep in your heart, and when they wake up, they wag their tail. After a few dog years, they sleep for longer naps, and you would too. They were a GOOD DOG all their life, and you both know it. It gets tiring being a good dog all the time, particularly when you get old and your bones hurt and you fall on your face and don’t want to go outside to pee when it is raining but do anyway, because you are a good dog. So understand, after they have been sleeping in your heart, they will sleep longer and longer.

But don’t get fooled. They are not 'dead.' There’s no such thing, really. They are sleeping in your heart, and they will wake up, usually when you’re not expecting it. It’s just who they are.

I feel sorry for people who don’t have dogs sleeping in their heart. You’ve missed so much. Excuse me, I have to go cry now."  unknown

LUKE

hills are alive

life and death

We feel we are the center of the universe, 

that the earth revolves around us, 

our day to day, our problems, and our lives, 

but we are a minuscule part.  

We are but a tiny piece in the big complex universe.

We tend to forget all those other players, big and small

 like bees, and plants who feed us. 

 Without them, there would be no us.

Food for thought there!

AND life moves around us even when we are not aware.  

The sun comes up, goes down even on those rainy days. 

Our hearts beat. 

Things sprout up and things return to the earth. 

 The worst sound I ever heard was one night in the middle of the night 

when I was out standing on the deck. 

 I heard the death scream of a rabbit? caught by an owl? fox? coyote?  

Doesn't matter really.  

It is a sound that to this day resonates in my soul.
They say plants scream when injured or killed.
I can not see why they wouldn't.

A bird the cats killed.  I placed it on the earth so it could go back to the earth
and still after months it is with us.
A reminder?

I is so cool

Hard as rock

We have two of these pieces of granite found buried in the cutting we did last winter. 

 There are two or three spots here where large rocks were cut way back.  

You can see the marks on them and on these pieces we have found.  

This may have been a piece of the original house or barn. 

 Most of the original foundations are gone and I believe were moved to the location

 of the house and barns out front after the original house burned down. 

No sense in wasting these.

Think of the work involved in making these initially, putting them into place

and later moving them to the other side of the property.

Yet here are some that didn't get moved.

 One wonders how they missed these.

 There are two this size and a huge piece 10 ft long

 and what looks to be the front step into the original house.  Not sure what we shall do with these.  Benches, steps? 

 They are not easy to move, but they sure are stunning.

little things

wet days

milkweed