A walk around the pond

Going down the Sledding Hill

The difference between a path and a road is not only the obvious one.  A path is little more than a habit that comes with knowledge of a place.  It is a sort of ritual of familiarity.  As a form, it is a form of contact with a known landscape.  It is not destructive.  It is the perfect adaptation, through experience and familiarity, of movement to place; it obeys the natural contours; such obstacles as it meets it goes around.

~ Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

Buttercup

Let’s take a walk around the pond here at Breezy Acres in the Bogs.  It’s been a while, eh?  I don’t know about you, but I’ve missed it.

Moving towards the back of the pond.

It was so pleasant this morning.  Cool, but a little muggier than I’ve been experiencing on the Eastern Shore, which came as a great surprise when you consider the Wabi-Sabi Ranch is part marshland.

Along the edge

The locust tree flowers are floating down to earth and it looks like snow.  I’m sure those who experienced the long and brutal winter here don’t even want to think about snow right now.

Red clover

I am enjoying the illusion of snow as the petals gently float down to the ground.

More red clover

I am also enjoying walking the old paths we established here over the years.  There is good energy in this place.

A back corner of the pond where we planted trees years ago.

A lot of the trees we planted are thriving, even my favorite, the copper beech.  (It was a gift to me from M.)  I was delighted to find it had survived the harsh winter.  I won’t be alive to see it reach its full height, but I am so glad to be able to watch as it grows during the time I am here.  We planted over 100 trees here, and now M the Younger and his wife are following in our footsteps, planting a few trees of their own.

Grasses along the edge

A path is a prior interpretation of the best way to traverse a landscape.

~ Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking

Behind the cattails

Clouds have moved in since I took my morning walk.  Hopefully it won’t rain.  We have been concreting today.  It’s hard work, and we need one layer to dry before we apply the next.  The concrete around the front of the house was cracked.  It was one of those jobs we put off while we lived here (although it was on our list for last year, before we made the decision to move).  It’s a large, porch-like area, and it already looks better with just the first layer of Portland cement mixed with water painted over it.

In the cattails

What you’re missing is that the path itself changes you.

~ Julien Smith, The Flinch

Damselfly

Thank you for dropping by today, and taking a walk with me around the pond.  I was thinking I should probably show you some of the beautiful little gardens that M the Younger and Mere have been creating, but I’ve always preferred the wild edge to the property here at Breezy Acres.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll show you the more civilized parts.

Time to fly

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂