A Monday meander

After the rain.

We began as a mineral.  We emerged into plant life
and into the animal state. Then into being human,
and always we have forgotten our former states,
except in early spring when we almost
remember being green again.

~ Rumi, excerpted from Evolutionary Intelligence

The daily visitor.

Happy Monday.  I hope you had a lovely weekend and, if you were celebrating it, a good Easter.  M and I had a quiet and somewhat productive weekend.  Seeds have been started, the compost has been spread out over the vegetable garden, and a host of other springtime chores were tended to.  This week will be busy with spring cleaning, getting ready for visitors, and mowing.

Eastern Bluebird

Things are really greening up around here now.  It was particularly beautiful this morning when the sun made a brief appearance and lit up the raindrops hanging on the foliage.  Then the clouds moved back in for a while, but that’s okay.  Cloudy days tend to make the landscape colors pop.

Three in the woods.

The only thing you have to know is that opening allows energy in, and closing blocks it out. Now you have to decide whether or not you want this energy. How high do you want to get? How much love do you want to feel? How much enthusiasm do you want to have for the things you do? If enjoying a full life means experiencing high energy, love, and enthusiasm all the time, then don’t ever close.

~ Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul:  The Journey Beyond Yourself

Opening.

I think what I love most about this time of year is how you can practically watch things grow.  It happens that quickly.  I’ll walk by the asparagus bed in the morning and see some spears just an inch or so above the dirt, and if it has been a warm day, they have grown tall and are almost ready to pick by late afternoon.  Some may even be ready to pick.

Oak seeds and leaves.

Our asparagus tastes sweet this year.  Sweeter than anything we could buy at the store.  It’s also quite tender.  I picked some this morning while out on my walk, and we had it lightly steamed and marinated with balsamic vinegar and olive oil for lunch.  We will have a big crop of asparagus this year.  I don’t like it after it’s been frozen and I definitely don’t like it canned.  Asparagus is always best fresh.  We’ll eat and eat and eat asparagus until we’ve had our fill of it.  By that time, asparagus season will have ended and we’ll have to wait until next year to enjoy it again.

Fish coming in with the tide.

Every subatomic interaction consists of the annihilation of the original particles and the creation of new subatomic particles. The subatomic world is a continual dance of creation and annihilation, of mass changing into energy and energy changing to mass. Transient forms sparkle in and out of existence, creating a never-ending, forever newly created reality.

~ Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Drop by drop.

Over the weekend I made a kale and cabbage soup using the last of the winter kale.  We’ll plant kale and chard and lettuce seeds this week or next.  M is holding out for one more frost/freeze, but I think we’re finished with winter.  Better safe than sorry so we’ll wait.  In the meantime, there are small broccoli plants flourishing and flower seeds germinating in the greenhouse, all of them waiting for their time in the earth.

Peony leaves.

If you wish to make anything grow, you must understand it, and understand it in a very real sense. ‘Green fingers’ are a fact, and a mystery only to the unpracticed. But green fingers are the extensions of a verdant heart.

~ Russell Page, The Education of a Gardener

Another drop.

I see the sun is back and the sky is clearing.  Those are sure signs I should get up and get on with my spring cleaning.  I may be taking a short break from blogging, but we’ll have to wait and see how it goes this week.  Maybe I’ll have time for a post or two.

The pines are flowering.

Thank you for visiting and joining me on another meander around the Wabi-Sabi Ranch.  I think sunset will be pretty this evening.  Let’s meet at the Point.  The sun will set at 7:22 PM.  I’ll try to get there early so there will be time for a walk on the beach.  I might want to stop and see the deer first, if there are any deer to see.  I’m still trying to get a good look at the piebald deer.

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

It won’t be long before the yellow pollen from the pines is coating everything.

Today’s joys:  Some lovely Darjeeling tea with breakfast this morning; raindrops on the flowers and foliage; Cedar Waxwings visiting the juniper; fresh air and sunshine; opening the windows and letting in the fresh air and sunshine.

Another visitor.