Wednesday wandering

Oak impressions.

To write requires an ego, a belief that what you say matters. Writing also requires an aching curiosity leading you to discover, uncover, what is gnawing at your bones.

~ Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

Male Red-winged Blackbird.

…The shadow of each bird is speaking to me. Each shadow doubles the velocity, ferocity of forms. The shadow, my shadow now merges with theirs. Descension. Ascension. The velocity of wings creates the whisper to awaken….
I want to feel both the beauty and the pain of the age we are living in. I want to survive my life without becoming numb. I want to speak and comprehend words of wounding without having these words become the landscape where I dwell. I want to possess a light touch that can elevate darkness to the realm of stars.

~ Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

Flowering maple sharing the sky with the clouds.

I went for a wander today.  Through the woods and out to the dock, around the gardens and meadows, into the cemetery, and finally ending up in the backyard staring up at the maple and oak trees.

The pines are flowering (and making people sneeze).

In the woods the loblolly pines and wild cherry trees are flowering and leafing.  The birdsong and chatter is lively and quick.

Wild cherry.

Out on the dock, the water was at low tide.  The low tides have been extremely low for the past few days.  There are spring tides and there are neap tides, neither of which have anything to do with the season.  A spring tide occurs during new and full moons.  The sun’s gravitational pull joins forces with the moon’s gravitational pull, and the world’s oceans bulge (“spring forth”) more than usual.  This makes the high tides higher and the low tides lower.  Neap tides are the opposite (low tides are higher and high tides are lower) and occur during the first and third quarter moons.  I have learned a lot about tides since moving here.

Maple seeds.

I am thinking about a spring cleanse/detox.  This one with Karin Burke looks wonderful, and the cost is reasonable.  Ms. Burke’s description of how we feel this time of year suits me perfectly.  A spring detox might be just the thing to clear out all the gunk of winter and the election, and leave me open for something new and lovely and light.  Unfortunately, April will be a very busy month so I would miss a good chunk of it.  Still, there might be a way since I think purchasing it also means being able to download it.  Or I could design something myself.  I’ve certainly done enough spring detoxes that I’m sure I could come up with something.

Time to let go and bloom.

I also like the idea of combining a spring detox of self with a spring cleanse/detox of home and clutter.  I’ve been working on the office lately, getting it ready for painting and a little renovating.  I spend a lot of time in this room.  It will be nice to clean, brighten, and lighten it up.  Right now it’s a bit chaotic which is the way of things when it comes to renovations.  I’ve been pulling things out of the art desk, working on the back-up for my photos, and going through the closet where things got stuffed when we moved in.  M has also been doing his share of lightening our load by cleaning out old files and junk in the filing cabinets.

Forsythia in bloom.

Next week will be a good week to get the flower seeds started.  I have the usual assortment of zinnias.  I’m not sure what else I’ll put in the flower garden this year.  As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we’ll be expanding our vegetable garden.  As a result, it might be best to keep the flower garden simple.  The zinnias are always the main attraction for the butterflies and hummingbirds, and the winged creatures are the main reason I started a flower garden.

We are going to have a bumper crop of Asian pears this year.

While I was out in the backyard staring up at the oak and maple trees and thinking about flower seeds, two Bald Eagles swooped by, startling me into laughter.  I heard their playful chatter as they flew in over the marsh and wasn’t expecting them to come so close to where I was standing.  It was all too fast to photograph.  I did capture something of their spirit, or perhaps it’s more precise to say that they left me a gift of spirit by touching something deep within me, awakening an internal springtime of the soul.  I have their picture in my memory and it makes me smile to think of them and to see that image of them flying so close together, celebrating the day.

Lightly.

I won’t be here for the coffee chat this week.  I will be at a film festival, taking in what I think will be good films, and spending the time in between movie-watching with great friends.  I will tell you all about it when the next coffee chat rolls around on April 8.

Sunbathing in the daylilies.

I reckon that’s about it for this wander around the ranch on this lovely spring day.  Thank you for visiting and wandering with me.  I’ll be back again next week with another meander or wander or whatever comes to mind.

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  And have a great weekend!  🙂

The oaks are flowering.

A few of the 10,000 reasons to be happy:   161)  Bald Eagles at play, swooping and soaring and chattering about the day.  162)  The dappled light in the woods.  163)  Blossoming trees.  164)  Long walks on cool days.  165)  Emerging.

The little pink flowers of the mystery shrub.

The wonder of the Beautiful is its ability to surprise us. With swift sheer grace, it is like a divine breath that blows the heart open.

~John O’Donohue