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Beautiful lilies from a beautiful friend.

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.

~ Frederick Buechner, Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation

It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Because they are so pretty.

If you go out for several hours into a place that is wild, your mind begins to slow down, down, down. What is happening is that the clay of your body is retrieving its own sense of sisterhood with the great clay of the landscape.

~ John O’Donohue, Walking in Wonder

In the woods.

It’s here again.  Spring.  You can see it in the way the light hits the newly formed leaves on the trees in the woods.  You can see it in the greening of the landscape.  You can taste and smell it on the wind.  You can feel it in the warmth, in the angle of the sunlight, in the places where the sun rises and sets.  You can hear it in the birdsongs and chatter.  The multitude of riotous sounds at sunrise this morning, especially the hundreds of laughing gulls, was amazing.  (If you follow me on Instagram, you might have heard all the noise in the video I recently posted.)

Shining in the woods.

If none of that convinces you that spring has arrived here, the taste of asparagus and baby greens might.  I think we’re going to have a good crop of both this year.

The spring green of the wild cherry.

I should have gone out again with the camera before I took up writing this post.  Rumor has it that the redbuds and dogwoods are blooming.  When I took the camera out with me two days ago, they were not quite there yet.

Redbud, almost ready.

M and I have been busy the past almost two weeks.  We participated in a clean-up at the Point.  It was part of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay Project Clean Stream All Hands On Deck! Day.  The weather was a little gray and foggy, but at least it wasn’t raining or hot.  In fact, I thought it was perfect for what we were doing.

Spring clean-up at the Point.

We cleaned up quite a bit of trash:

Collected.

The man who organized it said they missed the clean-up last year due to weather and it was obvious in how much litter we picked up.  Although we were working and litter is no fun, it was fun to be part of the community/group who care enough to do something about keeping the streams, the rivers, the sounds, and the bay clean.

Sunnier day.

Speaking of caring, our Keep America Beautiful affiliate is now official in terms of being incorporated as a non-profit.  Yay!  We have a few more business type things to finish up (passing the by-laws and electing officers) and then we can get on with putting some of our ideas into practice and play.

Because, as you know, I love redbuds.

A very good friend (she’s more like family, to be honest) came for a short visit last weekend.  We met her up at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge where we hiked for a few hours and then set off for Cambridge to have a late lunch/early dinner before coming to the ranch.  Oh, and let’s not forget the stop for ice cream sundaes.  I’ll show you some photos from that outing soon.

I should dial down the color saturation but they really are this blindingly yellow.

We had a wonderful time hanging out here at the ranch, too.  We explored the trails and spent some time sitting out on the dock.  Mostly we had long conversations, ate a lot of good food, and enjoyed each other’s company.

The maple and the oak.

In between the activities, I’ve been outside listening and watching and leaning into the season.  So have many of the other critters around here.  I’ve seen the deer and the wild turkeys almost every day.  The male turkeys are out strutting their stuff, so to speak.  Yesterday I watched for the longest time as a pair of ducks (Mallards) wandered a short distance from the pond to the meadow, perhaps looking for a good nesting site.  The female stood guard while the male walked around in the thick of the grasses and shrubs.  They say the males are prettier than the females and while it’s true he is showier with his green head, I thought the female’s feathers looked beautiful shining in the sunlight.

I found a flowering tree in the woods, one I’ve never seen before. I don’t know how I’ve missed it in the past. Perhaps I didn’t go into the woods on the day or two it was in bloom.

That’s about it from me and from the Wabi-Sabi Ranch on this warm, windy, and beautiful Friday.  Let’s meet on the bay side on Assateague Island for the sunset this evening.  I think that’s where I’ll be.  It depends on how much I get done today.  I have to finish the mowing and there are some packages I need to get ready to send out to my grandchildren.  Neither of those things should take very long and will probably be finished before this scheduled post appears.  Sunset is at 7:36 PM.  There is a slight possibility of rain which means there might not be much to see, but Assateague is beautiful even in the rain.

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

On the beach at the Point.

A few of the 10,000 reasons to be happy:  1,046) This morning’s sunrise, awake and alive, filled with the sound of all kinds of birds.  Even a buck (white-tailed deer) joined the chorus by chuffing/grunting.  I wouldn’t have noticed him at all if he hadn’t spoken up.  1,047) Wild turkeys (one just strolled by while I was typing).  1,048) Flowering trees, pollen and all.  1,049) Walking barefoot in the grass and sand.  1,050) Fresh asparagus from the garden.  Yum.

Goodnight, Sun.