Circling back around

Little hands.  Artwork gift for Mother’s Day.

… holiness is made of dailiness, of living life as it comes to me, not as I insist it be.

~ Joan Chittister, The Gift of Years

My own practice (figured it was best to try this out before working with little ones on this project/gift).

Clearing

Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself to this world
so worthy of rescue.

— Martha Postlethwaite

On a hike, almost a month ago.

12 May:  Time has been doing what time always does, some days flying past and other days dragging on.  To be honest, the only time it truly did any dragging was after I received the second dose of the vaccine.  I didn’t feel well, especially the first 36-48 hours after.  I had some rare but not unheard of symptoms.  There was nothing life-threatening about them and I have no regrets.  I’d do it again.  I wish more people would do it the first time.  It’s up there with wearing masks in terms of doing something to help others.

April blossoms.

Our stay here has almost come to an end.  I’ve started packing for the trip home.  We leave early on Friday, hoping to arrive before dark on Friday evening.  It depends on when we leave here, of course, and there are plans to stop to visit briefly with a friend on the way home.  We haven’t seen her since sometime before the pandemic started.  Now that we’re all fully vaccinated (or, in my case, almost considered fully vaccinated), we can get together in what we hope is relative safety.

By the rental house. a day or two ago.

There is the usual bittersweet feeling about leaving.  I want to be in my home again, spending time with Izzy and Bella (cats).  I’ve missed them.  However, I will miss everyone here once we are back on the island.

The Young Golfer.

I am not sure I will miss NE Ohio as I once did.  So much has changed.  It’s noisier than I remember, more crowded.  There are more houses, more people, more livestock sitting on small parcels of land.  That’s a pandemic thing, I am told.  People suddenly wanting to grow their own food, be it vegetable or animal.  There was a new house going up when we arrived in the Bogs, almost finished as we get ready to leave.  It looks more like a hotel than a house to me.  To each his/her own.  There are more T***p signs in yards, too.  That was a little surprising, especially the horrifying “T***p 2024 Take Back America” sign.  My thoughts on that are not particularly nice so I will keep them to myself.

A budding photographer.

15 May:  We’re home.  The trip back was long (as usual) and uneventful (as hoped).  We did stop to briefly visit with our friend who had just arrived home from her own excursion.  We weren’t able to stay long.  It was a Friday in May and the traffic going east over the scary bridge (the Chesapeake Bay Bridge) can get pretty backed up this time of year.  Traffic was heavy, but not bad.  Everyone and everything was moving as they/it should.  People like to head towards the ocean when the weather warms up although that seems to be the case year-round since the pandemic began.

In bloom now.

We arrived home to a wonderful welcome from the cats, the house/pet-sitter, and the land.  The cats were thrilled to see us again.  The house/pet-sitter had made a delicious and full-of-veggies (much needed! after a day on the road) dinner for us.  Flowers I thought I might miss (peonies and irises) are in full bloom right now.  It was a little like moving from spring into early summer.  It’s not yet hot here, but will be soon (if the weather prognosticators are accurate).

Surprise!

The small patch of wildflowers we planted a couple of years ago was the biggest surprise.  We pulled up to the end of the lane (driveway) to find the happy faces of daisies smiling up at the setting sun.  Daisies are one of my favorite flowers.  There is something so cheerful about them.

End of day lighting.

There is much to be done around here.  We did have someone come to mow the lawn, but much of it was left to grow in order to save a little money and to avoid having flowers and trees cut down.  Sometimes the guys that come in to do the mowing get a little too enthusiastic and mow over or weed-whack plants we want to let grow.  That happened when we were in Ohio last year.  They mowed down the rain garden and the vegetable garden.  It was no great loss.  Everything in the rain garden has made a comeback, and the veggie garden was so overrun with weeds by the time we returned last September that we would have mowed it down, too.

There are irises in there.

I have a lot of work to do in the flower garden.  Getting to it will be the first challenge.  M will be working on that today.  The area around the greenhouse and flower garden were off limits to the mowers and it now looks more like a meadow.  It’s rather pretty, but we can’t leave it that way or we won’t be able to easily get to the greenhouse, the flower garden, or the shed where the mower is kept.  That kind of growth would encourage the weeds and snakes and other critters to take over, and eventually it would become more jungle than meadow.

One of the first birds to greet us when we returned home.

I have a lot more I’d like to ramble on about, including some plans for the coming weeks.  All of that will have to wait for another day and post.  I hope to establish a more consistent/regular blogging schedule, but we’ll see how that goes.  No commitments.  Just some ideas, for now.

Thank you so much for visiting with me here at the ranch again.  Let’s go out to the Point this evening and watch the sunset.  Sunset is scheduled for 8:07 PM.  It’s been clear all day — not a cloud in the sky — and warm.  You will probably need some insect repellent as the flies are out and I’m pretty sure the mosquitoes will be making an appearance very soon (if they haven’t already).  Normally a good breeze will keep them away when we’re near the water, but it’s been quite calm today.

Please be safe, be well, and be kind.  ♥♥♥

The sage is blooming.

A few of the 10,000 reasons to be happy:  1.766)  Peonies, irises, roses, and sage blooming like crazy right now.  1,767)  Safe travels, to and from.  1,768)  M, always and forever.  1,769)  Great Blue Herons, Laughing Gulls, and Ospreys greeting us on our return home.  1,770)  The daisy surprise in the front meadow.

Dreamy.