• landscape,  musings,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  sunrises,  writing/reading

    Early Mornings

    Early mornings in nature have a positive effect on me. I always return home feeling more of my true self, refreshed, and nurtured by her touch. I want to believe that these times with nature change me in so many ways. It is in the silence and the beauty of nature that help me be aware of my breathing, my physical senses and how much a part of this world I really am. And, these feeble attempts to express in my own words always seems to fall short. Probably the only way to know what I experience is for you to experience it.

  • Mary Oliver,  Plants

    Details

    ““Keep some room in your heart for the Unimaginable.”

    Mary Oliver, Evidence: Poems

    An image from an afternoon walk at Reservoir Ridge Natural Area. I like the details in this image because I relied on a tripod rather than my image stabilized lenses. After, carrying the tripod over my shoulders for awhile I remembered why I normally leave it in the car. Also, this was not a planned image but one I accidently framed. Another image given to me, with details. Unimaginable.

    I hadn’t visited this natural area in a few days. Loved that the grass was still tall along the trail and the grass they cut and bayled has begun to grow back and turn green again. I was surrounded by dragonflies and grasshoppers along the trail.

  • bees,  flowers,  fog,  Fujifilm X-T3,  insects,  landscape,  natural areas,  Plants,  trees

    Good morning

    Fog in Rolland Moore Park

    I chased some early morning fog then headed out to one of the natural areas to write and get in a morning walk. It’s about a 5 mile drive to Reservoir Ridge and then found the sun shining brightly there and eerily quiet. I watched the sun burn off the fog along the foothills to the south, nature at work. Everything was wet from the humidity and dew; the split rail fence, the grass, and a spiderweb. The sun and wind will quickly dry things out. Thus begins a morning in the meadow. Makes me smile somewhere inside of me as I experience it.

    Backlit sunflowers at Reservoir Ridge Natural Area

    The birds now begin to sing as if they were waiting for me. They dart so quickly in the aire and must in order to catch all the quick and nimble flying insects. I watch as the wind slowly moves the fog to my east in a southerly direction. While small clouds along the foothills are moved south by the same wind. I watch a blue-jay perched on the fence hop to the ground in hot pursuit of some insect. He misses on the first couple tries then finds success. Such a beautiful bird dressed in blue, a work of art.

    Busy bees enjoying the nectar from a common chicory

    Now a bit of information about common chicory from Wikipedia. I see these all over the place and finally looked them up. The bees love them. The plant was adopted as a coffee substitute by Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War, and become common in the United States. It was also used in the United Kingdom during the Second World War, where Camp Coffee, a coffee and chicory essence, has been on sale since 1885.

  • flowers,  landscape,  Plants,  quotes

    Hope

    Sunflower looking east for the rising sun at Pineridge Natural Area

    “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”― J.R.R. Tolkien

  • flowers,  Plants,  quotes

    Being Present

    “All that we can do with any spiritual discipline is produce within ourselves something of the silence, the humility, the detachment, the purity of heart and the indifference which are required if the inner self is to make some shy, unpredictable manifestation of his presence.”  James Finley

    Here is a link to an interesting article by William Neil.

  • flowers,  Plants

    In Between Reading

    After dinner last night I walked around the gardens with my camera. This sunflower plant is about five feet in height. Since it was backlit, a photo opportunity appeared and I accepted it. Hope to get in some exploring time in this weekend in between reading.