Summer Dreaming...

The last day of January is brutally cold and snowy, bringing dreams of summer flowers and dew dripping through green leaves.

Fruitless Lifeless Boughs of Time

In the last spring I ever knew,

In those last days,

I sat in the forsaken orchard

Where beyond fields of greenery shimmered

The hills at Miller’s Ford;

Just to muse on the apple tree

With its ruined trunk and blasted branches,

And shoots of green whose delicate blossoms

Were sprinkled over the skeleton tangle,

Never to grow in fruit.

And there was I with my spirit girded

By the flesh half dead, the senses numb,

Yet thinking of youth and the earth in youth,

Such phantom blossoms palely shining

Over the lifeless boughs of Time.

O earth that leaves us ere heaven takes us!

Had I been only a tree to shiver

With dreams of spring and a leafy youth,

Then I had fallen in the cyclone

Which swept me out of the soul’s suspense

Where it’s neither earth nor heaven.

Edgar Lee Masters---Spoon River Anthology

Forest Mist

The January thaw has arrived and filled the forest full of mist....and mud.

Warm Up Monday

This Monday morning is dark and dreary--- with a delightful drizzle coming down. So here's the hope that this picture of a bee heading for a summer flower brings a bit of summer sun to the day.

Water Color

A water color sky is reflected into the water of the lake in the misty early winter morning. You only get light like this early in the morning when the sunlight gets filtered through the atmosphere.

Complimentary Bug

Here's a winter warm up picture from the archives. There was a complimentary insect (not a bug true bug) on this coneflower. He crawled out of the petals as I snapped the picture. Guess he was a ham.

Long Roads Taking Their Time...

Driving out through the windmills

And some of them were still

Sometimes it's hard to catch the wind

And bend it to your will

Even though it's hard to know

Just how the story ends

The road is long and it takes its time

On that you can depend

Lay me down in the river

And wash this place away

Break me down like sand from a stone

Maybe I'll be whole again one day

Lay me down, lay me down

Maybe I'll be whole again

Lay me down, lay me down

Maybe I'll be whole again

Somewhere between Heaven and Hell

A soul knows where it's been

I want to feel my spirit lifted up

And catch my breath again

Lay me down in the river---Crosby and Nash

Beaver Graffiti

Someone should really tell the beavers at the state park to go easier on the trees!

Colder Weather Blowing In

The frosty weather painted the sky full of holes as it blew into the area.

Tiny Plants

A bit of plant life living off a tree trunk glowed in the forest. Tiny, full of water bubbles, this plant sparkled with a brilliant sea foam green glow.

Just Over the Hill

Going along a forest path--- you really don't know what's just over that hill...do you?

Winter's Flowers

Tiny lichen flowering on a tree brighten up the winter forest.

Tree Museums

We are still losing trees at an alarming rate. In some places the understory of the forest has more wood than is standing above. We've been warned about the different types of forests traveling northward as the climate changes. I wonder if this is only the beginning or just a bunch of bad luck only due to  recent winds and storms (that could also be the product of global warming.)  

Icy Islands

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To know that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Pattern of Nature

Relieving the winter grays and browns, this turkey tail lichen appears in great patches in the winter woods bringing rich colors and patterns into the drab.

Horsetail Reed

The Horsetail reeds that grow along streams and rivers are such magical plants. Like a lot of tall plants that grow stream side they have segments. The segment of this reed can be pulled apart and each is strong yet hollow.

The tip of the reed as shown in the photo is a curious place---don't you think?    

Reflections of Earth and Sky

The sky struggled to open up as the melting lake offered up a frosty reflection of earth and sky.

A Scene from the Farm

Silently standing as the snow fell down on his back---he could have gone into the shelter, this pony seems to prefer the snowfall.

Or it could be he doesn't like the billy goat companions he rooms with.  

Change is in the Air

Every July, shortly after the solstice, there comes a morning when the air seems different, like the earth is reminding us that summer is only a transient thing that will not last.

Every January, the same thing happens and this week the air held the expectation of spring and summer in it. We've gained nearly 15 minutes of daylight since the winter solstice---maybe it's the additional light that makes the earth feel so expectant.        

All You'll Ever Need is Here

Trees need not walk the earth

For beauty or for bread;

Beauty will come to them

Where they stand.

Here among the children of the sap

Is no pride of ancestry:

A birch may wear no less the morning

Than an oak.

Here are no heirlooms

Save those of loveliness,

In which each tree

Is kingly in its heritage of grace.

Here is but beauty’s wisdom

In which all trees are wise.

Trees need not walk the earth

For beauty or for bread;

Beauty will come to them

In the rainbow—

The sunlight—

And the lilac-haunted rain;

And bread will come to them

As beauty came:

In the rainbow—

In the sunlight—

In the rain.

Trees Need Not Walk the Earth

by David Rosenthal

Reaching Roots

The roots of this tree are used to being in the water. But they are well prepared for dryer conditions too, together they stretch for the water in lean times such as this winter is turning out to be.

Ice and Trees

Trees cast long shadows this time of year on the ice of the Marsh. The main river is still flowing free but the channels are frozen. Under the ice spring is just beginning. Tiny midges, aquatic sow bugs, and beetles are all raising young and growing.

Catching Snowballs

The winds have been so ferocious lately that the empty milkweed pods in the marsh have been collecting snow like baseball mitts.

Footprints of My Guide

She leads me on through storm and calm,

My glorious Angel girt with light;

By dazzling isles of tropic balm,

By coasts of ice in northern night.

Now far amid the mountain shades

Her footprints gleam like golden fire,

And now adown the leafy glades

I chase the music of her lyre.

And now amid the tangled pines

That darkly robe the gorgeous steep

She beckons where in woven lines

The sunbeams through the darkness creep,

And shows in glimpses far below

The champaign stretching leagues away,

Fair cities veil’d in summer’s glow

Or sparkling in the cloudless ray.

At times on seas with tempest loud,

The pilot of my bark, she stands,

And, through the rifts of driving cloud,

To tranquil bays of bounteous lands,

The grassy creek, the bowery shore,

The fringe of many a charmed realm,

She steers me safe by magic lore,

Her white arm leaning on the helm.

When, sick at heart and worn, mine eyes

I bend to earth in long despair,

She lifts her finger to the skies,

The violet deeps of lucid air,

The myriad myriad orbs that roll

In endless throngs in living space,

And all the vision of her soul

Is mirror’d in her radiant face.

George  Francis Savage-Armstrong ---My Guide

Icicles

When was the last time you tasted an icicle hanging in a wintry sun? Unlike so many things from childhood that don't taste the same, icicles taste the same.

Fresh, crisp and clean---try one for yourself and laugh like a child.  

Snowy Skies

Giant white, fluffy flakes fell down with great beauty over the holidays. The world becomes a cozy, comforting, quiet place in such a snow.

Hope you have a safe and Happy New Year!