My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and the mystery of it all.
It’s HOT here in Colorado today. Weather app says 93 degrees. I took this yesterday afternoon because I love the reflection in the almost glass like pond. When it gets this warm and the water in the pond moves every so slowly we get plenty of filamentous algae growing on the pond. It looks rather yucky to me but the carp and suckers love it. Some research says the best way to control this algae is to eliminate fertilizers. I’m all for that! Stay cool and I hope you are enjoying the weekend.
The moment when, after many years
Margaret Atwood, The Moment
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,
is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can’t breathe.
No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.
Like so many of my images, something called me to stop and press the shutter button. I pulled into the Running Deer Natural Area parking lot and took the image from there. I did not create any of the beauty in this scene, nature did and lovingly shares it with us. Our task is to accept the gift of its presence and beauty with grateful hearts! May we come to realize we belong in this world not as conquerors but as integral parts of it.
“Respond to the call of your gift and the courage to follow its path.”
John O’Donohue
We awoke to a light mist that hung around until about 8:30 am. From then on the clouds slowly gave way to blue sky and sunshine, making it a beautiful day. I drove to Pineridge Natural Area about 4:32 pm to journal and listen to the Magpies chatter. The opening blue sky and scattered clouds filled my gratitude bucket. I always seem to feel respect for nature and move into a place of silent prayer. Before I left, a meadowlark sang a simple song for me. I believe it knew I needed one. My day was made complete. I hope you had a good weekend and enjoy your coming week!
There is One Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader… All scriptures before nature’s manuscript are as little pools of water before the ocean.
Hazrat Inayat Khan
It is about 3:26 pm and I have not seen a cloud all day, just clear blue skies. They also turned on the fountain in the holding pond so I am listening to the bubbling of water and birds singing. The weather app says we are at 87 degrees and may reach 90 degrees. I rode the red steed to coffee this morning and found it most enjoyable. I saw a Great Blue Heron fishing for breakfast and two does grazing along the creek. I also see that it’s hot in Concord, Sterling Heights and North Berwick. Please stay cool and enjoy your weekend.
An organism that is too greedy and takes too much without giving anything in return destroys what it needs for life.
Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees
When I read this quote from Wohlleben I instantly thought of the organism as mankind. I doubt if this bee will take more nectar than is necessary. Which then lead to the question, “What would we learn if we were to read and study this book of nature?” It has been a warm sunny day. Spent some time in the park today and listened to the music made by wind and trees. I hope you had a good day!!
“In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.”
Barack Obama
This is looking out my windshield when I pulled up to the coffee shop this morning. I was surprised to see a half dozen people riding bicycles on my way to the coffee shop. They are hardier souls than me! We awoke to overcast skies and this gentle but steady rain, which is nurturing both nature and our souls. I hope they are correct when they say it may rain like this all day. As a beautiful metaphor, I would like to suggest that each raindrop is a symbol of each of us, which in union with other raindrops gives much hope for positive change and nurturing which our world desperately needs. Yes, let’s believe it is possible for us to be the change our world needs and live it!
If I had influence with the good angel who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world would be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life as an unfailing antidote against boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.
Rachel Carson
Seems her suggestion for a sense of wonder for children, as well as adults, is relevant today. I do believe this world would be very different if we all turned away from our phones, computers and televisions and took a walk around the block to experience a sense of the wonder of nature.
Knowledge was inherent in all things.
Luther Standing Bear
The world was a library and its books
Were the stones, leaves, grass, brooks…
We learned to do what only the students
of nature ever learn, that was to feel beauty.
“For me it was important to be alone; solitude was a prerequisite to being openly and joyfully susceptible and responsive to the world of leaves, light, birdsong, flowers, flowing water.”
Mary Oliver, Upstream: Selected Essays
A spring like day. We reached 71 degrees and nature painted clouds all over the blue canvas sky. It makes me smile! I spent some time at a couple natural areas this afternoon to watch the art show and journal. I hope you had a good day!
It’s been a while since I ventured up to Pineridge Natural Area for predawn skies and sunrises. A couple reasons for that. It requires me to get up early and I find it more difficult to get out of a warm bed. I changed that this morning. I awoke early so… The temperature was 25 degrees and a light breeze from the north. It looked like clear skies as I could see stars but I made the decision to go anyway. As I left my condo I could see a few clouds huddled along the eastern horizon which spurred me on. It was not the best day to be standing in the cold, as February is known for cold, frosty mornings. But as old Father McGuire would say, “It’s just the way God wanted it.” I’m glad I did go and not just to accept an image but to be in the presence of nature. I did not stay long as it does not take long to feel the refreshing gift of nature (and the cold). Not many people out except for one hardy jogger. The sun now shines but the weather app says rain is possible in the early afternoon. I hope you have a wonderful day!
POD (Pen of the day): Petrol Marbled Pelikan M205 with Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite ink.