Flowers!!

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck. ~Emma Goldman

A flower's appeal is in its contradictions - so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect. ~Adabella Radici

"True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost." - Charles Caleb Colton

Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair... ~Susan Polis Shutz

Bugs, Frogs and Little Girls...Oh My!

An unlikely
combination.


How can even the daintiest of little girls have such a fascination with Earth's most revolting creepy crawlers?

It begins with the hunt! The long, slow walking, searching for the moment the most disgusting of all things will POP from its hidden home...

Just then... something is spotted, leaping across the path. Perhaps it is a butterfly? Or a sweet little bird, emerging from its hidden nest? No... it is none of the sweet little things that girls fall hopelessly in love with... instead it is ......

a LIZARD?... No (we caught that yesterday)...

It's a FROG!

How can such a sweet girl be interested in such a slimy creature?
Perhaps she is awaiting the moment it turns into her long awaited prince?

After a moment the frog escapes... as fast as it appeared it is gone again, awaiting its next capture, and so, the hunt begins again.

Perhaps this time it will be found amid the flowers... a beautiful butterfly awaiting its first flight.

A brief pause to smell the sweet fragrance...

before the hunt is suddenly ended...

Swinging - Just good ol'fashion fun!

Today I am inspired by watching my girls have the most amazing fun at the park...just swinging! It brought me back to many years ago when I sat aimlessly on a swing for hours just imagining myself flying....

Wishing and knowing that someday I would reach the clouds!

And then....as always I would come back down, further from the goal of flight...

But then...a reach and a stretch and I was climbing high...this time... I would reach them...I would finally touch them....or maybe next time...

As I sat and marveled, remembering back to my youth, I saw the same sweet innocence on the faces of my little girls.... and I knew how they felt... and I watched as they passed the joy from older to youngest... a new journey of flight about to begin...

My first entry: Birdwatching - How crazy is that?!

So I have spent half of my day today wondering what to start my blog with... the FIRST impression ... and the only thing coming to me is BIRDWATCHING! What a crazy thing ... for so many (myself included) it seems to boring ... yet I have found it completely mystifying!

My infatuation with this "sport" if you will began this winter when we endured a rather long ,and somewhat intense ice-storm. We had just put a feeder out in hopes of a bird or two stopping by and what we found was so much more...within a day we had our first little visitors.. 20 or 30 Dark-eyed Junco Birds. Soon after, the seemingly life-less forest began to emerge with the songs of these small, elusive visitors.

Now, I find myself watching out the window everyday for the newest birds of every color ... hummingbirds fighting over the feeder as they buzz by... bluebirds singing the most amazing songs... and our most favorite elusive "Hairy" the red-headed woodpecker (who seems to somehow evade the capture of my camera everyday). The joy lies within the capture of the moments break that they take in their busy lives...

One of my favorite birds to capture is the hummingbird. What an amazing moment to capture this fast-paced, high-energy, beautiful little bird. Isn't that how life is sometimes? But even in their bustle to and fro there are moments when (if you look fast enough) you will see them pause and take in the scenery around them... if only for a moment...

What a lesson such a small bird can teach us. Have you ever watched a hummingbird at a feeder? Have you ever watched two hummingbirds fight as to who will get to drink from the feeder? In such a fast paced, busy life they are often fighting to get ahead, be the first to drink and then move on with their busy schedule... do they not see that there is more than one spot to drink from? There is more than just room for one?

On occasion if you watch long enough you will see a moment when they realize this and perhaps without even knowing it a drink is shared ...