Last call

The end

The end

There are things we never want to let go of, people we never want to leave behind.  But keep in mind that letting go isn’t the end of the world; it’s the beginning of a new life.

~ Unattributed

So.  This is it.  My last post here at Life in the Bogs.  From here on out, you will find me at Breezes at Dawn, my new blog home.  Please join me there so we can continue our adventures together.

Read the rest of this entry »


The Penultimate

Let's cross the bridge to the past.  (Somewhere in Pennsylvania, sometime in September of 2006.)

Let’s cross the bridge to the past. (Somewhere in Pennsylvania, sometime in September of 2006.)

The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning.

~ Ivy Baker Priest

Back in September of 2006, in anticipation of a temporary move to West Chester, Pennsylvania, I started a little blog called Life in the Bogs.  It was not meant to be anything more than an online newsletter for family and friends so they could keep up with M and I as we went on our sabbatical adventures.  This was not my first experience with blogging.  I’ve been doing it in some form since 1999.  But Life in the Bogs was the first blog I created under my own name (rather than a pseudonym).

Read the rest of this entry »


In between

The tulips are coming up

The tulips are coming up

Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious.  They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized.  Then, later, they spring.

~ Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

Read the rest of this entry »


Flower dreams

Blossoms on High Street in West Chester, Pennsylvania.  (April 2007)

Blossoms on High Street in West Chester, Pennsylvania. (April 2007)

In my dreams, I never have an age.

~ Madeleine L’Engle

Last night (well, really it was early this morning) I had a dream that was filled with flowers.  Someone was teaching me to identify wildflowers by their leaves, their blossoms, and their stems.  Wouldn’t it be nice to learn through dreaming and wake up with a head full of knowledge you didn’t have when you went to sleep?

Read the rest of this entry »


Thursday Travels: Picnic

A stop along the Cabot Trail.  Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  Nova Scotia.  (8 June 2012)

A stop along the Cabot Trail. Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Nova Scotia. (8 June 2012)

Soon they were all sitting on the rocky ledge, which was still warm, watching the sun go down into the lake.  It was the most beautiful evening, with the lake as blue as a cornflower and the sky flecked with rosy clouds.  They held their hard-boiled eggs in one hand and a piece of bread and butter in the other, munching happily.  There was a dish of salt for everyone to dip their eggs into.

‘I don’t know why, but the meals we have on picnics always taste so much nicer than the ones we have indoors,’ said George.

~ Enid Blyton, Five Go Off in a Caravan

It is not sunset, but it is time to stop for a picnic lunch and relax before our next hike.  Although we weren’t able to complete the entire Glasgow Lakes Look-Off Trail, we still managed to hike for a few hours, rock hopping and wading through the stream that was the trail.  (See last week’s Thursday Travels if you’re not sure what I’m going on about.)  A little rest and refueling were in order.  I agree with George.  Food does taste better when I’m eating it outdoors.

Read the rest of this entry »


Balance

March 2013 077a

Balanced between winter and spring. Frosty oak leaves.

Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes.  If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralysed.  Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds’ wings.

~ Rumi, Essential Rumi

Read the rest of this entry »


Anahata

The elusive clover

The elusive clover

Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.

~ Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Spanish Poet and Playright, 1600-1681

Shamrock (or Clover) is the Capture Your 365 prompt for today, but we were also given a little wiggle room with a second choice of Green.  I almost had to take it because finding a clover, any clover, was not easy.  This one was sticking its little head out of the water at the edge of the pond.  We had a lot of rain overnight and the pond level is above where it should be, the water spreading out on the lawn.  Not that it matters.  It’s all one big puddle out there today.

Read the rest of this entry »