The Penultimate
Posted: March 18, 2013 Filed under: 365 Meditation Challenge, Adventures in Life, Air, beginnings, celebrations, Critters, Digital Art, Earth, endings, Fire, goals, Gratitude, home, Letting Go, life, nature, Photography, pond, Quotes, snow, Spirit, Walking, wandering, water, weather, winter | Tags: Canadian Maritimes, flowers, Hiking, MaidinSun Photography, NaBloPoMo, nature, Outdoors, Photography, pond, quotes, rain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, reflections, San Diego, snow, trees, water, weather, wildflowers, winter, woods 43 Comments
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).
In between
Posted: March 17, 2013 Filed under: 365 Meditation Challenge, beginnings, Daily Walk, Digital Art, Earth, hiking, home, Mindfulness, nature, Photography, pond, snow, Spirit, Walking, wandering, water, weather, winter | Tags: clouds, flowers, Hal Borland, Hiking, MaidinSun Photography, Margaret Atwood, nature, Outdoors, Photography, pond, reflections, snow, trees, Turkey Vulture, water, weather, wildflowers, winter 26 Comments
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
Flower dreams
Posted: March 15, 2013 Filed under: 365 Life in the Bogs Challenge, Adventures in art, Adventures in Life, Air, beginnings, Daily Walk, Digital Art, Earth, Fire, Flashbacks, hiking, home, nature, Photography, Quotes, Spirit, Spring, Walking, weather, winter | Tags: Dream, flowers, Hiking, Longwood Gardens, MaidinSun Photography, Marsha Norman, Milne, nature, Outdoors, Pennsylvania, Photography, Pooh, quotes, spring, sunset, trees, weather, winter 29 Comments
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?
Thursday Travels: Picnic
Posted: March 14, 2013 Filed under: 365 Meditation Challenge, Adventures in Life, Daily Walk, Earth, Fire, hiking, home, nature, Photography, pond, Quotes, Spirit, Spring, Thursday Travels, travel, Vacation, Walking, wandering, water, weather, winter | Tags: Cabot Trail, Canada, Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Coyote, Glasgow Lakes Look-Off Trail, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hiking, MaidinSun Photography, nature, Nova Scotia, Outdoors, Photography, pond, Ralph Waldo Emerson, spring, travel, trees, water, weather, winter 14 Comments
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.
Balance
Posted: March 13, 2013 Filed under: 365 Meditation Challenge, Air, beginnings, Daily Walk, Digital Art, Earth, Fire, home, Letting Go, Mindfulness, nature, Photography, Quotes, snow, Spirit, Spring, Today's Joys, Walking, wandering, water, weather, winter | Tags: balance, Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, flowers, Health, Hiking, MaidinSun Photography, nature, Outdoors, Photography, quotes, Rumi, snow, spring, Sufi poetry, trees, water, weather, winter 19 Comments
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
Anahata
Posted: March 12, 2013 Filed under: 365 Meditation Challenge, Air, beginnings, Daily Walk, Digital Art, Earth, hiking, home, Mindfulness, music, nature, Photography, pond, Quotes, Spirit, Today's Joys, Walking, wandering, water, winter | Tags: Anahata, Capture Your 365, Clover, daffodils, flowers, Green, Heart Chakra, Hiking, MaidinSun Photography, music, nature, Oscar Wilde, Outdoors, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Photography, pond, quotes, rain, Sanskrit, snow, Tom Waits, water, weather, winter, woods 8 Comments
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.
Liquid
Posted: March 11, 2013 Filed under: 365 Meditation Challenge, Abstracts, Adventures in art, Air, Daily Walk, Digital Art, Earth, hiking, home, Mindfulness, nature, Photography, pond, Quotes, Spirit, Today's Joys, Walking, wandering, water, weather, winter | Tags: Capture Your 365, clouds, Cyril Connolly, Fred Rogers, Hiking, MaidinSun Photography, nature, Outdoors, Photography, pond, quotes, rain, reflections, trees, water, weather, winter 26 Comments
Liquid reflections
It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone.
~ Erica Jong
Today’s Capture Your 365 prompt is Liquid. You can find plenty of liquid here in the Bogs, especially since it’s been raining for a good part of the day.
Life in the Bogs 