Barbed wire pierced the trunk, bark having grown up and around it, becoming a part of the tree itself. Roots as wide as my arms and legs tumbled down into and ran among the gray stones. It was hard to tell where the tree started and the wall began. At that point, it didn’t really seem to matter: They were one, the wall and the tree, as they had been for a century...
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Finding the Old Oak: A Love Story
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The Long Road Home
Traveling along through the early evening, I watched the clouds roll away and the sky clear, shocked by the red riot of the sunset, and followed the path of the mists curling across the hills and down into the valleys, still clinging here and there to some odd anchor. I watched the light fade, the long light I love so much, and the shadows start to overtake it all. It was gorgeous and devastating, peaceful and powerful both at once...
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Capturing eternity in an hour: painting in the great outdoors
The rest of the afternoon I spent painting, looking out on the ever-changing landscape that is water and sky. I had never painted in the great outdoors before, and it had it's fair share of challenges. Like, how do I keep up with the colors when the light changes all the time? But I finished my little painting in just a few hours...
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THROUGH MY LENS:
One of my favorite spring wildflowers is the trout lilly. They grow in vast groups through the woods surrounding my pond, tiny armies marching their way beneath trees, around rocks, and through shrubby undergrowth. Every spring I …
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FRESH OFF THE PAGE
Two lives now to bury, Weighed on my heart – Once separate, now equal, Both fragile and short; One lived high in the trees, The other along the ground; No more sunning or sliding, No more sweet, cheerful sounds...
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FRESH OFF THE PAGE
Fragile creatures. We are promise, Filled with hope And such despair; Climbing high, Then quickly falling, Losing ground While gaining speed.
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Lessons from the Garden, Part 1: The subject was irises
To me, it's just dreamy inside this iris. I love how the soft lavender, blue and cream colors contrast with their stronger versions, and how bold it is in its invitation to be pollinated. Who could resist that golden caterpillar-like tongue? It just looks too delicious to pass up! Frankly, I'm surprised Georgia O'Keefe didn't paint more of them...
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Spending some down-time
I returned home earlier this week from a short but much-needed trip to the ocean. This time it was to Florida’s Gulf Coast, the more tropical and laid back side of the state, in my opinion. Right …
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THROUGH MY LENS
This was the view in my old and overgrown apple orchard a few years ago. Yesterday it rained here, then snowed, and lastly hailed. Maybe it was more like May when the photo above was taken, but …
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FRESH OFF THE PAGE
This poem was inspired by this past weekend’s annual ritual of cleaning up after the small army of maple and locust trees in my yard. I like to believe that if I can find beauty in even a small …
