A Moment of Beauty

A little moment of beauty in a stressful time. I picked these a few minutes ago from the grass around the house to make a mini bouquet.

I’ve been doing this every spring since I can remember. I’d always pick them for Ma when I was a child and every year growing up until I no longer lived at home, and then I’d pick them to remember those wonderful years.

Pa once told me that wild violets were among his beloved mother’s favorite flowers. She died about seven months before I was born, but I knew Pa had loved her deeply, and they gave me one little connection to the grandma I’d never know.

Since 1991 I’ve put my little bouquet in this tiny vase, purchased from a small secondhand street seller in London on my husband’s and my August 1990 honeymoon. Another happy memory to add to the ritual.

And this year more than most, I am so grateful for all those 50 years of memories, woven like a tapestry in my heart. ♥️

Pretty Sky, Followed By Rain…

The pretty pink sky at dawn this morning out my back door…

Leading to the slate gray sky of daytime, out my classroom window.

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The weather changes reflect my mood and my ruminations today on the changes we inevitably experience in life. As with everything, we must accept the bitter after the sweet…trusting that the sweet will eventually come again.

 

Summer(y) Afternoon

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Summery view on my way home from work yesterday afternoon

“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
― Henry James

Here in upstate New York we seem to have leaped right from winter to summer.

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A view on my drive home: a farmer getting his fields ready for the new growth of the season

I suppose it’s apropos for this time of year. Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday, with a forecasted temperature in the mid-80’s (Fahrenheit). I can remember at least one Mother’s Day when it snowed. So goes the climate upstate.

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Summer view in Spring

For now, I’ll enjoy the summery hints of days to come. Lots to do today, but I hope to enjoy some time, as Henry James seems to exhort in his quote above. It may only be Spring but summer is coming…

What’s your favorite thing/aspect about summer?

May Flowers

No, not THE Mayflower.

May Flowers.

imageThese grow in my little garden behind the kitchen door. They have tiny little bulbs and I have no idea what they are or where they came from. They just started growing the year after my father died, next to a few of the beautiful iris he transplanted to this same garden at his last visit to my house before he became ill. The almost glow in the early Springtime, wide open purple and white blossoms atop slender but strong stems.  I consider them a little “gift from heaven”. ❤

imageAnd here to the right is a picture of what my father and I called the “little blue flowers”. I don’t know what they’re really called. I looked it up once, but then promptly forgot. 🙂

Anyway, this little patch was transplanted from my parent’s yard into my yard about six or seven years ago. They grow prolifically all along the side of the old Homestead and have always been the first harbingers of Spring to me. He cut out a 12×12 square of sod with the flowers in it and we placed it next to my house. Every year they come up and I look forward to seeing them (though they haven’t spread much, even though my father had thought they would considering how much they spread at the Homestead…not enough direct sunlight at my house, I think).

These little signs of spring and the thaw of winter’s ice and snow fill me with joy. They are signs of new beginnings, while being at the same time lovely connections to treasured memories long past.

Happy Spring to all of you! I’d be glad to hear some of your stories connected to plants or spring renewal (and if anyone knows what either of these flowers is really called, please let me know!)

Spring Signs

imageGeese are flying north again…

I captured these pictures as I drove into work, with the geese flying in their distinctive lines above one of the Amish homes and barn along the way. The snow is slowly melting (from the valleys at least. Our home, which is in a community at a much higher elevation, still has so much snow the grass isn’t showing yet).image

I love these signs of springtime! 🙂