A Spring Day So Perfect
June 11, 2013
Today
by Billy Collins
If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze
that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house
and unlatch the door to the canary’s cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,
a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies
seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking
a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,
releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage
so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting
into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.
Amsterdam Impressions 4: Keukenhoff and Tulips
May 24, 2013
“I suppose there must be one or two people in the world who choose not to like tulips, but such aberration is scarcely credible.”
— Anna Pavord, The Tulip
We came to the Netherlands in April to see the tulips, but this year’s lasting cold weather meant that the tulip season was late. We were too early for the blooming peak. Still, we went forward with our plans to visit the famous Keukenhof gardens, and I’m glad we did. The gardens there were spread out over acres, and it felt like we were walking on a grand estate, with flower beds under a forest of tall trees, a lake, a hedge maze, a windmill, arbors, outdoor sculptures, and several indoor pavilions with bulbs and blooms. I hope my photos convey the pleasures of this day trip.
The Harvest Ends Its Busy Reign
November 29, 2012
“Thus harvest ends its busy reign
And leaves the fields their peace again
Where autumn’s shadows idly muse
And tinge the trees with many hues.”
— John Clare, “The Shepherd’s Calendar”
I was captivated by this Skagit Valley field in the late afternoon light. The plastic-wrapped round hay bales look so much like giant marshmallows! Delightful!
Labor Day Message: Manifesting Your Gratitude in Work
September 3, 2012
” . . . work is not an expression of the desire for praise or recognition, or prizes, but the deepest manifestation of your gratitude for the gift of life.”
— Stanley Kunitz, The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden
Today’s quote is food for thought on this Labor Day holiday — work as a manifestation of gratitude. I do believe that some of the most fortunate people are those who have found work that offers meaning and pleasure. The kind of work that you never want to retire from.
Parenting is that kind of work. As is farming and gardening, teaching and construction. Nurturing life. Creating beauty and usefulness. How lucky are those who have found work that feeds the soul.
Ben’s Wildflower Field in Late Winter
March 9, 2012
My brother Ben planted a wildflower field next to the farm’s driveway. It provides a spectacular profusion of mixed flowers during the summer months, but it has its own kind of beauty during the winter. I particularly like that the seed dispersal structures are so evident at this time of year.
Gone Into the Fields
March 6, 2012
“Away, away, from men and towns,
To the wild wood and the downs-
To the silent wilderness
Where the soul need not repress
Its music lest it should not find
An echo in another’s mind,
While the touch of Nature’s art
Harmonizes heart to heart.
I leave this notice on my door
For each accustom’d visitor:-
‘I am gone into the fields
To take what this sweet hour yields.'”
Percy Bysshe Shelley, from “The Invitation”
I’ve just returned from a week’s trip to Minnesota to stay with my 93-year-old Dad on the family farm. It’s been an unseasonally dry and almost snow-less winter in Minnesota, but a storm passed through during my stay. The farm was on the south fringes of the storm front, and we got just a small amount of snow, some rain, and sleet. My sister, who lives in northern Minnesota, got 10-inches of snowfall in one day!
The farm is quiet in winter. I enjoyed my solitary walks through the woods and fields. Like Shelley, I kept my eyes open to what the Minnesota winter yielded.