At the Maple Tree Watering Hole

There's a hollow in the maple tree out front,
where an old branch died
and dropped off.

When it rains,
the hollow fills with water,
and all the neighborhood birds
come to partake.

Fun to watch them
tilting to drink
right outside the dining room window.

Growing Up with Tarzan

On weekends in my childhood,
we would sometimes visit my mother's parents
who lived on a farm in rural north Florida.

I can remember spending Saturday mornings
watching old Tarzan movies
with my grandfather
on their little black and white TV.

I didn't know at the time
that many of those movies
were filmed at Silver Springs,
not an hour away from where we sat.

Was it the black and white
or just my ability to believe
that kept me from recognizing the jungles
of my own home state?

(These pictures come from Leesburg, FL, taken last February at a camp counselor reunion.)
 

Value Added

I'm trying to cut back
on watching TV,
surfing the internet,
even reading books.


When I am doing one of those things,
I am perhaps staying out from under foot
and not causing trouble,
but neither am I contributing to the world around me.

I'm trying to figure out
more ways each day
to add beauty,
kindness,
creativity
and something interesting
to a world full of noise and clutter and meanness.

Even if it just means sharing
a picture in the woods
celebrating that spring does come
whether we watch for it or not.

I will ask, not for guilt or pressure,
but simply as a reminder
and some focus:
as my presence here added anything worthwhile
to the world today?

Public Spaces

 

Sick days at home often stimulate blogging.
I know this from spending much of yesterday
breathing through my mouth
and reading through blog entries
going back six years.

Another thing I realized
was how many of the pictures
I treasure and share
come from
places we own together.

State parks, national parks,
public land and forests.
Even the privately owned places,
like the Shaker Village in Kentucky,
are held in trust
so that the public can visit, learn and enjoy.

It turns out that together,
we share an incredible wealth
of views, hiking trails,
winding roads and places of beauty.
How rich we are, my friends!
How very rich!

Craggy Gardens Hike, May 2011

This has been
one of the most beautiful falls
in recent memory.
Which, of course,
leads me to post
lovely pictures from spring.

I was very excited when I took these shots
at the prospect of sharing
this vivid green
on the blog.

It took me a while to get around to posting.
But the spring green is worth the wait.

And perhaps,
as we drift towards winter,
this green is just what the doctor ordered.

A Well Rounded Blog

According to a recent
New Yorker cartoon*
most blogs consist of

"1/3 stories about crap
somebody cooked, knitted or sewed;
1/3 self-promotion
and 1/3 conspiracy theories."

The cartoon awakened me to a basic fact.
I am way behind on my
share of conspiracy theories.

I just happened to come up with one
on my way to church this morning,
which I will now share with
a public in need of some
new paranoia.

In North Carolina there is a roundish
brown, garden eating mammal
called a groundhog.
(Click here for pictures)
We did not have them in Florida.
Apparently they are
NC's answer to armadillos.

You'll see them as you drive around town
perched on the side of the road,
facing traffic
making little chewing motions with their mouths
but always right there on the very curb
with their nose practically under the cars.

I couldn't figure why an animal,
much less an entire breed of animals
would perch so precariously
with cars whooshing by
and threatening their fuzzy existance.

Finally I realized:
they are not mammals at all.
They are electronic devices set there
to monitor us in our cars,
disguised as mild mannered
fuzzy brown garden destroyers.

I know some ground hogs are real
and a real pain in the patooty
if you are growing your own veggies.

But those omnipresent roadside hogs...
they are machines,
put there by The Man
keeping us under
his controlling eye.

Beware of both kinds.

*September 26, 2011, The New Yorker, page 90, "Blog Breakdown" cartoon.

Ode to Spanish Moss

One of the ways
I know am near my original stomping grounds
in the heart of north Florida
is to look to the trees
for the gentle drapery of Spanish Moss.

These pictures almost seem
like black and white photography,
but they are color shots on a cloudy day.

The gray of the plant
covers a green interior,
life within something that looks
not quite so living.

Gentle breezes add a certain
living movement,
but one beyond the plant's control.

While I love my home in North Carolina,
I have to visit the land of moss
(or more accurately, the land of angiosperm)
on occasion to set things right with my soul.

(Photos from the Warren W. Willis camp in Leesburg, FL, taken last February).

More on Spanish Moss

Looking Down

I am sometimes criticized
for looking down at the ground as I walk.

 

 

But it pays
to pay attention
to the ground beneath your feet.

There are treasures
all around,
just there for the looking.

Same springtime hike in Indiana....one walk, so many things to ponder and photograph.

 

Water flowing over rocks

Here's something you don't see
while hiking in Florida.
While my home state has lots of water,
they are lacking in cool rocks.

More pics from Brown County State Park.

What is better
than rocks and water
and the bright green
leaves of spring?

Brown County Trails

With four months' worth of pictures
stored on the computer
and never posted to blog,
I'm going to start back in May
and share some of my favorites.

More hike pictures from
the State Park
in Brown County
Indiana.

Wonderful place.

Made in America

We've become too cheap for our own good.
We want LOTS of STUFF
for not much money,
and we don't want to think too much about it.

So jobs have disappeared, disappeared, gone overseas.
And that has led to more bargain hunting
and more disappearing jobs.

It is time for those of us
who still have jobs and savings
to start investing
in our neighbors,
in each other.

My new motto....
***Buy less,
***spend more.

Spend more effort in the shopping
(stop to think and research),
spend more money
(it costs money to pay decent salaries)
and BUY MADE IN THE USA.

I started with musical instruments.
Both my mandolins
were hand crafted
here in the U.S.
One of the luthiers
has become a valued facebook friend.
The instruments mean more
(and play great!)

Now I'm moving on to shirts.
I don't need a lot of shirts,
just a few for work and home.
So I'm going to chuck out
more money
for each American made shirt.

I'm going to think
each time I wear that shirt
of people who got up,
drank their morning coffee
and went to a job
that paid a living wage.

You know you are going to buy something soon.
Why not spend a little more time and money
and help make an investment
in our future together?

Links for further thought:

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/MadeInAmerica/

Links to American made products

The World's Smallest Watermelons

Okay, so they are not really watermelons.
But aren't they cute?
They are "fairy cucumbers"
that I grew from seeds
given to me by a good friend.

They taste kind of like
a lemony cuke.

And they are cuteness itself
growing on the climbing vine
and hanging down like little jewels.

I hope to save seeds...
but have been warned
that they might have cross polinated
with the nearby pumpkins, cukes and squash.

We'll see what happens next year.

(**Note...the more common name for these is "Mexican Sour Gherkin.")

Lookout at Brown County State Park, Nashville, Indiana

On a recent trip to Indiana
for a family graduation,
took a hike to see woods and wildflowers.

Found a great old structure,
an elevated log cabin.

Cool as the place was,
the point was really the views.

Windows all around
with vistas
and the showy
green of spring.

So many places of beauty in the world--
so many areas left to explore.

On a weekend in May
the world in Indiana
was just waking from winter.

I love state and national parks
and Brown County is on my list of favorites.
The park's Abe Martin Lodge
is a great place to stay.

And the north lookout tower
is a fine place to visit.

Scarecrow maybe, but Mockingbird Unafraid

I just missed the shot
of the mockingbird sitting
on the scarecrow's shoulder.

 

The backyard, with young beans, corn, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash and ancient scarecrow.

Glowing Shaker Barns

 More shots from the Shaker Village in Kentucky.

I liked the way the evening glow picked up the reds and yellows.