Cool Spring!



Lake view from the gazebo

 

Birch tree about to bloom against the cool blue sky

 Today the wind is blowing fiercely and the temperatures are in the 30s. When I arrived back home 2 weeks ago, the temperatures were in the 80s. Wait a minute! Isn't it supposed to be getting warmer as summer approaches?? Oh well, as they say here in Maine, "if you don't like the weather, just wait a minute." I think I just said that!

The gardens are slowly getting cleaned out, but the past few days have been too wintry to stay outside for long.  So many of the branches from the willow cover the yard, and I pick them up and fill the concrete slab and then take them to the dump or weave them into a wreath or cut them into mulch. And the next day I go out only to find hundreds more branches everywhere. I guess the old willow is also getting rid of excess. Like me.
I have been sorting and putting stuff in boxes for Goodwill since I have been home. I am looking forward to an errand day where I take a full box to Goodwill and a full trunk of branches to the dump. Until then, I put on the music I have missed all winter and dance around like snoopy when he gets his food. 

East Coast Spring!

The forsythias welcomed me home! Things are blooming earlier this year because it is warmer and the winter was mild.

The gardens are begging for attention after a winter of neglect. Buds are on the trees and rain is due this weekend after a mini-drought.

The white garden is usually the first to bloom. These hardy little sweet blooms poke up through the dead leaves and fill small vases throughout the house.

Lilac buds soon to become fragrant beauties.

Sun on Water

                     
                       The simple mix of sun on water
                       And when the wind adds pattern to the sand,
                       There is art. Sand and wind and sun and water.
                       Interacting to create a masterpiece in design. 
                      

A Tribute

This morning, Good Friday, a dear friend and constant light became a star in heaven. 

She was a part of my whole life-best friends with my mom since my childhood. 

Always ready to crack a joke, or offer food, unwavering in generosity. A warrior for the oppressed, a healer and true friend.  

 Expressing her opinion with kindness and openness, looking for the positive spin on every situation.

 One day, she called me just to see how I was. She wanted to "shoot the breeze" she said.

She took my daughter into her heart and home. Unflinching,without questions or expectations, matter-of-factly. "Family takes care of family! "she said.

What I will miss most about her:

Her laugh

Her quick responses to anything said

Her ability to really listen

Her extraordinary Italian cooking

Her home-always open to anyone at any time

Her willingness to have an adventure

Rest in peace, Auntie Ann!

Homecoming

This garage that needs paint will most likely the first sight I will see when I pull into my driveway. There are always projects galore and it is hard for me to resist all that "puttering"!
There are smells to get rid of-mold, small animal, furnace oil, and just plain old neglect. 
So many surfaces will be crying out for a fresh coat of paint!
Boxes will need unpacking, rooms aired out, gardens tended, and the list goes on.

But I love it all! And the East Coast portion of my year will begin as I leave behind the West Coast. I am grateful for this life and for the joyful work. Each chore is part of the nesting process. But this year, I will try to take more breaks and breathe in that clear air and the smell of pine trees. It wont be long before the lilacs appear! I will fill the house with them-large bouquets in every room! 

    I will leave the West Coast with pieces of my heart still there, but thankful for the fond memories, the good friends, and the ocean sunsets.
Life is good!

Much-ness!

"Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions."
                                                                                                     -Peace Pilgrim

I was looking over all the stuff that has somehow accumulated this year
 and the word-much-ness came to my thoughts. It is a funny word- and I am
 not even sure if it is a word, but it must be because I heard it in a sermon
 last night. 
It was used in reference to a few passages about becoming overwhelmed.
We are all doing too much these days. We satisfy obligations, meet expectations
from others, as well as trying to live up to our own expectations for ourselves.
The point of the passages-(Exodus 18:13-18 and Acts 6:1-2) is that
sometimes we try to do it all-live each role-mother, daughter, friend,
teacher, employee, etc. perfectly -and we stretch ourselves so thin that we become ineffective. Then we wonder why we get overwhelmed!
My reference to the word much-ness was about feeling
overwhelmed too, but in a way that had to do with too much stuff!
Most of my accumulation can be given freely to others, but there is
weird stuff that no one would want.
 So the stuff will get sorted into piles for Goodwill, trash, and boxes for shipping "home". And then once it has traveled the length of the country, it will get sorted again and tossed or given away or put into a drawer somewhere. 
So what is about our STUFF that makes it so hard to get rid of?? People with storage units sometimes go years without ever seeing their stuff, but continue to make monthly payments so that they can still own their stuff even though it is costing them more to keep it than it did to buy it! Crazy how much control stuff can have over a person!
I would love to get to the place that I delete more than I accumulate. That my material possessions just fall away, and I am left with only life's essentials.
"Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants." -Epictetus
    

Tree Thoughts

Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
~ Kahlil Gibran ~

I couldn't help but to notice the gorgeous texture of this tree. It was near the beach and dancing in the wind the day I took this photo.It reminded me of trees I have seen in the Maine woods that have been carved by lovers. Except this carver preferred to etch lines in code.

And this  lovely woven basket is also part of a tree by the beach.

Jagged and spotted but perfect and a magnificent work of art.

This gnarly faced knot in an old tree smiled his gummy smile as I walked by and I turned around and faced him in all of his hideousness and we winked at each other. No one had taken his photo in a very long time and he seemed grateful for the attention.