seeing

Here's the problem with 'staycationing': you don't get to see your everyday surroundings with 'fresh eyes'.  The 'fresh eyes' phenomenon occurs when you have been away for a good while, traveling or vacationing.  Upon your return, you realize how lovely your surroundings truly are, how comfortable and homey your home is, how sweet your pets.

And so, lately, all I've been seeing is a lot of green (from all of the rain), and all of the chores that still need doing.  I'm just not appreciatin'.

However.  Sometimes you notice something new.  New is good.  These flowers are wild, and they look sort of like bee balm.  I'd never noticed them before....they gave me pause, and a moment of enjoyment.

I also hadn't noticed the lacy banks of Queen Anne's lace with a path to the next field cutting through them.  Pretty.

I enjoyed these too, until the mosquitoes picked me up and carried me away.

The skies this summer have been putting on  a spectacular show, with their moody swirls and patterns.  

They add to the variety of the landscape around here.  Ah well, if I'm staying put this summer, I could do a lot worse.  After all, it's not in the looking, but the seeing.  

river

You can't really know a river properly over a short time.  It takes years, maybe even decades, for it to reveal all of its faces, and all of its possibilities.

Because of our recent snowfalls and thaws and freezings, the river, which is across the road from us, and which we are lucky enough to drive along daily,  got very very high, and overflowed onto the river flats.  It really asserted itself this winter.  It was wonderful to see. 

There were even people skating on the river flats.  You see, our river isn't a virile rushing water source.  It's lazy.  It laughs, and purrs, and gurgles.  So it was lovely to see it expand its boundaries....

That's the beauty of a river, the fact that it's always changing, flowing, moving.  And at the risk of sounding overly fruit loopy, it's really a metaphor for life itself.   And the passage of time.   It's beautiful.  (And you also get to see amazing wildlife- you can spot geese, ducks, swans, herons, even a bald eagle nesting).  So you see what I mean when I say there's never a dull moment here in the country.  Especially if you have a river.

early winter walk

I went for a muddy winter walk yesterday, wearing my husband's coat, my daughter's hat and my son's boots.  With my camera bumping against my stomach , a mug of cinnamon tea, and two lively dogs accompanying me, I felt I could face the wind and gloom and perhaps try and find some of the stripped-down, austere beauty of this season.  Mother nature's goods aren't wearing their white winter finery at this point.  Beauty is still there, it's just more subtle, and you have to look a little harder to find it.  

It's a good thing I brought my camera, because normally I would stroll by with my head in the clouds,  and get a general impressions of greyness and brownness and cold wind.   The camera allows you to stop and capture (and linger over) things like this: a fairy staircase! (I know I'm a dork, but seriously, I think that's what it is!)

The squirrels will not go hungry around here, I've never seen so many nuts.  These are hickory, and impossible to break.  Once you do, it's hard to dig out the meat....but they're delicious.

Ah ha!  I'll be coming here to cut some greenery.  I knew these were here, I'd just forgotten .

In a sheltered spot, some colour.  This will be nice for the deer to find.

Gratuitous seed-pod photo.

Oh look, my superior guard dog, waiting for me at the house.  Don't you creatures know we're a pack, and I'm, like, the leader?  And you have to stick with me...Oh well, we had a nice walk, and feel the better for it.  P.S.  in the winter, long-johns are the secret to contentment!  Winter walks (preferably with dogs); good for what ails ya.

snow is softly falling

 A light, feathery snowfall, just perfect for the first snow of the season.  Everything feels hushed and blanketed.  Peaceful. 

These two (Mama and her giant baby) have already had their breakfast, but I think they wouldn't turn down a pear or two.

See how feathery the snow is?

The bush looks mysterious but inviting at the same time.

Beauty in the everyday.  I hope you find some today.

You too can look like Cleopatra

One day, 'Charlie' the bee man knocked on our door and asked if it would be o.k. with us if he kept bees on our property.  In exchange for this, we would get some honey.  

"How much honey?' we asked

"Well, the going rate's fifteen pounds".

Hmmmmm....fifteen pounds of honey (per annum) for doing nothing.  It took us about fifteen seconds to agree to this "sweet deal", and we have been enjoying pure, delicious honey ever since.  It gets delivered to us just before Christmas in a big container, and even though I jar it up for friends and family, we always have too much.  This year I realized that I still have honey left over from three years ago.  The stuff had gotten all thick and caramelized, and though it was still probably fine to eat, I thought I would make like Cleopatra, and use it on my face.

Everyone knows that Cleopatra was famous for her marvellous complexion, and bathed daily with milk and honey.   Anyway, my honey 'scrub' worked wonderfully well and smelled heavenly too.  It turns out honey is full of minerals and vitamins which nourish skin , it is a natural anti-inflammatory and can promote the healing of cuts.   And you can also eat it on toast.

This delicious and magical (yes, magical, it's made by bees after all) substance can also make us look like a Queen of the Nile.

If you haven't done so before, go and  give yourself a honey facial.  Your skin will feel baby soft, and you might even end up looking like Cleo herself.

That's her image on the coin on the right (the Dude on the left is Antony)  Isn't she.....lovely?