Archive for the ‘Photos’ Category
The brilliant colors of tulips in full bloom have always signified the peak of spring to me, and the last tulips fading away are the first hints of summer approaching.
The Tulip Fairy
Our stalks are very straight and tall,
Our colours clear and bright;
Too many-hued to name them all—
Red, yellow, pink, or white.
And some are splashed, and some, maybe,
As dark as any plum.
From tulip-fields across the sea
To England did we come.
We were a peaceful country’s pride,
And Holland is its name.
Now in your gardens we abide—
And aren’t you glad we came?
~ Cicely Mary Barker
Discovering even just a single new bloom that has opened in the garden makes life just a little bit better.
“Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, “one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”
~ Hans Christian Andersen
These are some of my favourite photos of the birds that I saw and photographed in 2015.
“Each new year is a surprise to us. We find that we had virtually forgotten the note of each bird, and when we hear it again, it is remembered like a dream, reminding us of a previous state of existence. How happens it that the associations it awakens are always pleasing, never saddening, reminiscences of our sanest hours. The voice of nature is always encouraging.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
‘Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
No rose-bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.
I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one!
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter
Thy leaves o’er the bed,
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.
So soon may I follow,
When friendships decay,
And from Love’s shining circle
The gems drop away.
When true hearts lie wither’d,
And fond ones are flown,
Oh! Who would inhabit
This bleak world alone?
~Thomas Moore
The Periwinkle Fairy
In shady shrubby places,
Right early in the year,
I lift my flowers’ faces,
O come and find them here!
My stems are thin and straying,
With leaves of glossy sheen.
The bare brown earth arraying,
For they are ever green.
No great renown have I.
Yet who does not love Periwinkle’s blue?
~ Cicely Mary Barker
The Spider’s Web
The spider, dropping down from twig,
a plan of her devising,
A thin premeditated rig
To use in rising.
And all that journey down through space,
In cool descent and loyal hearted,
She spins a ladder to the place
From where she started.
Thus I, gone forth as spiders do
In spider’s web a truth discerning,
Attach one silken thread to you
For my returning.
There are lots of flowers blooming in the garden now and each one is a tiny little miracle!
“Spring has returned. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”
Owls practice active patience as they wait long periods of time for their prey and those of us who would like to see owls need to practise patience too. Their use of the power of stillness would have kept them hidden from my sight if it wasn’t for the fortunately low angle of the winter sun that brought them to my attention.
The stillness of owls and the comical busyness of ducks, it was a perfect winter morning at the bird sanctuary!
“I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.”
