Ahhhh Spring!

I've spent some time translating Spring into punchneedle over the past couple of months. I think this one is my very favorite, so far.

Periwinkle blue and a green the shade of the newest leaves outside my window, bring this Spring kite to life.

"The beautiful spring came; and when nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also." Harriet Ann Jacobs

Pushing through the green

[Dolores of "True Blue Canadian" is the second "Whisper" winner]

While walking this past week I've had some lovely small surprises.  A glimpse of red in the midst of endless green.

Up close they look somewhat like an Iris or Gladiola but all I care about is their deep red color.

A purple vine - which sometimes tries to creep into our own yard - its very invasive and is always removed by my in-house landscaper.  Here it breaks up the bank of green and I admire its strength.

A very small but prolific flower on a very spreading plant.  Lovely pale lilac petals.

Doesn't it seem that some things are more precious because they are not expected to be where they are? 

"Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises. - Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Deep Within the Forest

Each summer, as I walk up the hill, I lose more and more of my 'view'.  I am hemmed in by trees and shrubs and while a patch of sky might show through - looking into the forest I only see a wall of green.

In past years this has disturbed me.  Being an 'open spaces' person, claustrophobia can sometimes set in.  This year, having had my 'desert fix' and the wide open spaces,  I'm finding the trees to be a solace.  This year they are sheltering me rather than holding me in their vast green grip.

Today as I walked I spotted the first of the berries that sometime appear and sometimes don't  They seem quite abundant this year, but very slow to ripen.  However I did end up with a small handful and I'll be walking with my little collecting bag for the next week or so.

"I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us right". - Henry David Thoreau

The Green Wall

It is during this time of the year, here in Western North Carolina that I get hit by 'the green wall'.  Everywhere there is green -- and not just in lawns but in shrubs, bushes and trees - by the millions.

Each year I go through a semi-claustrophobic period.  Most people would say I'm crazy - what's not to like about all the beauty around me?  I think my feelings are based on being a 'western' girl.  I grew up living on the beach -- I spent much of my adulthood in desert areas.  I value the sight of the sun rising and setting in all its splendor.  I value the night sky with the stars spread from horizon to horizon.  I like knowing exactly where I am at any given time.

The first time we moved to the east and I made a drive out of my neighborhood, I got so lost.  I must have passed the same place three times before I realized I was going around in circles.  There was green everywhere.  It all looked the same and it was quite unnerving.

I love the feeling of standing in the desert and seeing and feeling the world spread out before me.  Its no longer about 'me' its about this incredible planet that we inhabit and the vastness of it compared to my smallness.  

For now I'll try to push my 'green phobia' aside - because fall and winter will soon be here and then I can complain about the cold and the leaves to rake - but by gosh I'll know where I am at any one time. *smile*

"Any landscape is a condition of the spirit." - Henri Frederic Amiel

Stand Still

We took a walk up one of the trails in the Pisgah Forest the other day.  It was early morning and dew was still on some of the leaves.  We were literally surrounded on all sides - above and below - with green.

We walked across streams.

We wandered through and beside and past all manner of ferns, mosses, grasses, shrubs and trees.  Except for little slices of blue sky that sometimes appeared above - we were in a green world.

At the end of the trail we were greeted by this waterfall -- pouring down with a rushing noise. 


Lost
Stand still.
The trees ahead and the bushes beside you Are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.

No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still.
The forest knows Where you are.
You must let it find you.
An old Native American elder story rendered into modern English by David Wagoner, in The Heart Aroused - Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America by David Whyte, Currency Doubleday, New York, 1996.

Promises

As we move into spring I'm relishing in the promise that this time of the year provides.  There is promise in this still unfurled fern.

There is promise in the brilliant, spring green of these grasses.

These azaleas have already completed their promise by blooming in great profusion.

And down at the pond the sun shines on the water while frogs plop loudly into the water at the sound of my footsteps (no matter how quietly I try to go).

I hope in your little corner of the world you are seeing signs of spring promises.

"Spring has returned.  The Earth is like a child that knows poems." - Rainer Maria Rilke

Summer Grotto

We're nearing the end of summer, and for many of us it can't come soon enough.  Its too bad to 'wish' time away, but oh so human -- when hot, humid weather drains our energy, a longing for cooler weather is only natural.

Although I am no fan of southern summers -- I have much to be thankful for.  Our oh-so-green yard has several grotto's which make the summer a little less stressful.  These are shaded, green areas - up against huge rocks rich with sprouting ferns and native plants.

When the heat seems too oppressive it helps me to feel grateful if I walk out behind our house and enjoy the quiet of these shaded spaces.  It is all too easy for me to forget all of the blessings that I live with daily.  Why is it so easy to complain and so difficult to count blessings?  One of the reasons that I walk each day is to remind myself of our earth and of the beauty that surrounds me.

Fall will soon be here and all the technicolor of that season will remove the deep, dark greens that summer has brought.  Until those cool, crisp autumn days arrive I'll content myself to enjoy what this season brings in the quiet of my very own grotto.

"For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver". - Martin Luther

Welcome Spring!

No spring has been as welcomed as this one, this year!  Time has warped throughout winter making not only the gray, cold, snowy days long and dreary but each week, each month cried out for sunshine and warmth and SPRING!

So here it is -- I intend to keep winter in my heart as an impetus toward more walking, more being outdoors this spring and summer and fall.  I will remember the snowbound/icebound/housebound days of this winter and get outside as much as possible.  Perhaps I'll even move my beading out onto the porch - just to soak in the warmth and the green and the freedom of being able to do so.

I share with you this picture -- doesn't it look like a shiny green egg?  Actually it is a green bottle that someone left in the woods.  Look carefully through the glass and you will see tiny, bright green leaves.  A plant of some sort has taken hold inside the bottle and offers this beautiful treasure in the middle of a pile of leaves and winter debris. 

So now that the earth is revealed and sprouts are sprouting and bits of plant life are peeking ever so carefully from beneath a layer of fall leaves -- I intend to soak in the warmer weather and to walk oh so delightfully into spring. 

"Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment". - Ellis Peters