Archive for the ‘Branches’ Category
Lemon Thyme in the Morning
Posted in Branches, Nature Notes on May 25, 2009| Leave a Comment »
By the Hudson River
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road on April 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Near the Hudson River, I sit beneath a tree that has flowers like a dogwood, pale, soft lit by the sun, a creamy golden white. They waver in what can only be called a gentle breeze. Bird cries fill the air, harsh and pointed. It is spring. The birds search for mates and want to have babies. A biological imperative I suppose.
*
Time passes. I still sit beneath the tree, staring up into the branches weighed down by blossoms. The breeze reveals the sheer lengths of spiders’ webs weaving throughout the canopy. Of the spiders I can see nothing, only their work.
*
A woodchuck, of all creatures, bounds by with baby in tow. A light golden brown shading darker in places. It could be a beaver but the tail seems too wrong. Earlier I saw squirrels, quite fat, and birds in all sizes and colors. But of deer I have seen nothing though they were the creatures I had been told to watch for.
*
And so there it is. The deer. A female, white tailed. As it ambles by I am reminded to practice what I preach to a dear friend: Patience and all will be revealed.
At Last … Full-fledged Spring!
Posted in Branches, Nature Notes, On the Road on April 25, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Glass and Water Reflections
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes on March 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Mondays
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes on February 16, 2009| Leave a Comment »
It is Monday. The sun is shining. The air is (relatively) warm. I sit at my desk committed to writing. Yes, committed. To write. Not draw. Not photograph. Not dream the day away. To write. To put pen to paper. Or finger to key. Yes. Write. It’s not easy. Because I could just take a short walk in the sun with my camera or even just a notebook and a pen and then come back to my desk and write something sustained with a beginning and an end. Really, I could. But I know myself. If I walk out the door right now, into the sun, hours will pass. A few words may get jotted down on paper. A picture or two or one hundred may get taken. But I will have reneged on my promise to myself to write a sustained piece with a beginning and an end. And so I sit. I am lucky that I have windows all around me. Through one window I see an oak tree with its branches bare. Perhaps a bird will visit soon to keep me company. As I write.
A Rose Cloud Moment at Work
Posted in Branches, Nature Notes on February 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »
I remember, as a child, drawing a sky using orange and purple crayons. A twilight sky in Virginia. In the fields below were white tailed deer. I had forgotten that moment until I viewed this picture recently shot at work.
How Cold Is It?
Posted in Branches, Nature Notes, Uncategorized on January 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »
The Little Yellow Leaf
Posted in Books I Love, Branches, Nature Notes on December 29, 2008| Leave a Comment »
When I first picked up a camera a few years ago, I mostly took pictures of trees and forests. Now I most often take pictures of branches and leaves. Outside my window right now are the mostly bare branches of a great oak tree. I say mostly because I can see hanging on with great tenacity a small rust colored leaf. It is the only one, and though the wind blows quite heartily, that leaf does not fall. Not yet. There is great beauty, great strength in the tree that towers over my room, but so is there in the leaf. From my perch at my desk I cannot get a full view of the tree, of its magnificence, but the leaf attached to its branch fills my vision. To sit and reflect on a leaf is one of those magic moments of rest that I think helps me get through the more hectic parts of my life. A moment of rest and reflection and a heightened awareness of simple rustic beauty … that is what it is like to read Carin Berger’s The Little Yellow Leaf.
Along the Blue Ridge Mountains
Posted in Branches, Nature Notes, On the Road on December 29, 2008| Leave a Comment »
By Blackwater Creek
Posted in Branches, Nature Notes, On the Road on December 29, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Words + Images 