I’d never seen an entire field planted with purple cone flowers as a crop before. Echinacea is used medicinally in tea and as a supplement that boosts immune system health. Usually, I see a few in a prairie mix, …
Author Archives: scillagrace
Weekly Photo Challenge: Awakening to Spring
The photo challenge for this week is about life’s waking after a long winter. Well, someone must have hit the SNOOZE button for Wisconsin because it’s still FREEZING up here!
I was able to see some blooms indoors at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago at the end of last month. Here’s another fern to echo Jen’s post:
I am really looking forward to the proposition of warmer days and greener landscapes. Any time. Soon. The sooner the better, really. Like…now would be good. Yeah. Until then, Northerners, this bud’s for you.
For My Own Sake
It’s still cold and snowy here in Wisconsin, and I have to do my taxes. I’m looking for a bright spot. I found a lot of them last weekend when I was in Chicago for my son’s wedding. The brightest were about family and love, but there was this other bit that was also bright and colorful — a visit to the Garfield Park Conservatory.
There are goldfinches at my feeder. I see their feathers brightening a bit each day from their winter brown to that radiant, sunny yellow I love so much. It’s only a matter of time. I will try to “possess my soul in patience”.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Similar Smiles
“Smile a while, and while you smile, another smiles. And soon, there are miles and miles of smiles. And life’s worthwhile because you smile.”
I spent last weekend at my son’s wedding celebration, surrounded by similar smiles. Genetics and orthodontia have collaborated to give my kids what I believe (in the most unbiased way) are the most beautiful smiles on Earth. My hobby and therapy is collecting as many as I can to look at when they’re not around.
The smile that started it all, and the one I miss every day:
Weekly Photo Challenge: Sunrise, Sunset
Many years ago, four members of my family were cast in a community theater production of Fiddler on the Roof – my late husband, myself, my son and my daughter. My son, fabulous dancer that he is, performed in the Russian cossack dance and the Jewish bottle dance. To bring this full circle, we will be celebrating my son’s wedding ceremony this weekend.
The wedding scene in the musical features a beautiful tune called “Sunrise, Sunset”.
“…Is this the little boy at play?
I don’t remember growing older, when did they?
What words of wisdom can I give them,
How can I help to ease their way?
Now they must learn from one another,
Day by day.”
To Josh and Daena: may all your sunrises and sunsets together fill you with joy and wonder!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Favorite Place
You might as well ask me, “Which is your favorite child?”
How can I choose between woodland lakes…
…and desert canyons…
…or even my own front yard?
I will just say that this place called Earth is my favorite and my home, and I will defend her to my dying day. I will take her as a whole and not state a preference for certain parts. She is a mosaic of interdependent cells, a Being of utter complexity and uniqueness.
Coastal redwoods – taller but not as big around as sequoia gigantea
Weekly Photo Challenge: I’d Rather Be…honest
How do I finish this sentence? “I’d rather be….” It presents a bit of a conflict.
If I can think of other things I’d rather be doing, then I’m not engaging with the present moment and the thing that I’m doing right now. I’d like to be a person that practices the discipline of positive presence, but honestly, I do a lot of wishful thinking.
That said…here’s what I would enjoy doing, any time!
#1 – Hanging out with my adult children. They are all tremendously stimulating individuals, and I’m very attached to them…and they all live at least 70 miles away from me. So occasions to be together are always a treat. Occasions when all five of us are together are extra special!
#2 – Camping. “Can I play outside? Please?”
#3 – Making music, dancing to music, listening to music
photo by Dharam Kaur Khalsa
