Winter’s Hope

Tags

heart surgery, hope, Ice storm, icicles, nature, winter, woodland

 

“February is merely as long as is needed to pass the time until March.” ~J.R. Stockton

The haunted wood

Winter is so full of promise — it causes many of us to appreciate the other three seasons of the year so much more!  But there is such a quiet beauty about winter that keeps it from being a total downer.

The haunted wood

On Wednesday my 23-year-old son may have to say goodbye to his father.  A heart surgery is coming up tomorrow that, according to what doctors have told them, only has about a 20% chance of being successful.  Despite the weather, my son has driven up to Missouri to spend some time with his father.

The haunted wood

It’s hard to know what to say when someone who is probably at death’s door tells you he is really afraid.  I have told him his son is headed up there and will be there soon, and that City Boy and I are praying for him and thinking of him.  I have told him that with these surgeons he is in good hands.  Blah, blah, blah.  I don’t say it out loud, but it all seems like pointless words.

But, you know, with every breath of life there is hope.  Maybe that 20% chance is all he will need for a new beginning.

Backyard magnolia tree berries

The hope that Winter brings for a nice, warm Spring just around the corner is the same hope we should use for everything else in life.  The ever present thought of what might be just around the corner; the hope in that slight chance that things might turn out even better than expected; the anticipation of rebirth.

Backyard magnolia tree in ice

As you stumble through this winter wonderland of snow and ice, or even if you have a winter full of nice, sunny days, I hope you are full of hope.  Be careful, stay warm, and be blessed!

Backyard magnolia tree in ice

“Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.” ~Victor Hugo

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On Ice

Tags

Arkansas, cold weather, Delta, forest, Freeze, haunted wood, Ice storm, icicles, ravine, winter, woodland

“There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you…. In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself.” ~Ruth Stout

The haunted wood in ice

The lower Midwest winters can be grueling, not just because of the type of precipitation, but mostly because whatever icy/snowy weather that happens is unpredictable.

The haunted wood in ice

But no matter how confining winter weather can be, the beauty of it is inescapable.  Every tree, every branch, every part of the woodland is drenched in a tapestry of frozen splendor.

The haunted wood in ice

The ravine often overflows during times like this, and we are always at risk of having a flooded backyard, depending on how much ice and snow we get.  But it does make for a pretty scene out in the woods.

The haunted wood in ice

“It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.” ~John Burroughs, “Winter Sunshine”

Greetings for now from us in the house by the haunted wood — be careful, be safe, be warm, and be blessed!

A Delta Greeting

Tags

Arkansas, breast cancer, Delta, haunted wood, nature, ravine, winter, woodland

What a year full of changes!  Life is that way — good or bad, it goes with the flow, and we just have to go along with it if we can’t change it ourselves.  But that’s a good thing at times!

Mom, at home about a week after second surgery

Last May my Mom, then 85, was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She underwent a lumpectomy, then several weeks later was told they hadn’t gotten all of the cancer and that she needed a mastectomy.  Back into the hospital she went, and afterwards I stayed at her and Dad’s house for nearly a month while she recovered enough to be able to make it on her own with Dad’s help.  The healing has been slow, especially due to her age, and she is taking no treatments, so we all keep our fingers crossed.

In June Frank was accepted into a year-long residency program at a hospital in Arkansas, and so we had a ten-day notice to pack up a three-bedroom house and get moved.  That was the most horrendous move I have ever made, and I hope to be more prepared in May when the residency is over and we move again.

We are now living in a small town in the Delta region of southern Arkansas.  Our neighborhood borders an area of land that is heavily wooded and is an Indian graveyard of some sort (the “haunted” wood, supposedly).  I have not been exploring there yet, because it is very densely overgrown, but I’d like to find some of the gravesites if I can get brave enough to push my way through the woods.

The haunted wood

 

Just inside the haunted wood, turned around and facing the back yard

The tree line extends behind our house, and a ravine runs right through the middle of it, which adds to the difficulty navigating through the woods, but I’m pretty determined, so we’ll see what happens.

A holdout winter leaf floating in the ravine water of the haunted wood

Although winter makes most things bare and dead-looking, we do still have some greenery mixed-in our local foliage.  Pine trees dotted here and there, some sort of leafy bush scattered throughout the woods that has leaves that stay green.

A few holdout leaves cling to bare branches

Pine tree adds a little green in amongst the bare winter woods

And some sort of tree in the back yard that is still green.  I don’t know what kind it is, but someone suggested that it looks like a magnolia tree.

City Boy and I wanted to send our greetings to you from our little house next to the haunted wood, and we hope this year so far has been kind to you and shown you favor!

Valentine’s Day will be here before we all know it, so stock up on chocolate and flowers!

 

Rainy Fall

Tags

accident, Autumn, Autumn leaf color, B&W photographs, black and white photography, fall, Fall color, lawn mowing, nature, nature photographs, nature photography, rain

Just because those of us in Hillbilly-land are waiting with such anticipation to take pictures of the glorious Fall colors, the golden hues of Autumn have decided to be late this year.  All around us in this area everything is still green, with just a hint of Fall color here and there.

 After a little mishap I have been spending the last month or so getting back to normal.  Most of the physical damage was on my left side, but I have been careful and healed nicely.  There are only the residual problems that come with broken ribs, which take forever to heal, and I still can’t grip things with my left hand.  Handwriting anything is out, but I can finally type with both hands, so I’m mostly back in business.  Yay!

We have been getting lots and lots of rain here, with just the occasional sunny day.  What that adds up to is that the grass is still growing rampant, while mowing has to be a rush-job between rains during the short times the sun is out.

But, it’s nice to still have a green lawn, although City Boy would beg to differ with me — he is the one having to mow it.

Believe me, I have offered to mow it many, many times, but he has never quite trusted that I can do it correctly.  Now that I actually have not been capable of doing it at all for the last month, it has truly become his and only his chore.

He has been wondering how I can stumble around holding a camera and taking pictures, when things like cooking dinner or doing dishes has been a hardship for me.  Amazing how that works, don’t you think?

Well, for one thing, the shutter button is on the right side of my camera, and it’s the left hand I have the problem with.  And cooking and doing dishes involves getting food and water on a person’s hands, which I have not been able to do with my left hand, so that’s the way it goes.  Now that I can at least do these things again, City Boy is really looking forward to me cooking chili tonight and making banana bread for him.  It’s the least I can do for his first day of handing the reigns (mostly) back over to me.

Actually, City Boy has been a good boy and I have really appreciated his help and understanding while all this has been going on.  I married a wonderful guy, and not because I’m a good guy-picker, but because I got lucky that he came along when I was doing the picking.  Amazing how that works, don’t you think?

And, actually, he picked me, but we’ll just keep that between us, winky-wink.

So, Fall has come in around here with a whimper.  But, the weather people say that the colors are just a few weeks later than usual because of the unusually warm Fall we’ve had so far.  Well, that makes sense I guess.

Until some photo-worthy color comes in, I’ll post pictures I took just before the monsoon started.  After all, even with all of my limitations of late, I never became unable to manage taking pictures.  Amazing how that works, don’t you think?

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Bugs and Slugs of Fall

Tags

Autumn, bugs, fall, grasshopper, insect photographs, insects, nature photographs, nature photography, Pest (organism), spider, spider web

Today was a good day to wander around taking pictures, and the insect population was teeming, so I took advantage.

This little critter crawled right up to me on a rock at my feet where I was sitting.

We used to call these “stink bugs,” I think, but I had no idea he was in the picture until I processed it.

Reminds me of what it looked like when our kids would slosh red kool-aid on our light colored carpet.

I think this poor little sow bug (we used to call them “roly-polies”) was about dead — he was barely moving.

During all this bug photographing, Lucy just HAD to be let in the house, so I let her in.  When I finally finished taking pictures, I went inside also.  The weather was so wonderful it was hard to go in!

Walking through the living room I noticed a dead leaf on the carpet from one of the plants on the mantle, so I snatched it up to throw it away.  Just as quickly, I yelled and gave the cold, slimy thing a toss in the air, and it landed on the front of the fireplace.  It was definitely not a leaf, nor was it dead.

I stopped to take pictures, only because I was in no hurry to pick the thing back up, and then I scooped it onto a paper and took it outside in the back yard.  Hey, I don’t have anything planted out there it could destroy, so what the heck.

I know, the usual thing people in Hillbilly land do is dump salt on them and watch them die in agony, but I wasn’t up for that today.

I figure the nasty thing probably rode in there on Lucy and dropped off onto the carpet.  I have the best luck with that kind of thing (eye roll).

Hope you all are having a wonderful start to your Fall, and that your weather is gorgeous!  Take care and enjoy your bugs!

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From the Wabi Sabi Ranch

Tags

Breezes At Dawn, Life In the Bogs, Maryland, nature, nature photographs, nature photography, photograph, Photography, photography blog, Robin Simmons

Up to now, this blog has been leaning more and more toward my growing interest in amateur photography, although it didn’t start out that way.  My original intention when I started this blog was to highlight the down-home Ozarks lifestyle.  And my photographs, however inexperienced and crude, do highlight that.

As I learn photography and become somewhat better at it (I still have LOTS to learn), I want to also highlight some of the bloggers who are really talented at their photography and for whom it is a passion.  I have learned a great deal and a multitude of skills from these bloggers.

The photographs in this post are taken by Robin, whose blog is Breezes At Dawn.  Robin recently moved to her home on the Eastern shore of Maryland with her husband, who she calls M, and lives on some acreage with a lake and a dock, plenty of flowers and foliage and a multitude of animals and insects.

Robin refers to her home as the Wabi Sabi Ranch, and it is fertile ground for many photographic opportunities, which she takes full advantage of.  Robin has a good eye for picking out things that will make a picture beautiful, stunning, interesting, and/or just plain neat.

Robin is about to enter her first Fall and Winter seasons there at Wabi Sabi ranch, so it will be so interesting to see the photographs in her future blog posts during these upcoming seasons.

Last Fall and Winter Robin was at her former home she calls Breezy Acres.  For those of you who would like look at Robin’s stunning pictures from there, her other blog is Life In the Bogs.

Robin also has a tutorial or two included in Life In the Bogs and Breezes At Dawn, which help us have a clue to a few of the ways she gets the fantastic results she does with her photographs.

A place to purchase some of Robin’s wonderful work can be found on her page at Redbubble Portfolio.  These photographs would look wonderful adorning any home.

For now, Robin has given me permission to feature some of her work from her blog, so sit back, admire, and enjoy!

Check out Robin at Breezes At Dawn for your daily dose of inspiration, fun and loveliness.  I’ll end this post to you wonderful bloggers with her own sign-off:

“Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just be.” — Robin

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Summer’s Over and Fall’s Cookin’!

Tags

Autumn, blessings, change, change of season, cool weather, Dick Willingham, fall, harvest, nature, nature photographs, Summer, tribute

Ah, Summer.  It’s still here for a lot of us.  Warm, humid weather, sunshine.

Why, just a few mornings ago I was out taking these pictures of the summer flowers, skies and grass in my neighbor’s overgrown yard.

The neighbor just moved in and thinks he’s been hoodwinked.  He does not feel that it is his responsibility to mow his yard, and argues with the city about it.

At any rate, things are suddenly changing.  Almost like clockwork, with Fall officially beginning Sunday, it’s just now starting to look a little more like change is in the air.

In the early morning sunlight this week I’ve noticed things that are usually green are starting to turn shades of red, orange and yellow.  Leaves are starting to fall a little, the air is getting cooler at night, the Fall smell is in the air.

Fruit trees are ripe for a final harvest, and fruit is starting to litter the ground.

Even an old acorn cap, probably from last year, has joined the menagerie of falling objects from trees.

But, after all, we’re still getting the occasional 90 degree day.  That’s why I take pictures in the early morning still, so I don’t sweat all over my camera.  There are still vestiges of Summer holding on as long as they can.

I am one of those holdouts.  I like Fall, but I also like the sunshine and outdoorsy feeling of Summer, and have not been in a hurry to let it go.

But, with the change of season also comes the promise of good and different things, so saying goodbye to Summer and embracing Fall starts us on the path that opens us up to all the wonderful things ahead.

In the past several months I’ve had an ongoing mantra of promising I’ll do better at blogging.  I’m not sure what has happened, but I’m trying to figure out why I have just had the blues for the last several months.  

There have been some very bright spots, though, and I am grateful for the blessings of wonderful people and great relationships.  There is not a problem in the world that can’t be made better by these blessings.

At the risk of letting my overwhelming pride turn me into a bad blogger, I wanted to share this video with you.  This past week my family and a host of friends celebrated the life of my Uncle Bud with a party — jazz band playing, food, fun — it’s what he wanted rather than a funeral.  But, the video is the tribute to Uncle Bud done by KYTV, the NBC affiliate station here in southwest Missouri.  This is my final blog about Uncle Bud, but far, far from my final thought and memory.

http://www.ky3.com/news/ky3-former-ky3-anchor-dick-willingham-passes-away-20130915,0,2768607.story

A great weekend is coming up, and I’m looking forward to starting fresh.  Just like the seasons change and another one starts anew, so we each can do the same thing.  It’s what makes life interesting!

Have a fabulous and blessed weekend!

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Pollen — It’s Everywhere!

Tags

Allergy, Fall Allergies, Flower, flower photographs, flowers, nature photographs, Pollen, Pollination, prayer garden

With summer ebbing and getting ready to come to a close, allergies are kicking up a storm with a lot of people.  Beautiful flowers are hard to resist, and difficult not wanting to have around.  

Busy little bee, helping to pollenate flowers (sneeze) before summer’s end.

Caked with pollen, these flowers should have no problem spreading the cheer.

Here, have a big sniff of my lovely scent (sneeze, sneeze)

And yet, even with all that going on, I find myself drawn back to this Prayer Garden time and time again.  I know that pollen is part of what makes it so I can enjoy the peaceful, wonderful beauty here year after year.  It’s well worth a few sniffles.

Hurry, go out and enjoy summer in all of it’s glory while it’s still here — Fall will bring its own set of amazing beauty soon enough!

Have a great evening and be blessed!

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In the Prayer Garden

Tags

end of summer, flowers, Garden, In the Garden, nature photographs, nature photography, Plant, prayer garden, Summer

It is the end of the summer, and the Prayer Garden is getting jungle-like, purposely a little overgrown.  It is wonderful how well-planned this place is — there is always something beautiful to be seen here, no matter what the season.  

I come to the garden alone

While the dew is still on the roses

And the voice I hear, falling on my ear

The Son of God discloses

And He walks with me

And He talks with me

And He tells me I am His own

And the joy we share as we tarry there

None other has ever known.

“In the Garden” — lyrics by  C. Austin Miles (1868 – 1946)

Be blessed!

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Sharing the Same Sun

Tags

Evening sky, fall, morning sky, nature, nature photographs, Summer, Sunrise, Sunset, winter

As the sun welcomes us to a new day, peaking up over houses, trees and all of us here on earth, it’s nice to think that all of you out there are under the same sun.  I’m seeing what you’re seeing, feeling the warmth that you’re feeling, and loving that it makes us feel closer to even those who are far away.

As Summer begins to close, we are still a long way from the bare, dead foliage of winter.  Winter is lovely in its own way, but the living things that abound in Summer give a feeling of fresh life.

Even though the warm morning sun is shining right down on them, the plant life in our yard seems to be getting ready for Christmas, changing into hues and colors of red and green.

But who wants to be ready for Christmas now?  I’m still celebrating the end of Summer!

Pretty soon Fall will arrive, and with it the harvest, the celebration of plenty.

The cold of Winter is far enough away that we don’t have to think about everything being bare and dormant just yet.

So, as the sun goes down on another wonderful Summer day, I’ll think of you as you enjoy the same setting sun and the same warmth as I am, and I’ll feel like you’re right here.

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