My Gratitude List for the Week
- I found a pretty orange ranunculus flower plant at the grocery story this week. It brightens our dining room table and creates photo play fodder. Because it’s a plant instead of cut flowers, I anticipate much more photo play with this lovely little plant. I have always been drawn to this flower, finding it’s many layers of papery textured petals beautiful and fascinating.
- Ice out happened in the pond behind our house sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning! It’s wonderful to see the reflections of trees in the water again. Soon they will be leafy green reflections. Notice also, that the grass is greening. Before long lawn movers will be heard throughout the neighborhood instead of snow blowers. I am looking forward to spring flowers and blossoms. I have no doubt that the spring ephemeral wildflowers will be popping out all over the woodlands soon.
- Many wood ducks are swimming in the pond again. I think they are one of the most beautiful breeds of ducks and I love seeing them and hearing their eerie cries. In the early morning flotillas of ducks glide to and fro around the pond. It often looks like a carefully choreographed dance with wood ducks and mallards circling one another.
This dead branch from our old willow tree is looking like it will not last much longer. The ducks, turtles and other wildlife will miss it when it’s gone.
- You can see spring happening daily. Tiny buds are popping out on the trees. Bushes are beginning to leaf out. The snow is mostly gone except in low areas or where it was piled up.
- I got to spend time in my beloved Wolsfeld Woods. It was a brief hike because the trails are still quite muddy but it was wonderful to spend time there with my tree friends. Despite the dull almost monochrome brownish color of the woods, I can feel that the trees are wide awake and busily working on leafing out. I could see tiny leaf buds at the tips of the branches high above (through my telephoto lens). The cycle of life that is so apparent in nature is turning once again towards the birth of new life.
- This rainbow was so bright and wide, it made my day. I should have stopped to get a better photo of it but shot this through the car window as we stopped at a stop sign.
- I went to a photo seminar mid-week and learned some cool new stuff and got reminded of a lot of other things that are important in photography. Now I need to practice some of the flash lighting techniques I learned so that when I need them I can use them with no hesitation.
Gratitude for Spring
- Today I plan to put some compost and organic fertilizer on my black and red raspberry bushes. And I also want to plant lettuce and radishes in my summer container garden. Add lawn cleanup and removing dead perennial plant material from the yard and it looks like a busy outdoor day. It is so good to be outdoors in this lovely spring weather. I think my gratitude for spring is greater because of the long cold snowy winter we had. Have you ever watched kids in the springtime and how they instinctively head outdoors to play as soon as the weather moderates? I love how they never tire of being outdoors and know that if I listen to my instincts as well as they do that I too will spend much of my time outdoors.
What are you grateful for today? And when was the last time you spent extended time outdoors?
May you walk in beauty and gratitude this coming week.
I almost forgot. One more thing I am grateful for. The bottom framed photo in the image below is by Bill Mauzy from Virginia, who saw my Pine Needle image in the Winter 2018 Shots Magazine, and offered a trade of prints. I am loving looking up from my work in my office to see this amazing zen-like print. You can see more of his work on his website here.
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