An altered look about the hills;
A Tyrian light the village fills;
A wider sunrise in the dawn;
A deeper twilight on the lawn;
A print of a vermilion foot;
A purple finger on the slope;
A flippant fly upon the pane;
A spider at his trade again;
An added strut in chanticleer;
A flower expected everywhere ..."
I used to walk these paths in my homeland, I knew every nook and cranny.
Nowadays, it's all about driving everywhere, we miss out on so much life around us.
I think of this Beatrix Potter quote often, and smile.
“Thank God I have the seeing eye, that is to say, as I lie in bed I can walk step by step on the fells and rough land seeing every stone and flower and patch of bog and cotton pass where my old legs will never take me again.” ~Beatrix Potter
I'm grateful today for blue skies and sunshine, eighty one degrees of the stuff, begging me to spend the afternoon pottering in the garden.
Weed-pulling has begun, and grass-mowing is scheduled.
Two portly kitties are at my side rolling in the sweet Spring grass, not a care in the world, oblivious to all the turmoil.
Life goes on......
This Sunday at 2 am our annual clock fiddling takes place once again.
An hour forward to Daylight Savings Time, payback for that extra hour of sleep, we enjoyed so much back in November.
Spring is not far behind, just twelve short days, what a lovely thought...…
Whilst we slept Monday night, a monster was lurking.
Beginning in the western part of the state, by the time it had reached Nashville it had swelled to an F3 tornado, sporting 150 mile per hour winds, and rapidly moving east.
Our county borders Nashville's county, and the tornado barreled down Interstate 40 destroying everything in it's path.
25 lives have been lost, scores unaccounted for, schools, businesses and homes destroyed.
The monster continued on it's path for 51 miles, and developed into an F4 with sustaining winds of 165-175 miles per hour.
We are one of the lucky ones, with no damage or injuries, but ooh, it is so hard to be grateful, when all around our little city, people are hurting.
The turnout of volunteers and agencies is incredible, it will take some time, we will rebuild, but for now it is one day at a time neighbor helping neighbor.
Your prayers would be greatly appreciated.
#Tennessee Strong.
I was up with the larks this morning, awakened by the sound of rain pelting against the windows, long before the morning light itself had appeared.
As much rainfall as we've had in the past couple of months, our Spring growing season, should be a healthy one.
No dried-up soils here.
" The best kind of rain, of course, is a cozy rain.
This is the kind the anonymous medieval poet makes me remember, the rain that falls on a day when you'd just as soon stay in bed a little longer, write letters or read a good book by the fire, take early tea with hot scones and jam and look out the streaked window with complacency. "
Our days are getting noticeably longer, darkness now falls around 5:30 each evening.
Mother Nature sent us sunshine today, sixty five degrees worth of the stuff, encouraging us to break out of our cabin-fever mold, and delight in pottering around the garden.
The Robins are in abundance, busily pulling the earthworms from the moist soil, the nests are getting feathered, the Pussy Willow buds are awaking.
Daffodils are waving their sleepy heads in the noon day sun.
Not long now.
Soft, wet snowflakes, blanketing the ground, cocooning us in a world of silence.
No accumulation, it's as if Mother Nature took her powdered sugar shaker, and gave the landscape a sprinkling.
Magical.
