Nature's Living Lanterns

We enjoyed sitting on the porch in the cooler evening air last night, discussing our day, and our plans for the upcoming week ahead.

In the darkness of the woods I noticed a tiny twinkling light nestled in the tree line, and then another, and several more......
The Lightning Bugs have returned !
Most people know about Lightning Bugs, cute little flying beetles with bottoms that light up at dusk to facilitate one task all life forms are driven to accomplish – reproduction.
In Middle Tennessee, our Lightning Bugs come out once the sun is well below the horizon and produce a bright yellow green light that blinks on and off in the gathering night.
In the coming few weeks the darkness of the woods will be lit by the twinkling lights and mating rituals of the Lightning Bugs, or Fireflies as known to non-Southerners, meeting and creating beautiful luminescence together.

Close your eyes and think back to the long hot summers of childhood.
Playing outside until late in the evening, sitting on the front porch eating ice-cold watermelon slices, listening to the crickets chirp, and the tree frogs sing.
Remember catching Lightning Bugs and keeping them in a Mason jar ?
They glowed beside you all night long sitting on your night table....
Innocence and childhood going hand in hand.

The magic has returned....

Time Marches On

We've been blessed with glorious weather these past few days, sunshine and low-humidity, the two together, are rare as hen's teeth in these southern parts.

Summer days are just around the corner, farmer's markets are displaying their early crops, and school children are graduating and getting ready for summer respite.
Despite all the chaos we have endured throughout the past years, a sense of normalcy returns.
Hoping whichever little corner of the world you call "home"..... all is calm.

Purple Delight

Despite late frosts earllier in the month, the ever faithful Clematis has once again returned.

And Spring arose on the garden fair,

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;

And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast

Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.

~Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant


 

May Days

"It was the month of May, the month when the foliage of herbs and trees is most freshly green, when buds ripened and blossoms appear in their fragrance and loveliness.
And the month when lovers, subject to the same force which reawakens the plants, feel their hearts open again, recall past trysts and past vows, and moments of tenderness, and yearn for a renewal of the magical awareness which is love."

~ Sir Thomas Malory, La Morte d'Arthur

Returning

Incredible blue skies and sunshine today. Lots of the stuff, it surely feels like we are slap in the midst of summer with this 78 degree heat.

Flowers are bursting out in full bloom, a virtual rainbow of colors, each day, a new surprise.
The wild turkeys are parading their new poults, the flock continues to grow.

Pop-up storms make their way through each evening, a welcomed gesture to cool the night air.

We'll take whatever help we can get.

Those pesky 17 year Brood XIV  cicadas have returned.

Rainy Days And Mondays

I was up with the lark 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. "

~Susan Allen Toth, England For All

Easter Blessings

Wishing you  A Blessed and  Happy Easter dear friends ...

ALL I NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT LIFE I LEARNED FROM THE EASTER BUNNY

Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
Walk softly and carry a big carrot
Everyone needs a friend who is all ears.
There’s no such thing as too much candy.
All work and no play can make you a basket case.
A cute little tail attracts a lot of attention.
Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day
Let happy thoughts multiply like rabbits.
Some body parts should be floppy.
Keep your paws off other people’s jellybeans
Good things come in small sugar-coated packages.
The grass is always greener in someone else’s basket.
An Easter bonnet can tame even the wildest hare.
To show your true colors – you have to come out of your shell.
The best things in life are still sweet and gooey.

~ Author Unknown

April Showers, Bring May Flowers

 A late night thunderstorm gave us some much needed moisture
The little pond is overflowing.
Soft rainfall makes for happy flowers, and one grateful little frog.

 

🐸

 

 

 

Cold, wet leaves

Floating on moss-colored water

And the croaking of frogs -

Cracked bell-notes in the twilight.

 

~ The Pond, Amy Lowell

A Walk In The Woods

                                            Now is the time of the illuminated woods.......

when every leaf glows like a tiny lamp.

~ John Burroughs

Oak tress come out of acorns, no matter how unlikely that seems.

An acorn is just a tree's way back into the ground

For another try

Another trip through

One life for another.

Shirley Ann Guann