Postcards from Home

25 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by judithar321 in environment, health, inspiration, pets

Tags

Today while swimming laps in the pool, I began thinking about postcards. Because I didn’t write to her at all the first summer I went to overnight camp, the following year my mother tucked seven plain manila postcards that she addressed and stamped into my foot locker. My friend Martha used to send me a postcard while on her yearly June vacation. I loved getting her missives from Greece or Spain. But, alas, like Martha’s free time (she’s a mom now), postcards have gone the way of most hand-written communications, and become a rare and precious thing.

While I’m not filling up anyone’s mailbox myself this summer, below are a few snapshots — postcards from home — that chronicle my summer so far.

The ferns on our morning walks have been exceptionally beautiful this year.

These "ghost flowers" or "Indian pipes" added an air mystery, and were difficult to capture In fact,

These “ghost flowers” or “Indian pipes” were a rare find and it was difficult to capture their eerie presence with shaky hands.

And the local fungus reminds me of an old-fashioned ruffled collar.

A local fungus provided an air of ruffled formality.

We’ve had some summer visitors.

Kola and Moxie joined us for the 4th....

Moxie and Kola dropped in for the 4th….

We’ve been enjoying lots of healthy goodies from our local organic farm.

And Karina makes every walk an adventure — especially given her new talent for finding muddy waters to roll in. On this day, however, she was her clean, dainty self.

More postcards and at least one big adventure to come.

Rain on Stone

18 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by judithar321 in environment, inspiration, meditation, pets

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Emily Dickinson, nature

Last night’s rain swept everything clean. This morning, Karina and I headed to the woods. As we entered the trail we were both startled by a wild turkey that took off in a rush of feathers a few steps ahead of us.

As we walked further into the woods, my racing heart quieted. The sound of the wind running through the trees enveloped us, broken only by a single robin belting out her sunny tune.

We stopped to admire how the rain had stained the stone, and then we stood there and listened for a long, long time.

SOME PEOPLE KEEP THE SABBATH GOING TO CHURCH

By Emily Dickinson

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –

I keep it, staying at Home –

With a Bobolink for a Chorister –

And an Orchard, for a Dome –

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice –

I, just wear my Wings –

And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,

Our little Sexton – sings.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman –

And the sermon is never long,

So instead of getting to Heaven, at last –

I’m going, all along.

Weather

17 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by judithar321 in environment, pets

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

nature, snow, winter weather

Yes, it is beautiful after the first snowfall. And so quiet you can almost hear a feather being ruffled by the wind.

And I finally got a clear shot of this hornet’s nest that I picked out through the trees last summer.

But it’s cold, too. This morning when I walked into the kitchen the thermometer read 1 degree Fahrenheit. “It’s dangerously cold,” Paul said. Karina and I waited for the temperature to rise into the double digits.

When it hit 10 degrees, I began layering on the thick socks, long underwear, heavy jeans, sweater with turtleneck to pull over my nose, down coat, hat, boots, gloves — and then I took a step and felt something sticking into my foot. Oy….

It wasn’t so bad once we got out. No wind, and our neighbors John and Marie, assisted by their big, jolly lab, Yankee, had tramped out a short loop in the woods with their snow shoes.

It’s the time of year when I look longingly ahead to striding down clear pathways in a pair of my favorite shoes instead of trudging through snow and ice in my clumsy-but-warm winter boots.

For now though, I’m taking a page from AA: One day at a time.

(Good thing, too, because when I lifted my head to look outside after hitting “publish,” more snow was starting to fall.)

Nature Girl

21 Saturday Sep 2013

Posted by judithar321 in adult children, aging, environment, inspiration, politics, writing

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

350.org, Bill McKibben, environmental activism, great horned owl, nature, Oil and Honey

Never mind what the dream was about. It could have been about so many things: my mother-in-law’s passing last month; my kids being far away; my own mortality, my husband’s, the dog’s… But in the moment of the dream I felt as deep and raw a sense of loss as I’ve ever experienced in waking life.

But then I woke up, and poof, the feeling evaporated. Soon after that, I realized that I haven’t heard the owl this summer. Usually I’ll hear him in the wee hours through the bathroom window, a muffled hoo, hoo, hoo, hoooo floating softly over the grass between our house and the woods.

His (her? their?) call has been a comfort these past 20 years. I first heard the owl a year after we’d moved in while I was in the midst of cancer treatments. That summer and fall, I found the nature here—the owl hooting from the woods, while I lay awake, feeling my poisoned blood pulsing in my abdomen, or a pheasant strolling across the lawn on a sunny afternoon when I was waiting for test results— to be comforting omens.

Being in nature grounds us. And, in fact, it’s good for writers. “Nothing coaxes jumbled thoughts into coherent sentences like sitting under a shade tree on a pleasant day,” writes Carol Kaufmann in last week’s New York Times, “With a slight breeze blowing, birds chirping melodies, wee bugs scurrying around me and a fully charged laptop or yellow legal pad at hand, I know I’ll produce my best work.”

I also heard writer and environmental activist Bill McKibben speak this week about why we must fight to prevent approval to complete the Keystone XL pipeline as one step in solving our climate crisis. He is so smart, so sensible, so inspiring, I hope everyone will join me in reading his new book, Oil and Honey: The education of an unlikely activist.

Nature is one of the things that truly matters to all of us, whether we know it or not. It is what binds us to this earth. We can’t live without it.

Now when I think back to that dream, I don’t worry about my mortality or my family’s — or even the owl’s, who if it was the same one, lived a good, long life.

No, I worry about the end of nature as we know it, and how little time we have to halt its decline. Not succeeding would be the greatest loss of all.

CSI Concord

25 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by judithar321 in environment, inspiration, meditation, pets

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Birders: The Central Park Effect, Concord MA, coyote, nature, possum, wildlife

It’s another snowy Monday in the neighborhood. The weekend’s storm only left a few inches, but it’s sticky stuff. It clung to tree branches and blackened their trunks with its wetness.

How weary I am of winter and how I long for a change of scene. But no matter what the weather, Karina needs her morning walk. So when we set out this morning, I tried to focus on the lovely details.

I stopped to take some photos, and Paul and Karina went on ahead. While hurrying to catch up, I was stopped in my tracks by a gory remnant, left right in the middle of the trail. (Warning: the next two images may disturb sensitive readers.)

Paul told me that he had spotted a set of lone paw prints, unaccompanied by human boot tracks. A coyote must have captured the unlucky possum.

As we continued our walk, I thought about all the activity that happens in these seemingly peaceful woods when we are not here. There must be some wild goings-on behind the scenes, so to speak.

In these woods, as in life, there is so much mystery just beneath the surface.

And speaking of hidden worlds, I highly recommend this documentary that is showing on HBO entitled, “Birders: The Central Park Effect.” Here is the trailer.

An Icy Pause

21 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by judithar321 in environment, health, inspiration, meditation, pets

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

dogwood trees, ice, lady's mantle, lavender, nature, pine trees, Walden woods, winter weather

We woke up earlier this week to an ice-covered world. The dogwood tree outside the bedroom window greeted me looking like a cocktail hostess wrapped in a silvery sheath.

The glittery theme continued in the garden, where the lady’s mantle posed as a crystal chandelier resting on its side, and the lavender wore translucent stockings.

The driveway had a coating that was treacherous, but easily shattered like the best stained glass candy.

In the woods, it took us a while to negotiate the trail — why didn’t we remember to dig out our ice cleats?

Still, we walked. We saw tree branches, wrapped in ice, reaching across the path with ET-like fingers.

There was evidence of fairies messing with trees during the night.

And shades of Dr. Seuss.

Pine needles turned into elongated jewels.

It was as if the ice, in coating the plants, the trees, the driveway, and the trail, had also frozen time, and encased us in a cold but protective cocoon. A magic trick.

All too soon the trick was over, and time resumed its normal pace, as the ice quickly melted away.

Next week, I hope to replicate that magic by slowing down and savoring every quiet and not-so-quiet moment with loved ones. I hope you can do the same: take a breath and reflect, before we all gear up for 2013.

I wish all of you safe, happy, holidays, and health and joy in the coming year.

Shifting Gears

Tag Archives: nature

Postcards from Home

Rain on Stone

Weather

Nature Girl

CSI Concord

An Icy Pause