Look who I ran into yesterday at the park..., a delightful "Earful of Waxwings.." (Bombycilla cedrorum.)
I read recently that the colorful band on their tail is dependent on the fruit that they eat,,, usually either orange or yellow...  Looking at the beautiful red berries on this Hawthorne, its a wonder their tales aren't scarlet red!  They're very busy birds, and quite difficult to photo, because of their constant squabbling, preening, gulping berries on the fly...  but oh they are so very gorgeous.. I forgive them their flighty nature..

Even though they appear to be engrossed in their feasting, they never seemed to take their kohl lined eyes off of me for a second...  and after a few more moments..., they'd had enough of me taking their photo and took off to a nearby tree...

I waited around for several minutes, being quiet and all, hoping they'd come back to the Hawthorne, but with a sudden cry of "zeeeeeeeeetttt, zeeeeeeettttt..., " from them all, they took off...  in a different direction, not to be seen again.

I feel most honored to have found such a large group of them at this time of year...  Usually if I'm lucky, I get to see them in late spring when the Indian plum tree berries ripen...  Such a surprise ..., such a gift.

Time to wander...

Today I drove across the Hood Canal to the Olympic Peninsula to pick up CG's daughter from her school...She attends a Waldorf school that is also a farm...   I arrived 15 minutes early so had time to wander the farm and take a moment or two to dream...

 I love farms and have long held a desire to be a farmer...  I dream of happy chickens, taking dust-baths, ducks swimming in muddy puddles (and terrorizing any slugs that dare to come near my vegetable and flower beds...)  I dream of having bees that drone happily all season long dancing with the flowers, pollinating blossoms in an orchard full of fruit trees.. Its a beautiful dream...

Bees loading up on pollen from the calendula flowers...

Giant sunflowers bow their heads as if too tired to 

to keep them looking sunward...

Gorgeous orangey red Tithonia - one of my 

favorite summer flowers...

Even though a little blurry, I had to include this sweet 

little marmalade colored friend... he was a little 

reticent about having his photo taken, and made a 

dash for the shadows after I took my shot...

Lost in taking photo's of the flowers, I suddenly caught sight of

my shadow through the camera lens..., I had a moment of

childish delight at seeing my shadow self..., I'm not sure

why...  When I have more time, I think I'd like to 

write more about this..., perhaps a poem, or perhaps a dream???

Do you have dreams ???

Owl Inspiration...

Tonight we took ourselves off to the movies, a treat, considering its a school night..., we've been wanting to see the film version of this book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardians_of_Ga'Hoole  since we saw the trailers for it months ago...  And oh my..., it was wonderful... The animation is so incredibly breathtaking.. A must see for adults as well as children...

Owls are such beautiful creatures, sometimes at night I can hear a pair calling to each other - (though not sure what species...) And unfortunately, I do not have any owl photo's myself, but I was able to find a photo online of what I consider my favorite owl -  Barn Owl (tyto alba)

Photographer ~ Liz Noffsinger

I have another reason for wanting to post about owls, last night I came upon a new (to me) poem by Mary Oliver, in which she describes what I believe to be a barn owl as "pale angel..."  I love her poems, but this one really called to me...

The Poet Goes To Indiana ~ by Mary Oliver

I'll tell you a half-dozen things

that happened to me

in Indiana

when I went that far west to teach.

You tell me if it was worth it.

I lived in the country

with my dog ---

part of the bargain of coming.

and there was a pond

with fish from, I think, China.

I felt them sometimes against my feet.

Also, they crept out of the pond, along its edges,

to eat the grass.

I'm not lying.

And I saw coyotes,

two of them, at dawn, running over the seemingly

unenclosed fields.

And once a deer, but a buck, thick-necked, leaped

into the road just ---oh, I mean just, in front of my car ---

and we both made it home safe.

And once the blacksmith came to care for the four horses,

or the three horses that belonged to the owner of the house,

and I bargained with him, if I could catch the forth,

he, too, would have hooves trimmed

for the Indiana winter,

and apples did it,

and a rope over the neck did it,

so I won something wonderful;

and there was, one morning,

an owl

flying, oh pale angel, into

the hay loft of a barn,

I see it still;

and there was once, oh wonderful,

a new horse in the pasture,

a tall, slim being --- a neighbor was keeping him there ---

and she put her face against my face,

put her muzzle, her nostrils, soft as violets,

against my mouth and my nose, and breathed me,

to see who I was,

a long quiet minute --- minutes---

then she stamped feet and whisked tail

and danced deliciously into the grass away, and came back.

She was saying, so plainly, that I was good, or good enough.

Such a fine time I had teaching in Indiana.

Knitting Brings Quiet...

This weekend finds me at our local race track, watching as CG races in the rain...  My usual home on Wheels AKA "Petunia" sits at home, unable to start, (we think she needs a new battery)...  So I sit in  the cab of our truck and try to feel the quiet and peace like I enjoy when we travel with Petunia...

I pulled out some rich Kiwi green yarn that I'd brought with me and began to knit a toasty shawl for the cooler weather.   Once again I discover what profound and therapeutic effects working (creating) with colors can have on my temperament.  The repetition of the gently clicking needles and the beautiful colored  yarn passing in, over, through, off, puts me in a state of quiet relaxation, almost meditation... whilst in the background I hear the sound of cars careering  around corners and screeching their tires in an effort to stay on the track in the deluge of rain.  Its good to be warm, its good to be dry...

I discovered this poem I'd like to share by Pablo Neruda.  I love how his words sweetly describe the specialness of being given a pair of hand knitted socks, that are "as soft as two rabbits..."

Ode To My Socks ~ by Pablo Neruda

(Translated by Robert Bly)

Mara Mori brought me

a pair of socks

which she knitted herself

with her sheepherder's hands,

two socks as soft as rabbits.

I slipped my feet into them

as though into two cases

knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin.

Violent socks,

my feet were two fish made of wool

two long sharks

sea blue, shot through

by one golden thread,

two immense blackbirds,

two cannons,

my feet were honored in this way

by these heavenly socks.

They were so handsome for the first time

my feet seemed to me unacceptable

like two decrepit fireman,

firemen unworthy of that woven fire,

of those glowing socks.

Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptation

to save them somewhere as schoolboys

keep fireflies,

as learned men collect

sacred texts,

I resisted the mad impulse to put them

in a golden cage and each day give them

birdseed and pieces of pink melon.

Like explorers in the jungle

who hand over the very rare green deer

to the spit and eat it with remorse,

I stretched out my feet and pulled on

the magnificent socks and then my shoes.

The moral of my ode is this:

beauty is twice beauty,

and what is good is doubly good

when it is a matter of two socks

made of wool in winter.

Red Leaves..., Fall Song...

Red Maple Leaves in September

Look at these leaves.., already turned to their blood-red Autumn hue, look at the sky, cold, white as a starched linen sheet, like it could snow.  Early this year, but beautiful all the same.

Fall Song ~ by Mary Oliver

Another year gone, leaving everywhere

its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply

in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island

of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

Except underfoot, moldering

in the black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries ---roots and sealed seeds

and the wanderings of water.  

This I try to remember when time's measure

painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing

to stay ---how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever

in these momentary pastures.

I have been watching the birds..

We worried so much about missing the birds at our old house..., but there was no need, I have been watching birds for the last week come in droves...  We now have six feeders up and I am having to fill them up everyday.

Norther Flicker

Downy Woodpecker

Busy little Nuthatch

I realize that I could quite easily, stop, do nothing but watch these little feathered wonders all day long..., what a blissful day that would be!

I have been slowing down for the last week, is it my age?  I ask myself..., but I think more than anything its the change in the seasons.  Today is Fall equinox..., so its official no more summer... With the recent changes in temperature, and general feel of all things outdoors,  I find myself wanting to go to bed sooner, get up later, and I feel hesitant to start the day...  

If I was a bear, I would be getting ready to hibernate...  

Friendship...

Dazzling September Flowers

I recently came upon this quote, "Friends are God's way of apologizing for our families," written by "unknown,".... Whoever this unknown person is/was, clearly knew what a true gem a good friend can be..

I have been truly blessed in my lifetime to have a few very special, close friends, and I wouldn't be where I am today without them.  Their love, support and honesty have bolstered me through the good, the bad and the ugly, and thankfully continue to do so.

Today I had the pleasure of spending some time with an old neighbor friend of mine whom I'd met when we moved into our first house, we'd both just had our second babies,( both girls) and instantly became good friends to each other.   Over the years, we saw one another go through struggles and joys, spent easter in the company of each others families, ate meals together, experience family loss,  book groups, illness and  each others divorce...

We lost touch when they sold their house and she moved away to a nearby town...,  over the years I would occasionally bump into her at a local restaurant or the grocery store.., standing with shopping carts straddling the isles trying to catch up on each others news - very unsatisfactory, but it was what we had in the moment...

Today however she came to lunch and got to see our new home... She pulled up in the driveway, grinning from ear to ear...here she was,  the same sweet person I'd known, counted on as confidante, friend and sister... just like all those years ago...  the years had not changed a thing. I believe that when we are with real friends, there is a great opportunity for deep healing and self kindness, as they reflect to us the love of who we truly are.

Life is good.