Now it's rain, rain, rain here in Kentucky

post #528 

        Very wet Sunday greetings to all, from under leaky grey clouds and over the swollen creeks. The electricity around here returned yesterday and the day before, and so I'm now able to be at home after 7 nights moved in with friends a half hour from here!!  I learned how to play Rummy 500 there. (Here's thanks for my beginner's luck!). I also could use my iPhone and have some internet, etc. And how wonderful to break bread together. I'm grateful to have already had my vaccine shots.

        My main political comment for today is that all politicians who can't proclaim that President Biden won the very fair and square 2020 election are in fact treasonous and willing to promote violence within our prized democracy. Most of them know that the voting fraud part is a lie, especially those as politically skilled as my two Kentucky Senators, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul. I call it rampant cynicism on their part. Simple as that.

        But we now need some "moving on to spring" photos. I grew up in Connecticut, thinking  winter was the best season.  But here spring reigns supreme. It's beautiful and wondrous, especially in the woods. I love, love, love it. 

meadowlark after a shower

tiny frog on the milkweed pod

apple orchard, near Elliottville, which is no longer there

on a bank, bluets (or Quaker Ladies)

along the creek, a favorite perch

dogwood blossoms, near my mailbox

redbuds, thicker than usual

a spring beauty

that special green covering spring brings

redbuds

dwarf iris, nearly the last one in this wooded spot

reliable announcers of spring, day after day

roadside

 

 

            There's so much to see under a spring sky. I wonder what we'll notice this coming spring after the winter we've had. I sure love the natural beauty found in these Appalachian mountains.          May we find solace in how nature rebounds every year even if it's not always everything the same as the year before or after. I hope we can better team up with nature and not just use it up.

        

         

not getting over all those daisies

post #495
          This week in the news has been hard. Alarming peaks in the virus cases. Lies and lack of taking responsibility from our so called leaders. More incomprehensible murders by those supposed to protect us. Governors who don't listen to science and who worry instead about "what will he think." Deaths that didn't need to happen. Our citizens not welcome to travel to other countries because we don't even take care of ourselves. 
           This all means also that we are held back from solving the spread of the virus enough to get back to work sooner, and to be able to hug family members, and give essential healthcare workers a break from so much sickness. 
          Through all this, I am still marveling at the daisies this year.  I haven't been able to quit taking photos. I decided to post a lot of the photos today, many whicih you may have already seen. This is both because each one speaks to me in some way but also because these flowers persevere.  Every year.  Not always this abundant, but always there.  We can learn so much from paying attention to plants and to animals. We can even learn from that to care about lives other than just our own.

          And we can try to be ready for the next crop, of black-eyed susans, now blooming where before there were daisies......

         Please be safe, and, if you want reassurance about why masks are worthwhile and very important, seek out the essay by my daughter's friend, Lisa Jensen Thomas.  The title of her well written words is I've Been Sick for 100+ Days, and You're Making Me Sad. It's on Facebook.
         Believe in masks, and help heal our hurtin' world.

more redbud at last, mostly

post #486
          I am not always here in April, and the redbuds are not always as spectacular as they were this year. But these trees call to me every year. Here's the second collection of spring flowers and their companion redbuds. 
        I feel compelled to share these earlier photos of this time of year. I seek to affirm and honor that 1) change happens, and 2) there's reliable evidence that things renew every season, just as the terrible time we currently experience won't last forever. Of course there will be changes as life turns closer to normal, but there will be redbuds next spring for sure.

apple orchard, ringed with redbuds.

rue anemone, in the forest -- and a shout out to Channing and Amy who both, separately but at the same time,  jolted my memory for the name of this early flower that is easily missed if you don't get there in a timely manner

It's actually harder to get a photo like this than might be expected...

bluets, also known as Quaker Ladies....

dogwoods IN the woods, and along the edge of fields

Every year I look forward to when this section of Mauk Ridge looks like this.

special sight, early morning, this time of year, along my road

now some photos from a visit in Winchester, Kentucky, in 2019

evidence of the wondrous way the blooms emerge from the branches

            I may add a photo or two in the next few days, but for now this is my testament to a tree that grows where it wants to, often on the edge, an old friend who shows up to announce spring. I appreciate their showy selves this year particularly, when so much sadness and confusion greets us each day. I trust we all have the perseverance to do like a tree, to try over and over and again to do the best we can.

Earth Day, April 22, 2018

post #383
       Busy day today -- starting with time in the woods with my daughter and granddaughter. There are some flowers, but not as many as usual, and the trees feel late as well -- not much greenness yet.  It was a rough cold long winter. It seems to me that the world climate struggles to make the many adjustments that are part of the honest-to-gosh climate changes that are happening.

      A few photos from a day that was supposed to be cloudy (and therefore better for photos) but today was, in the end, pretty sunny. Still, it was a good way to spend Earth Day.

starting out, with the two dogs

a loyal Murry moment, by R. 

T. leading the way

wood betony, yellow, along the path, surrounding a single bluet

       

Actually, there were a lot of fiddle heads (new fern leaves) but we didn't pick any to eat.

There were not many trillium out yet! These are white ones, kind of basic, always lovely.

wild yellow violet

photo by R of a mayapple, with its flower still just a tease in the center

photo by R., happy hikers

A girl's gotta keep up with her recording and notes while out in nature.  Does anyone recognize my college reunion hat? now belonging to a better head size than mine? T. prefers the bow in front.

boots in the creek

I was trying for a photo of her upside down so it might look as if she had lost her top two teeth instead of the bottom two.... I know, crazy of me, and I didn't quite get the look I had in mind. That's what I get for trying to pose a photo!!

           So, another Earth Day has come and gone, and I still can't figure out why it's so hard for some people to accept that climate change is happening and could be less of a mess if we'd all pay attention and take responsibility for our one and only world. Is it really so hard to imagine what could happen if we don't rise to the occasion? Soon? Please, everyone, think about it with an open mind.