On Butterfly Wings

Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. ~~Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Snapping Turtle

"Try to be like the turtle - at ease in your own shell."
Bill Copeland 

We saw this momma snapping turtle last weekend. She was at the side of the road looking for a place to lay eggs, dangerously close to traffic.

It's a sight that we see from time to time although I can't say it's sometime I've seen very often.

One of the wonderful aspects about rural living are the things you see in nature when you pay attention.

In The Garden

"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden."-- Thomas Jefferson

Awhile back a school chum sent me some photos taken from her area in the Annapolis Valley. I posted a few back then but was waiting to post these ones in June. I'm sure you'll enjoy these photos by Ericka Crowell as much as I do.

Two toned mauve tulips

Ericka tells me this photo reminds her of my book, Bitter, Sweet

Lupines

Earth laughs in flowers.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The earth is certainly laughing these days in Dalhousie. Lupines remind me of our trips to Lake Pleasant, to visit relatives, when I was a child. My mother always commented on the beautiful lupines growing along side the road. At that time there were none in Dalhousie. Today, we have our own.






 

The Lady's Slipper

I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.
~Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Afternoon on a Hill"

Most of us in the area grew up being told not to pick Lady's Slippers as they were an orchid and quite rare. This spring I found quite a number of them and took comfort in knowing that I could capture them with my camera, enjoying their beauty forever.

Pink Lady's Slippers out-number the white in this area

 

Robin's Nest

“If I can stop one heart from breaking I shall not live in vain If I can ease one life the aching or cool one pain or help one fainting robin unto his nest again I shall not live in vain”~~Emily Dickinson

Lilacs

“April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.” T.S. Eliot

May was probably our cruelest month here in Nova Scotia, even so, the scent of lilacs waft on the breeze.

Fungus

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.~~ William Blake

Adding character to softwood trees

These trees are on our property in Dalhousie

Some fungi growing on a dead yellow birch

Fungi make great items for crafting.

A Christmas present from my daughter the year my book was published