From my mother I learned to color coordinate my clothes and accessories. She was always perfectly color coordinated; head to toe, hat to socks.
This morning as I was taking a sip of the blueberry smoothie I had just made I noticed something that tickled my funny bone – my smoothie perfectly matched my shock of magenta hair and my batiked tee shirt. Oh my! Would my mother be proud? Not sure about that but I definitely qualified for over the top color coordination. So here I am, smoothie in hand –
In the midst of frantically attending to my Spring vegetable garden and yard which seem to have exploded with unruly vegetation in the last few days, I took a break to check out how the phoebes nesting in my woodshed were doing. While there I noticed a glass jar with a Cecropia moth cocoon in it that I had carefully placed on a shelf in the shed in the fall…and forgotten while it overwintered.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw something move. It was the moth in the jar, just moments ago eclosed (hatched) from it’s cocoon. I let it out and it clung to my finger. As I watched, it trembled, pumped its wings and readied himself ( I knew it was a he because of the size of his antennae) for flight. Then in a split second off he went. I gasped. Such a dramatic departure. (I’d been known to do the same in my youth.)
And there was the phoebe on the phone wire ready to devour my (forgive my possessiveness) moth. Luckily he evaded her (in feinting moves worthy of a pro soccer player) and flew away to find his perfect mate.
So blessed to be in the right place at the right time. (How often does that happen?) Not to mention if it had been a moment later that moth would have died in the jar never knowing the pleasures of finding a mate and fulfilling his purpose in life, and I responsible for his untimely demise.
Sometimes I just really need an image to meditate on to find my center again and regain my equanimity. Thank you Apple Photos for dredging this one up from my over thirty thousand photos.
Taken November 2017 9:30PM, in the Pacific Northwest
My father always said Mother’s Day was just an excuse for retailers to sell more stuff but my mother cried if he didn’t get her flowers. After he died it was my brother who always brought her flowers. Now she is gone but I am the closest to where she is buried so I bring her the flowers on Mother’s Day.
I designed this gravestone for her and my father when she died. It was made in Barre from Barre granite. The two entwined trees are from the Greek myth of Philemon and Baucis, an old couple who were hospitable to the gods and were rewarded, as they requested, by becoming entwined trees after they died. The saying at the bottom “If music be the food of love, play on…” is from Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.”
I thought the entwined trees and the Shakespeare quote fit my parents perfectly.
The daffodils are in a pickle jar. I thought that fitting as well.
And the blue skies with wispy clouds behind the stone…what luck! I can just hear my mother saying “The skies are so beautiful here in Vermont.”
Still on a froggie theme…The great migration hasn’t occurred yet, too cold, maybe tonight. Meanwhile, while we’re waiting, here are a couple of photos from my dead frog assemblage collection.
Dead frog dancingFroggie in a dish, sailing into unknown worlds
I know, pretty weird. Oh well, that’s the mood I’m in.
That’s Pashto (the language used by the Afghans newly arrived in our community) for
Happy (or Blessed) Ramadan!
“March comes in like a lion…goes out like a lamb”? Nope, whoever said that obviously didn’t live in Vermont, though it is lambing time now so in some fashion I guess.
Disclaimer! I did not take this photo but I couldn’t resist posting it.
Mud season has been particularly bad this year but there is always some beauty to be found
if you keep an eye out for it.
“April showers bring May flowers”? Nope, April showers bring amphibian road crossers.
Hip hopUnfortunately they don’t always make itDid I ever show you my amphibian roadkill collection?
“April is the cruelest month”? Perhaps but what about May snowstorms?
My front path one day in May
And the blackflies in June just when gardening season is in full swing?…
Good thing I have my black fly netting to protect me. (I rolled it up for this photo op at the Adamant Blackfly Festival)
And finally, Gut Chodesh! Happy new moon first day of the Jewish calendar month of Nisan!
coppsky 