Sunbeams on Raffia

sorting tangled strands

in the wintry morning sun

light and shadow dance

Wisteria Pods & Nest

Today I gathered the most lovely Wisteria pods ... if you could reach into the photo to touch them you'd find that they feel like the velvety skin on deer antlers. Their glorious colors are both subtle and rich in shades of gray, sage and brown. In the midst of my gathering I found the beautiful small nest sitting amongst the pods and leaves ... such gifts! 

wisteria pods

dried hard, velvet to the touch

a nest amongst them 

Penny Frogs

The other night, after it had rained all day long, hundreds of tiny darling frogs decided to hang out on the screen and glass doors! Seeing that one had made her way inside I realized the door was not fully closed. Opening the door (while making sure none were in harm's way when the door was closed properly) gave many of the froglets the opportunity to hop inside the house! What a fun scramble it was to catch them and set them free out the other door.

The Frogs Did Not Forget ~ Naomi Shihab Nye

"the frogs did not forget

how to do what they do

through the huge dry days

where were they hiding?

one might lose a tune   abandon a tradition

fall into a crack   but the frogs after the rain

were singing on six notes

outside the bedroom window's

tangle of vines

pleasure poking its throaty resonance

back into my brain" -Naomi Shihab Nye

Eyes of Change

Packing to move ...

Come along with me

shells and wings and legs and spoons

we'll go adventuring out in the country,

plant new roots amongst the 

nettle, dandelion and clover ...

With eyes of change we'll travel

the earthen roads toward home. ~sjp

Moss Garden

The other day I found, to my delight, several small chunks of moss that had blown off the roof of the apartment building where I live ... and now this moss lives in a seashell in my living room. Who knows how long the thirsty moss will stay alive inside ... but as long as it does it will be a pleasure to live with. 

"I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines." -Henry David Thoreau

Lost in the Forest : Pablo Neruda

“Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig

and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:

maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,

a cracked bell, or a torn heart.

Something from far off: it seemed

deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth,

a shout muffled by huge autumns,

by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves.

Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance climbed up through my conscious mind

as if suddenly the roots I had left behind cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood - and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent.”

 -Pablo Neruda

Pomelo Heart

Today I tore open a gigantic pomelo so as to eat it's fruit and I noticed that the first torn piece of rind was in the shape of a big heart which I set to simmering on the stove with water, star anise, cinnamon, vanilla, lemon and chile pepper (after I snapped it's portrait ~.~) and now my home smells good and spicy on this chilly day.