The moon is still gracing the sky when I am walking a little before sunrise.

The glorious sun is making its daily entrance

on the only time THIS day will ever happen!

A rose needs no other name

but if you wish to describe the varieties…

Various neighbors are nurturing these beauties.

Our own roses are not yet blooming.

Soon ours will also be peddling their glorious scent and sight!

Meanwhile…

Here come the cherries….

…and the first blooms on our new lemon tree!

And the sun greets on another new day

I once opened a fortune cookie

to find the following message

on that tiny slip of paper

“A ship in harbor is safe,

but that is not what ships are built for.”

(apparently attributable to John Shedd)

~>-X-<~

I have never forgotten that statement.

~>-X-<~

Safety is an honorable principle.

But it remains true

that we must

be willing to take risks,

which are always inherently unsafe,

in order to achieve

to accomplish

to create

to explore

to discover

to invent

to share

in fact, really,

to DO at all

~>-X-<~

At some point,

we must hold our breath

and say,

“Here goes!”

or we will never know

what might have been

achieved.

~>-X-<~

Playing it safe

could be dangerous.

The irises keep calling me

to come enjoy their splendor

They strike an irresistible pose

They primp and preen and glimmer

They put on quite a show these irises

enough to make one wonder

Where are they getting their instructions?

Pretty sure it all comes natural.

BONUS PIC

For all who ventured this deeply into the tale of the sirenic irises.

I was delighted to attend a retirement luncheon (not mine, yet) the other day

in an ACTUAL restaurant

I mean, inside

maskless

with other patrons

mere feet away

’twas a true delight

PLUS

free hand sanitizer

at the end of the counter

The citrus blooms are fragrant

they attract the busy bees

I close my eyes and listen

to them buzzing ’round the trees

before too long the fruit will grow

bright orange spheres a-plenty

too many for our household

come pick your one and twenty

They are tasty, juicy, sweet, delicious

we can hardly eat them fast enough

and all the neighbors thank us

when we bring bags full of citrus stuff

And the irises have made their stand

they are lovely, tall, and proud

they are gathered ‘neath a palm tree

in dappled shade they’re bowed

they seem happy gathered there

drinking in the sun

communing with the nearby plants

bringing smiles to everyone

There you are

the sights, the smells, the sounds

of a garden growing, thriving, blooming,

bringing peace

singing joy

whispering aahhhhhh….

Last week we drove up to Yosemite National Park. We live about an hour and a half away. Always an amazing adventure filled with sight after sight of stunning natural beauty. Actually, I’d say “beauty” is absolutely putting it mildly. Like… seriously mildly.

Half-Dome in the distance; El Capitan on the left a bit closer. Yes, there was still snow.

Pretty sure this is Horsetail Falls.

Driving thru the Valley, we are surrounded by gorgeous huge trees and mountains.

Horsetail Falls from another angle. Also, notice the pillar of rock rising up from the face of this massive granite mountain. You can see its shadow.

The sun was setting as we drove down from the mountains.

Cell tower and trees. Fuzzy because, well… phone camera and moving vehicle.

And the full moon was rising in the east.

There seems to be a lot of interest in promoting plant-based diet regimens these days. This blog post would fit comfortably in the plant-based category; but I am not sure how much of what is pictured here is edible, healthy, or nutritious. Maybe the geraniums?

This is a shrub that is planted all around the parking lot where I work.

Our orchids still look scrumptious. There’s a bit of Dexter the pooch in this shot.

Magenta geraniums in our front garden.

And these lovely pink geraniums, too!

This succulent is hanging on a wooden fence.

We all hear that we should stop and smell the roses. It is true. We should breathe deeply, look around us, and enjoy the loveliness of nature. Every. Day.

inhale, exhale

breath of air

vibration

frequency

timbre

strumming, plucking, pounding, blowing

rhythms and pitches

captured and arranged

layered, lengthened, lovingly labored over

unison, harmony

consonance, dissonance

the possibilities are endless

with a large but finite

collection of tools and sounds

music is central

to who we are and what we are

our movements, our sounds, our perceptions

define the music we feel

the music we make

the music we share

we are made of music

we live and breathe as music

natural sounds

all around us

are music

when sounds are organized

we attach memories to them

and every time we hear those sounds

we remember

we sing

we dance

we hum

we smile

we close our eyes

we weep

music lives inside us

music is the air we breathe

inhale

exhale

inhale

I am reblogging this post from Mitch Teemley a) because I like it (but then, I like all of Mitch’s posts; well, okay, most of them); and, more important, b) I want to introduce all o’ y’all to him in case you have somehow missed the bottomless wit, sweeping prose, rotund poeticism, unsmirking smirkaliciousness, and irrepressible aplomb of this globe-trotting internet maven.

Seriously though, in all seriousness, and I am seriously being serious right now: I’m pretty sure you’ll like his work. And he is not paying me to say that. At least not yet. We haven’t gotten that far, so far. Probably won’t, either. But, yes.

Right, then. I’ll just share this now.

Mitch’s Big Epiphany in London

Let me know what you think!

A phenomenon in the sky above my town a couple of days ago.

Light

Startling Light

in the sky, hovering above my town

A shining presence descending

Ancestors waiting

Another light glowing

across the sky

Light greeting Light

Street art on the tail of the iron horse, behind the chain and the barbed.

Old brick, stained glass, stairs in the roofline.

The Light above The Door, casting a shadow.

The Same Sky

Wherever we are in the world

we are living beneath the same sky

as all our brothers and sisters

all over the world.

The same moon glows above us

and same sun warms us

The same sky displays its wonders

all day, every day

for us to gaze upon

and enjoy

Clouds in the sky above and trees helping us to breathe below.

My grapefruit tree has been abundant again this year, and this mockingbird seems to be enjoying the day.

New growth drinking in the light and air and moisture.

Another shot of those mighty clouds, because who can resist?

After the sun has set…

…and LONG after the sun has set…

Garden lights help us avoid tripping hazards!

The phrase “beneath the same big sky” can be heard in Cynthia Weil and James Horner’s song “Somewhere Out There”