I Fell...

I didn't really fall. I have no idea where April went. Actually, I do. I started posting pics on my facebook account and let this fall by the wayside. So, probably nobody is reading it anymore. At least I haven't been bugged about it. So, here's a pic that I took that I'm thinking would make a great tattoo...

"Return to old watering holes for more than water; friends and dreams are there to meet you. " - African Proverb

Fixing It Up

Another beautiful sunny spring day. I couldn't ask for more.

I took my mom to her radiation oncologist appointment, then dropped by work for a bit to orient a new employee, and after that I went for a long walk. On that walk I found another redbud. Maybe this redbud is better shaped than the one a couple of days ago. I dunno. I fixed it up a little.

"If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in he spring and stay that way later in the fall. "

- Nadine Stair

Look

Not a lot to say here. To me, the flower in this photo is to be visually digested, not lost in a bunch of words.

"When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment."

- Georgia O'Keeffe

Cercis canadensis

You can't tell by this photo, but I thought this redbud tree was beautifully shaped. You also can't tell, but the wind was blowing like a big dog today, as well. I didn't mind because it was supposed to rain. I'd take wind and sunshine over rain and clouds almost anytime. (Especially since I played hooky from work. I pretended I was going to work, but I played all day.) The following quote really explains how the weather was today.

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:  when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."

- Charles Dickens

Front Yard Sight

This afternoon, while running up the steps to my front door, I noticed some tiny flowers growing (the bottom picture) in the front yard. How the heck did they get there? In years past, I never noticed them. Maybe I was too busy running in and out to even notice.

"Who would have thought it possible that a tiny little flower could preoccupy a person so completely that there simply was not room for any other thought..."

- Sophie Scholl

Hot Air Balloons

As I was walking today, I thought that it would be fun to just go take a hot air balloon ride...

"The best way of travel, however , if you aren't in any hurry at all, if you don't care where you are going, if you don't like to use your legs, if you don't want to be annoyed at all by any choice of directions, is in a balloon. In a balloon, you can decide only when to start, and usually when to stop. The rest is left entirely to nature."

- William Pene du Bois, 'The Twenty-one Balloons.'

Spring is Around the Corner

Today I dropped the dog off at the groomers and decided to go for a walk. I decided not to listen to my nano this morning and opted for the sounds of the great outdoors. It was quite distractingly wonderful. My first lap took me almost 30 minutes to walk - a path that usually takes me around 15 minutes when I'm on a mission. All of the birds were singing - cardinals, robins, blue jays, and a few that I couldn't identify. I was going to snap a photo of a beautiful red cardinal singing in a tree, but I realized he was too far away and would have looked like a red dot on a beautiful blue sky.

Click, click, click...I could hear the clicking in my left knee as I hoofed it up and down the trail. Occasionally I could hear a train in the distance. Squirrels and chipmunks could be heard rustling through the leaves on the ground, left over from fall. 

All of my deer friends were out. I snapped a few pics, but will spare you them since I have already posted in the past. But they might show up again another day.

I did run into a few people on the path this morning. Annoyingly enough, I passed a couple walking toward me who were together, but looked annoyed with each other. The man walking several paces ahead with a camera in hand. His wife walking behind, dressed in her matching nylon sweat suit, make up on, and enough perfume to last until nightfall. And this was baaaad perfume. I could smell it trailing behind her as I passed by, ruining the smell of the woods with spring emerging from the ground.

Even the squirrels were cute. I hate them when they are in my garden eating the veggies, but in their own backyard, they were fun to watch. 

The last two laps, I walked with a mission. Not noticing the sights around me, but focused on getting a good workout at the end. Attacking the hills, all I could hear were my keys jingling in my pocket and my shoes hitting the ground. The clicking of my knee was heard only on occasion, as my stride had shortened and quickened, decreasing the range of motion of my knee. 

I closed the morning out by going to a different path and finding a bench to sit and read. Yes, to read. Actually, it was quite nice. I don't really remember what I read, but I remember the calm feeling of being out there. What a lovely morning.

"Like a small grey coffee pot sits the squirrel." - Humbert Wolfe