In his book Forest Bathing, published this year, Dr. Li starts off by reminding us how good it feels to be in nature. It eases our stress, gives us energy, and helps us to think more clearly. We have known about these benefits for millennia. He set out to understand, from a concrete, scientific perspective, what this secret power of trees is all about. This book is the result of his studies. The Japanese have a practice they call shinrin-yoku,…
autumn glory
November 12, 2017moving
October 15, 2017Hello dear readers! It is a gray, fall day here. In an attempt to capture some of the gloom, I spent the morning taking some photos and got a few nice ones. I do hope that you enjoy them. I am thinking this might be the kind of fall where the leaves barely get a chance to change to their magnificent colors. It was so warm late into the season that they will just die and fall off when the…
signs of autumn
October 7, 2017While I am a summer type of girl (love the heat!), I do enjoy seeing fall come on. The messiness of the garden, those gorgeous color changes, and odd wildlife behaviors enthrall me. It’s a season that is bursting with life and activity. After returning from our recent vacation and getting back into the rhythm of life, I took a few moments today to capture some of the beauty happening outside. It is unseasonably warm right now, but fall is upon…
inspiration
July 10, 2017Feeling a bit blah and creatively stunted of late, I went on a short walkabout hoping for some inspiration from nature. As we gardeners and nature lovers know, this usually is just the thing to lift the spirit. I took my camera along and here are some of the things that caught my eye. Hope you enjoy the photos. Sometimes it helps to look at things really close up… Or from a different angle… And sometimes it is all in…
spring color
April 18, 2017Is there anything better than spring flowers? We have a sweet pink dogwood tree in front of our house. I wish the blooms would last all summer! The first annuals this year – begonias from the local home improvement store. Sometimes it’s hard to know what will look good with a particular style or color of house, if one cares about that sort of thing. Ours can be kind of tough. The siding is made of reddish orange cedar planks.…
ripe & decaying
March 20, 2017I am reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Roman Emperor, 2nd century) and this stood out (Book 3, In Carnuntum): “We should remember that even Nature’s inadvertence has its own charm, its own attractiveness.” Unsure of exactly what “inadvertence” meant, I looked it up. From Dictionary.com: the act or effect of inattention; an oversight. Some examples provided by Mr. Aurelius (can I refer to him that way? seems weird…he was a Roman Emperor, for crying out loud): the way loaves of bread split open on the top when they are…
seeing clearly
January 1, 2017A foggy start to the new year. It’s late morning and the fog has not lifted. Good thing I don’t really believe in omens. It does make for some cool photos, though. Are you looking forward to the coming year? As a big fan of fresh starts and goal setting, I love spending time on new years day planning the great things I will do. Or at least hope to do. I have the usual suspects on my list…exercise more, make healthier…
security system
November 21, 2016It may not look it, but the top photo is of an apple tree. We had ordered 3 apple trees earlier this fall from Stark Bro’s Nursery and Orchards. They arrived last week and we got them into the ground just before snow started falling. Thankfully, just a very light snow that did not last long. We tend to have a large number of deer that roam through the place, which prompted the uber-protection that the trees have received. Their trunks…
a little further south
April 4, 2016While spring is just arriving here, we enjoyed the greenery and blooming trees this weekend during a visit with my family, who are a bit south of us. Ah, nothing like spring flowers! I believe that this particular tree is called a Redbud; however, if anyone knows differently, please do share in the comments. We were so fortunate to see such a beautiful day.…
