Sunday by the river - after the rain

Last Night the Rain Spoke to Me

Last night
the rain
spoke to me
slowly, saying,

what joy
to come falling
out of the brisk cloud,
to be happy again

in a new way
on the earth!
That's what it said
as it dropped,

smelling of iron,
and vanished
like a dream of the ocean
into the branches

and the grass below.
Then it was over.
The sky cleared.
I was standing

under a tree.
The tree was a tree
with happy leaves,
and I was myself,

and there were stars in the sky
that were also themselves
at the moment
at which moment

my right hand
was holding my left hand
which was holding the tree
which was filled with stars

and the soft rain -
imagine! imagine!
the long and wondrous journeys
still to be ours.

-Mary Oliver, from What Do We Know

Dance

Dance till the stars come down from the rafters
Dance, Dance, Dance till you drop.
~W.H. Auden



Another session of dance draws to a close

Earth hour

A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.
~ Proverb

From the nature centre on Friday morning. The last photo we think are footprints from a small mink or possibly a very young river otter.

Sunsets

Softly the evening came.
The sun from the western horizon
Like a magician extended his golden want o'er the landscape;
Trinkling vapors arose;
and sky and water and forest
Seemed all on fire at the touch,
and melted and mingled together.
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow












Nobody of any real culture, for instance, ever talks nowadays about the beauty of sunset. Sunsets are quite old fashioned. To admire them is a distinct sign of provincialism of temperament.
~ Oscar Wilde

Winter shots - nature

Winter shots - kids