These woods....

The other morning we had a very frosty one. 

The sun came out a bit and showed off the workings of cold and nature...

Look how sporty Jed looks!!

Ready for some duck hunting bud?

Another perspective on wabi sabi...the beauty of the decaying...acceptance of the imperfect...

I have a never ending fascination with moss...thick, thin, feathered, velvety, fluffy, trailing...

Remnants of the old farm that used to be here many years ago...

And then there are These Woods.

Growing up in Victoria I had a love for Garry Oaks.

There ecosystem is restricted to a small area on the Southeast part of our Island.

Nowhere else in the world do these gnarly, craggy ones grow...

The very bones of them in the winter, the loving dappled shade in the summer.

But for eighteen years when I lived in Sooke I had a relationship with the coniferous

evergreen forests that surrounded our house.

The deep, tall woods of the west coast are a spiritual place for me.

A free and open place of worship where quite often I was alone with my thoughts and prayers.

So now I think among these different beings...some tall, some short and scrubby. 

But a place like this is my tall drink of water in this sad and beautiful world.

I can sit and wonder and grow along with the moss and the lichen.

Invent my own stories of the things I find.

Like this simple wooden cross I found lying at the base of a big oak.

I wondered...what lies beneath?

So I propped it up against the great tree, stood up some of it's meaning again...

So I will wander these wiry meadows now.

They are new kin to get to know.

I find comfort when I drive up our road, past the subdivision, entering our block

 where the oaks still line the sidewalk-less street. 

Some parts around here were left to be.

For that I am grateful.

Just about there....

It is a clear, cold and frosty morning here on the West Coast.

I am up and out in my robe and slippers marveled by who's

hands have come in the night.

 They have swirled and twirled with the moist air and magically 

left crystal strokes of feathery designs everywhere!

Gingerly I make my way across a VERY slippery back deck to

find the rails sparkling with the new dawn...

So many stories could accompany this blog title!

But I'll begin with just a few...starting with

The New Year.

2017.

What will be waiting at the end of that road, 

the one we have so much hope and anticipation about in these

fading days of 2016?

Like this beautiful morning, I start new and clear...

Things will change slowly right along those which come quickly, 

leaving us to once again to adjust, accept and roll alongside life whatever it may bring.

I am not one for resolutions but it's natural to feel the closure of one year and the start of the next.

In our parts spring comes early and we begin to see signs of it already.

The earliest of the flower bulbs have already begun to sprout

through the moss at the bottom of the oak trees.

This coming month will see two VERY big changes in our lives.

One will be Tom's new knee!

It will be a bit more complicated than your average run of the mill knee replacement

(he blew out his whole knee in a motorcycle accident when he was 16)

 and recovery will be tough and long but

we hold big hopes that it will ease some of the difficulty he's

had for the past several years.

Maybe by summer he will be able to come for walks again

in the fields near our house. 

The second big change I will keep a secret for a few more weeks!

Lets just say that new knee will come in handy!!

I hope you all had a lovely holiday season and here's

wishing you beautiful, peaceful, healthy blessings for the coming year.

Good morning 2016...

A sparkly frosty morning to bring in the New Year...Georgia has already been flitting about...

When the land is covered in a dusting of ice and the winter sun hovers along the treeline, 

it's me and the camera out to marvel at the cold hand of Jack Frost...

The term 'Wabi Sabi' in Japanese has no real translation but basically means 

perfection in imperfection, irregular beauty, things in their simplest, most austere and natural state...

The art of everyday life...

And on this first day of a New Year I am welcomed by all and any small thing out here in the cold...

I stare in awe...  

   

 ...at  the creative transformation these tiny things have undergone through a cold clear night... 

Many lie dormant ...

Asleep in frozen grace...

Our lives...are but a little while,

so let them run as sweetly as you can,

and give no thought to grief from day to day.

For time is not concerned to keep our hopes,

but hurries on it's business,

and is gone.

                                      ~Euripedes~

What is life?

It is the flash of a firefly in the night.

It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.

It is the little shadow which runs across the grass

and loses itself in the sunset.

~Crowfoot~

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy,

if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you,

if the simple things in nature have a message you understand,

Rejoice, for your soul is alive.

~Eleanora Duse~

Hello...welcome to a new day!

Patience, my dears...

We've had some gorgeous clear days and even more clear nights.

We had a friend come out from the city to stay a few days and 

we stayed up into the wee hours playing cribbage.

A few times during the course of the evening we stepped outside

and Derrek remarked that the sky looked like a planetarium!

The sky so black and the stars like fairy lights strung above us.

In the morning the van windows were painted frosty masterpieces...

 I don't know what phenomenon is at work to develop such intricate designs...

 ...but life's beautiful little  mysteries astound me over and over!

 Icy chrysanthemums etched in silvers and greys...

 Whirls of cloud shapes...

 ...the sun comes out to enhance the hues and add some sparkle...

 A little warmth from my mitten and I can create a tiny porthole to the sunrise!

 Meanwhile, inside the house I'm enjoying a dreamy summer bouquet...

 ...perks from working at a flower shop...

 ...leftovers from last week...

 ...still gorgeous for at least a few more days...

 ...summer will come before we know it...

 ...keep dreaming...

...in the grand scheme, it really is 'just around the corner'...