March 31

Girls wearing dresses, yellow rubber boots for the outdoor egg hunt, a hat, 

forsythia and pussy willows. 

It must be Easter!

Can you find the red Easter egg hidden in one of the photos?

 

Enjoying the last of it. (the white stuff)

Happy Easter, everyone!

SUN!!!!!

slushy sunset

What you don't miss about New England!

snowy sunrise

March 19. Snow again.

Stony Brook

Do you have a place that you imagine when you are trying to find calm?  When you want to channel all that is right with the world, or just a feeling of deep peace? I used to always imagine an open hilltop in Canada or a cozy cabin on a lake with a familiar mountain view.  I still think about those places but have come to realize that a little brook in the woods within walking distance of my house has nestled itself deep into my soul.

I have walked the woodland path to get there for over thirty years now.  I first walked it with a boyfriend who I eventually married.  I walked it with my mother.  I walked it with a baby in a backpack, and then another.  I have walked it with  small children who spent hours just playing at the side of this stream, watching, collecting things and getting very wet.  And there has always been a dog with us who swims  no matter how cold the water and leaps up onto the board walk and shakes a spray of water all over anyone who is close by.

The path to get here is a tough one to do in the snow.  Ice forms and the footing is slippery, so I walk on the roads in snowy weather and then graduate to open fields where snow melts first.

On Sunday, I returned to the woods with the wonderful feeling of being BACK!  Back to the soft pine needles under foot, back to the towering pines overhead, back to the little bridge over Stony Brook free of ice now.  Back to the glittering waters of Beaver Pond visible through the trees.  This may be one of the best things about the change of seasons; to take your cue from the natural world. To pay attention.

Dripping water

The sound of spring. 

Clear skies today!

March 8 Snow Storm

Morning

Evening

A snow storm is nice when it comes at the end of the winter. We had a real storm yesterday, not a blizzard, not a crisis, just snow all day, like in the old days. We got over a foot of snow which fell quietly all day.

 It's a good bye storm. 

You can enjoy it,  revel in the brightness everywhere, shovel out your car this one last time and know that spring will prevail. 

Although there have been branch breaking storms in April. This is New England after all.

front hall still life

Lady's Slipper, Wild Orchid, Moccasin Flower. 

All names for this wild flower that grows in our woods.

(Did you ever wonder how the street we live on got its name?)

The above painting was done by my mother. These protected wild flowers grew in her woods, too.