The mist rolled in from the fields in great silvery waves, swallowing everything in its path. Sea, sky, land – nothing was spared. I sat upstairs, watching from my window as the fog consumed the world, and wondered why, if the curse was broken, everything continued to fade away.
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
And now, a story in four little sentences:
A ring of gnarled oaks encircled an ancient house on a lonely hillside. Their tangled arms clawed the sky in supplication to the night, begging her to stay, to keep them hidden from the blinding brightness of the day. But when at last Dawn broke over the horizon, their leafy robes burst into flames, and they rained droplets of fire as the morning star watched from on high.
Afterward, when the sun had adjourned its heavenly travels and night fell once more, the trees wept in their lover’s cold embrace and wondered why, when the air turned crisp, she always let them burn.
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
Today, I send my darling baby boy out into the big, wide world. Next year his little brother, Thumper, will follow him, but I don’t want to think about that just yet. For now, I’m just trying to get through today…
Dearest Cricket,
I cannot believe you’re starting kindergarten today. It seems like only yesterday that we brought you home from the hospital, home to the proudest big brother and sister this family has ever seen. It seems like only yesterday that you started walking, started talking, started sleeping through the night.
It seems like only yesterday, but of course, it wasn’t.
It was six years, one month, and twenty-six days ago. Hardly yesterday, and yet it doesn’t seem like it was so very long ago. How the time flies!
You looked so grown up this morning as you headed out the door in your new school clothes. Your rockin’ Ninja Turtle backpack looked almost as big as you as we walked down the driveway to meet the bus, and your hand in mine felt so very small.
But I know you’ll be fine. You’re in good hands. You have a fantastic teacher and a wonderful school, and I know you’ll have fun. I know you’ll talk my ear off when I pick you up tonight. I hope you’ll stay excited about school, because today is the first of many first days for you, my boy, and I hope they’ll all be as much fun as this day. I hope you’ll make lots of new friends, the kind that will stay with you for thick and thin through the rest of your life.
Most of all, I hope you’ll never forget that no matter how old you are, you will always be my little Cricket. I love you, buddy.
Love,
Mommy
How did you handle your kids leaving for school?
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
Over the summer, we had a potted impatien out in front of our office. It was a lovely thing, and when the temps turned colder, we brought it inside. But sitting just inside the door as it was proved detrimental to its health, and it withered.
One of my coworkers brought it inside and set it near the window in our coat room. She’s got a much greener thumb than I have, and decided to try nursing it back to health.
Last week, we noticed a bloom. A couple days later, there was another one. This morning, I counted four or five, and those are just on the side of the plant I can see – the side facing the window appears to have a few more blooms on it.
Now that we’ve got a bit of snow on the ground, it’s a treat to see something so bright and different amid the white.
(c) 2014. All rights reserved.
Living in a rural area is nothing if not fantastic for capturing wonderful moments in the life cycle of nature. As evidenced by my deep and abiding love for skyscapes, I’ve got no shortage of inspiration for nature-based images. And since it’s hard for me to choose just one, here are several!
These are only a handful of the nearly two thousand pictures I’ve taken of the world around me this year alone. I feel blessed to live in such a beautiful place.
(c) 2014. All rights reserved.
Living in the country can be a lonely thing, which is why I was initially worried about living out in the middle of nowhere again (okay, I had other concerns, too, but isolation was a biggie). This fence post (and the barbed wire wrapped around it) marks the end of our yard and the beginning of the field next door.
It’s a solitary place, our little farm, but I find it relaxing, and peaceful. Sometimes a little solitude is all you really need to soothe your inner demons and gain perspective on things.
(c) 2014. All rights reserved.
Happy farm boy is happy. 🙂
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Seymour as happy as he was when we moved to our farm in the spring. He’s been looking for an acreage since we got married and now, five years later, he’s finally got one.
I was less interested in moving to the country than he was, but it’s been a lot different than my last experience of country life. I feel much more relaxed than I did in town, even though things like getting the kids to piano lessons were much easier when we lived in town.
Still, he gave town a try for me, so now I’m giving the country a try for him. Because that’s what you do. And no matter where you go or what you do, it’s who is beside you that counts. 🙂
(c) 2014. All rights reserved.
I love lazy Sundays. And since I’m feeling a bit lazy today, I don’t know what to write here other than I can’t believe it’s November already.
Enjoy the pretty, pretty pictures! Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have more to say. 🙂
(c) 2014. All rights reserved.
That’s right, it’s All Hallows’ Eve. For the first time in a very long time, we didn’t hand out candy tonight. Not that we ever had many kids stop at our house before, but since we’re in the country now, it seemed rather pointless to buy candy for trick-or-treaters who will never stop.
This is also the first year we took Cricket and Thumper trick-or-treating. I found a Scooby Doo costume for Thumper at a local secondhand shop, and Cricket went as his best pal, Shaggy. Miss Tadpole was a goddess, and Bubbles wore his football uniform, a Rebel football player one last time (this year, anyway). He went trick-or-treating with his dad, though, so I’ll have to wait a year to get a picture of all four of them together in their costumes.
What do you do for Halloween? Do you hand out candy, or take the kids around, or both, or neither? Don’t forget to check out Charnele’s blog and see what she’s up to on this spooky holiday. Happy Halloween! 🙂
(c) 2014. All rights reserved.
The photo ops on Saturday lasted into the evening with a beautiful sunset (for a pretty morning shot, check out my Instagram feed). I was getting supper ready when I noticed that the trees on the western edge of our yard looked almost like they were on fire, so I headed out with my trusty phone camera and snapped some pictures.
Surprisingly, the boys behaved while I was outside capturing the sunset. As a matter of fact, the only bad thing that happened was that I ended up with some puncture marks on my tummy, thanks to Miss Opal. Apparently, she thought I was the perfect cat tree because she climbed me more than once and my thin T-shirt was no match for her tiny kitty claws.
Oh, well – she’s too cute to stay mad at for long. 🙂
(c) 2014. All rights reserved.
Suddenly they all died. The end. 