A goose tale -- for Earth Day

During our walk today, we spied a family of geese in the stream. 

"What do you think, Dear? Should we get out here?"   

Meanwhile, another family of geese swims into view. 

The first family has made their decision and is on the move. 

"I dunno, are you sure we should leave? That stream was pretty nice..." 

"Okay, then, here we go! I hope no cars are coming."   

 

By now, the second family is crossing the road, hurrying to catch up with the first family. This goose couple doesn't "consult"; you can tell the one leading is in charge. 

And cars, bicyclists, and walkers all stopped to watch the families as they made their way across the road to a nearby pond. The water is always better on the other side, you know.

Sunsets & shadows

Downtown Boise at sunset, looking down Capitol Boulevard.

Magnificent evening light.... 

Medusa's "hair", branchings of arteries. neural pathways... 
What do you see?

Light of Spring

In the beginning there was nothing.  God said, "Let there be light!"  And there was light.  There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better. 
~ Ellen DeGeneres 

We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own. 
 ~ Ben Sweetland  

Someday perhaps the inner light will shine forth from us, and then we'll need no other light. 
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

As seen during a walk

A pair of swans have been hanging out here lately. But I have yet to see them together. They stay on opposite sides of the pond. 

Water globes, micro-worlds.  

From a season past... 

to the season present.

On a spring day

By the Boise River. 

It's spring fever.  That is what the name of it is.  And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! 
~Mark Twain 

Breakfast buffet. 

Fetch!

Liminal skies

We can only appreciate the miracle of a sunrise if we have waited in the darkness. 
~Author Unknown 

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky. 
~Rabindranath Tagore 

Only from the heart can you touch the sky. 
~Rumi 

Just visiting

What's all that noise? Politicos campaigning? A talk show radio host? Another Republican debate?

No, it's just geese having an outing at the park.

And after strolling around the park and enjoying a "smorgasbord" lunch, it's time to call it a day and fly away. 

Another day; another park.

Waiting for Spring

So cold earlier in the week...

But today, the temperature was 60 -- it felt like Spring.
 
Who knows what it will be like next weekend?

March is the Month of Expectation.
The things we do not know --
The Persons of prognostication
Are coming now --
We try to show becoming firmness --
But pompous Joy
Betrays us, as his first Betrothal
Betrays a Boy.
~ Emily Dickinson

Glow

The glow of inspiration warms us; it is a holy rapture.

~ Ovid

Within and without

Let there be many windows to your soul, that all the glory of the world may beautify it.
 ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I was within and without. Simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
(Unlike Mr. Fitzgerald, I don't feel repelled, but instead, enchanted and often mystified....)

I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior. 
~ Hippolyte Taine

Lines & crossings

A line is a dot that went for a walk  (or perhaps for a flight) 
~ Paul Klee 

Anticipation.... 

Their paths crossed only briefly, each of them unaware. 

Fits to a T? 

The essence of drawing is the line exploring space. 
~ Andy Goldsworthy 

Birds in winter

No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
- William Blake

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.
-Chinese Proverb

In order to see birds it is necessary to become part of the silence.
- Robert Lynd

On a winter day

If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.
~Hal Borland

Ice "fossils"

When I saw these patches of ice, they reminded me of fossil imprints on rocks. This first one looks like the skull of some prehistoric being.

This could be a snake, perhaps a relative of Apophis, the giant serpent of Egyptian myth that the sun god, Ra must fight every evening on his journey through the Duat. Ra and the other gods must win the battle each night, or the sun will not rise the next morning.

And this may be a fish-like creature, perhaps a forerunner to the great fish that swallowed Jonah.

What "ice visions" do you see?

Four birds

This way...

 And that way...

And as they say:
"Birdes of a feather will flocke togither."
~ John Minsheu, The Dictionarie in Spanish and English, 1599

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

― Emily Dickinson

Holiday aftermath

Gingerbread gone wrong

Once going by too fast, time is now perpetually stuck at 8:15

 

The wind was rapidly increasing as I took this photo. Thunder rumbled, lightning arced through the clouds. We barely made it in the door before hail and sleet burst from the sky. It must have been a post-holiday phenomenon; thunderstorms are rare this time of year.