Hidden

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. 

Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. 

~ Roald Dahl 

I'm missing the summer creatures!  Diving into the archives again - this one is from way back in 2o08.  I've realized that I've used this quote four times on my blog - 

but when it fits it fits :)

Everything Is Possible

Snowing On A Blue Jay

We only have this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand...and melting like a snowflake.  Let us use it before it is too late. 
~ Marie Beynon Ray 

More Snowy Bird Shots: 

Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, Dove, Mockingbird, 

and White-throated Sparrow

Linking with Wild Bird Wednesday

Let Go and Float

Today I know that I cannot control the ocean tides.  I can only go with the flow.... When I struggle and try to organize the Atlantic to my specifications, I sink.  If I flail and thrash and growl and grumble, I go under.  But, if I let go and float, I am borne aloft.

Marie Stilkind

This is one of the VERY FEW quotes that came before the picture.  I saw this quote and knew that I wanted to post it with an image that I hoped would do it justice.  This image was made in September of 2009.  

Oh, how I want to LET GO AND FLOAT! 

With Reverent Attention

Song falls silent, music is dumb, 

But the air burns with their fragrance, 

And white winter, on its knees, 

Observes everything with reverent attention.

― Anna Akhmatova

Linking with Our World

Sparrow In the Snow

Gentleness towards self and others makes life a little lighter.

~ Deborah Day

~

Sparrow in the snow

I know your feet are very cold

Little boots required

~

Gladness

I'm glad the sky is painted blue; 

And the earth is painted green; 

And such a lot of nice fresh air 

All sandwiched in between.

~ Anonymous 

~

Hiding behind the flower

A Butterfly Wing

~

Snowflakes on a Tufted Titmouse

Simply being kind brings happiness every time ...

 ~ Ian Tucker

I warned you there would be more snowy bird pics :)  

Tufted Titmouse from 01-25-13

Mockingbird Has a Snow Beak

Happiness, not in another place but this place...not for another hour, but this hour.

~ Walt Whitman

Walt was so wise!  

~

Finding Happiness

Just Outside The Door

Birds Play In The Snow

~ 

Image made 01-25-13 - 2nd snowfall of Winter 2013

Hope you don't get bored with my snowy bird pics - more will be coming :)

Linking with Weekly Top Shot

Snowflake Cardinal

Learning to appreciate the beauty that surrounds you is one of the keys to your happiness.

~ Tom Giaquinto

Image made 01-25-13 - 2nd snow of the 2013 winter season 

Mourning Dove in the Snow

...sometimes we enter art to hide within it. It is where we can go to save ourselves, where a third-person voice protects us.

~ Michael Ondaatje

Mourning Dove sitting on a tree branch in my front yard as the snow fell -01-17-13

Positive Thinking

Another image from the archives.  This one goes WAY back to July 2008.   

 Hope you are thinking Positive  Thoughts today!

 

Little Secrets

may my heart always be open to little birds who are the secrets of living

~ E.E. Cummings  

More from the archives - Hummingbird - Izaak Walton Park 

09-07-09

Christiansburg, Virginia

Survival

Dragonfly from my archives - 09-07-09

Izaak Walton Park, Christiansburg, Virginia

Feathers of the Kinglet

Take a walk outside - it will serve you far more than pacing around in your mind.

~ Rasheed Ogunlaru

In a previous post I showed you the  

face of the Golden-crowned Kinglet

Linking with Wild Bird Wednesday

Rewarded By Nature

All those who love Nature she loves in return, and will richly reward, not perhaps with the good things, as they are commonly called, but with the best things of this world-not with money and titles, horses and carriages, but with bright and happy thoughts, contentment and peace of mind. 

~  John Lubbock

Linking with Nature Notes 

Linking with Our World

Tufted Titmouse Take-off

Mockingbird Watches Me

 Keeping his eye on me!

I wonder why it is we are not all kinder than we are! How much the world needs it. How easily it is done. How instantaneously it acts. How infallibly it is remembered. How superabundantly it pays itself back --for there is no debtor in the world so honourable, so superbly honourable as Love.

~Henry Drummond

Linking with Macro Monday 

 

 

Full Of Opportunities

Our First Winter Snow of 2013 - 01-17-13

Is life not full of opportunities for learning love? Every man and woman every day has a thousand of them.

~ Henry Drummond  

You see the heart, right?  I just LOVE finding hearts made by nature!

Not only is life full of opportunities for learning love - but it is also full of opportunities to show kindness!  I wish you a day filled with LOVE and KINDNESS!

Linking with Favorite Photo Friday 

Squirrel Sweetness

So Much Truth in This Quote!

I've learned... . That being kind is more important than being right.

~ H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Linking with Thursday Favorite Things

Golden-crowned Kinglet

From Cornell's All About Birds Website:  A tiny, continuously active bird, the Golden-crowned Kinglet is most frequently found in coniferous woods. Despite being barely larger than a hummingbird, the kinglet winters northward to Canada and Alaska. 

Continuously active = hard to get a good shot!  This was the best I could do.

Image captured 01-12-13 - Bisset Park - Radford, Virginia  

Linking with Wild Bird Wednesday

A Lesson To Be Learned

~

 So little to hold onto 

yet his grip is firm 

a lesson to be learned 

~

Tangled

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes of others only a Green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and by these I shall not regulate my proportions; and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the Eyes of the Man of Imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.  

~ William Blake

Think Happy Thoughts

Squirrel Sense

We live on the leash of our senses. 

~ Diane Ackerman 

~

Paws clasped

Smelling and sensing

A human in his midst

~

Linking with Our World 

 

Get Excited Over Little Things

I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things... I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind.

~  Leo F. Buscaglia 

Image made Summer 2012 - with iPhone and Olloclip macro lens.

Linking with Macro Monday 

 

Free Reads For Your Kindle Or iPad

FREE READS = GREAT READS

I've been meaning to do a blog post about all of the GREAT FREE mysteries I've found lately - so today I thought I would get down to it.  I read most of my books on my Kindle or my iPad with the Kindle app.  I am a HUGE mystery lover - Agatha Christie being my all time favorite author.  I tend to lean toward British mysteries - not sure why that is.  So without further delay ....

 The Red House Mystery
AA Milne
Who knew that the author of Winnie the Pooh had written such a wonderful mystery? I certainly didn't! I found this as I was looking for freebies to read - and I would have paid money to read this one! AA Milne had me from the start with an AWESOME dedication to his father. From the first page I was smitten! 

Goodreads.com Review:  This droll whodunit from the creator of Winnie the Pooh sparkles with witty dialogue, deft plotting, and an amusing cast. In between taking tea and playing billiards, an amateur detective and his chum investigate their genial host's disappearance. A series of lighthearted capers ensues, replete with secret passageways, underwater evidence, and other atmospheric devices.'
Link to the FREE Amazon e-book -   The Red House Mystery 

Dr Thorndyke Mysteries
R. Austin Freeman

It amazes me how much like a "CSI" type read this is….. and this was written WAY before CSI (the TV show) was even thought about.  A bit "Sherlock" like …. and that's another reason why I love these.

So far I've read:
The Red Thumb Mark
Synopsis from Amazon.com
Before "Bones", before "CSI", before "Quincy,M.E." there was Dr. John Thorndyke. In The Red Thumb Mark valuable diamonds are missing and the thumb print of Reuben Hornby is discovered in a drop of blood on a paper at the bottom of the safe. The experts of Scotland Yard are all in agreement. It would seem an open and shut case. Or is it? For reasons known only to himself, Dr. John Thorndyke has doubts about the authenticity and origins of the evidence. Now he must make his case in open court using the latest techniques of Edwardian science to prove the innocence of a young man. Will he succeed, or will the case of "The Red Thumb Mark" prove to be not only his first, but his last case.
- Link to FREE Amazon e-book -  The Red Thumb Mark

and

The Eye of Osiris
Synopsis from Amazon.com
In The Eye of Osiris, John Bellingham, noted Egyptologist vanished not once but twice in the same day. Two years later Dr, John Thorndyke must unravel the tangled claims on his estate and solve the riddle of the missing man. Is the dismembered body who's various remains start appearing at sites across the landscape that of John Bellingham? If so, how did he die, who killed him, and as important to Dr. Thorndyke's clients, when was he killed? Using the latest techniques of Edwardian forensic science, Dr. John Thorndyke must answer these questions and bring the case of "The Eye of Osiris" to a successful conclusion.
Link to FREE Amazon e-book - The Eye of Osiris

I admit I had the Red Thumb Mark figured out quite early and The Eye of Osiris I had the "who" figured out but not the why. 

I'm currently reading Ngaio Marsh.  Are you familiar with her?   Amazon had a 4 book bundle on sale for $9.99 - so I picked it up…. and can't put it down!


EDITED:
SAD TO SAY THAT AMAZON HAS REMOVED THIS FROM THEIR STORE.  SO GLAD I BOUGHT IT WHEN I DID.  IF YOU CAN FIND THESE FROM THE LIBRARY - I HIGHLY RECOMMEND - I'VE READ THE FIRST THREE AND THEY ARE FABULOUS!


The first one is:  
Enter a Murderer
Synopsis from Goodreads.com
The script of the Unicorn Theatre's new play uncannily echoes a quarrel in the star's dressing room. And the stage drama gets all too real when charming Felix Gardener shoots his blustering rival, Arthur Surbonardier, dead-with a gun Arthur himself loaded with blanks. Or did he? How the live bullets got there, and why, make for a convoluted case that pits Inspector Roderick Alleyn against someone who rates an Oscar for a murderously clever performance.

I've finished this one and it was SUPERB!  I must admit - I've fallen in LOVE with Inspector Alleyn and with Nigel!

I've started the Second one 
Death in Ecstasy  
From the beginning it's got me HOOKED!  I'll update this post when I've finished it.
Synopsis from Amazon.com
When lovely Cara Quayne dropped dead to the floor after drinking the ritual wine at the House of the Sacred Flame, she was having a religious experience of a sort unsuspected by the other initiates. Discovering how the fatal prussic acid got into the bizarre group’s wine is but one of the perplexing riddles that confronts Scotland Yard’s Inspector Roderick Alleyn when he’s called to discover who sent this wealthy cult member to her death.

The other two (which I have not started) in the set are
VINTAGE MURDER 
Synopsis from Amazon.com
The plot centers on a traveling theatrical troupe in New Zealand. One of the cast members was a minor character in Enter a Murderer, and refers to that case early in the story.

OVERTURE TO DEATH 
Synopsis from Amazon.com
The plot concerns a murder during a village theatrical performance; Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-sharp minor plays a prominent part in the story. So does a “Venetian Suite” by Ethelbert Nevin. The murder weapon is a pistol hidden in a piano.

What you you reading??  

Limitless Potential

there is no planet, sun, or star could hold you if you but knew what you are.

~  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Linking with Today's Flowers 

Linking with Simple Things Sunday

Image made with iPhone and Olloclip macro lens 

Little Legs

No matter what the results, the act of searching will always enrich my work. 

~ Doug Dawson

Of course this shy little sparrow had to turn away the moment I took the shot on this VERY foggy morning 01-12-13.  I think his little legs are so adorable!

Linking with Camera Critters

 

Dare to Imagine

How beautiful can life be? We hardly dare imagine it.

~ Charles Eisenstein

One Tiny Heart

ob·ser·va·tion 

 /ˌäbzərˈvāSHən/ 

Noun 

1.  The action or process of observing something or someone carefully or in order to gain information. 

2.  The ability to notice significant details. 

Do you see it?

Seeing is the consequence of optics; observing is the consequence of imaginative contemplation. 

~ Ian Semple 

Linking with Photog Friday 

Discovery

dis·cov·er·y

 /disˈkəvərē/ 

Noun 

 1. The action or process of discovering or being discovered. 

2. A person or thing discovered. 

 ~

Focusing on Discovery

will I find

or be found 

~

Linking with Thursday Favorite Things

Tricolored Heron Grabs A Bite

Image Made during Vacation 2012 - Pine Knoll Shores, North Carolina

Linking with Wild Bird Wednesday

Make the Most of Today

Worth Remembering

Make today worth remembering.

~ Zig Ziglar

Find Your Focus

Find your focus by seeking all that is good in your life.

~ Lorii Myers 

Linking with Macro Monday

Broken

The wound is the place where the Light enters you.

~ Rumi

iPhone image from 01-05-13 - Bisset Park, Radford Virginia 

Linking with Simple Things

My Soul Stands Ajar

The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience. 

~ Emily Dickinson

~ 

Sometimes I get really lucky

~ 

Linking with Weekly Top Shop

 

Celebrate Creativity

Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.

~ Albert Einstein

Isn't is wonderful the amount of sharing we do in this fabulous world of blogland?  

Ruth - turned me on to a new iPhone app used on the image above called - 

"Water My Photo" - and it basically added the reflection you see.  

I think that is so neat!  Not that my image is that particularly good - but that

 someone could come up with an app that could do that!  How Creative!

Thanks so much Ruth - for passing it on!  
(this app was a free download at the time of this post)

Linking with Skywatch Friday

Woven Around the Heart of Wonder

May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder. 

~ John O'Donohue

Touch us Gently

TOUCH us gently, Time!

 Let us glide adown thy stream 

 Gently,—as we sometimes glide 

Through a quiet dream. 

Humble voyagers are We, 

Husband, wife, and children three—

 (One is lost,—an angel, fled 

 To the azure overhead.)

Touch us gently, Time!

 We ’ve not proud nor soaring wings: 

 Our ambition, our content, 

 Lies in simple things. 

Humble voyagers are We, 

 O’er Life’s dim, unsounded sea, 

Seeking only some calm clime;— 

Touch us gently, gentle Time!

 ~ Barry Cornwall

About the image:  This winter wildflower image was made back in January 2008

About the poem:  Barry Cornwall is the pseudonym for Bryan Procter an English poet.

This is my first exposure to his poems and this one has captured my heart.  

A Bit of Nutty Fun

White-breasted Nuthatch at Bisset Park - Radford, Virginia

White-breasted Nuthatch transformed into an Aquarell Watercolor with AutoPainter app

White-breasted Nuthatch transformed into Cezanne style painting with same app.

 If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.
~ Marc Chagall
 

Linking with Wild Bird Wednesday
Linking with WW Create with Joy
  
I added new "Watercolor effect" notecards to my nature store - HERE
Stop by and let me know what you think.   

Begin and Be Bold

Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise.

~ Horace

Linking with Our World