Using Them All

~ Having a little Fun with Color ~

The Fragrance Of Joy

The beautiful fragrance of joy is breathtaking.

― Marie Cornelio

Renewal

spring......the season of renewal when the earth sheds its winter cloak, flowers bloom, and the heart feels as though everything is once again imaginable.

~ Galen Watson 

this is a lilac bloom  

Available - HERE 

Spread Some Sunshine

Wishing you a Wonderful Day!

Seeing The World With Wonder

May you see the world with wonder. 

And may you imagine only good things.

~ Charlene Costanzo

On His Crown

Snowflakes gathered 

a mix of

Rosy and White

Listen and You Will Hear Them

"Hear blessings dropping 
their blossoms around you."
- Rumi

Spring Sings

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. 

~Hal Borland

Singing Song Sparrow

Never Stop Trying

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.

~  Babe Ruth

After MANY Strike Outs - I got very very close to the "in flight" shot that I've been trying to capture.

This may not be my "home run" - but I think I at least got to 2nd base :)

Print Available - HERE 

 

Red on the Wing

Happiness comes through doors 
you didn't even know you left open. 

~ Unknown

Snow Birds and Snow Blossoms

Downy and Red-bellied Woodpecker Sharing Nicely

Mrs Red looking pretty as the snow falls 

 

Snow on the Maple Blossoms

All of these were taken during one of our Spring Snows  

Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.

 ~ Doug Larson 

Bee Fly on a Blossom

 Spring is nature's way of saying, ‘Let's party'!

-Robin Williams

This is a bee fly drinking from a blossom (not sure what kind of blossom).  When I first saw this little bee fly I thought it was a baby hummingbird moth.  It is actually a bee mimic

More info on the bee fly - HERE  

Rough-fruited Cinquefoil

~ Rough-fruited Cinquefoil ~ 

June Wildflower 

The petals remind me of little hearts.

Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has an understanding and a forgiving heart one who looks for the best in people. 

Leave people better than you found them.

― Marvin J. Ashton 

With Wings

"You were born with wings, 

why prefer to crawl through life?” 

― Rumi

Finding Joy

 Joy is found in the simple and ordinary things of life: the smile of a newborn baby, the kiss from a sweet new puppy, and the warm sunshine on a spring day.

~  Marie Cornelio

And I would add to that - Joy is found in the Birds!

Standing Where I Am

~ Male Red-bellied Woodpecker Wing Flutter ~

Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am 

to be blessed.

~ Mary Oliver

Flying High

And I learned to wander. I learned what every dreaming child needs to know -- that no horizon is so far that you cannot get above it or beyond it. 

~ Beryl Markham

Time To Be

We need time to dream, time to remember, and time to reach the infinite.

Time to be.

~ Gladys Taber

The Eloquence of Silence

"In Silence there is eloquence." 

- Rumi

A Dream Come True

Surrender to your dreams and let them launch your tomorrow.

~ Lisa Fantino

This little Wood Duck is A LIFER for me - seen 03-16-13.

I was VERY far away so I had to crop the image closely - not as sharp as I would have liked.  Still - a dream come true!  

Tread Softly

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

― W.B. Yeats

Nourishment Of The Soul

Everybody is worthy of love, just as everybody is worthy of living. 

Love is the nourishment of your soul.

~ Osho

Carolina Wren and his nourishment - dried meal worm.

I wasn't sure if they would like the "freeze dried" kind - but they do!! 

Paint Bliss

Life in itself is an empty canvas; it becomes whatsoever you paint on it. You can paint misery, you can paint bliss. This freedom is your glory.

~ Osho

This image pretty much sums up BLISS to me

This is a Black Vulture in flight.  

Unfold Your Own Myth

Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others.  Unfold your own myth.

~ Rumi

The Original Image of this Red-spotted Purple Butterfly is - HERE

Linking with Macro Monday

Riches in Nature

To be poor and be without trees, is to be the most starved human being in the world. To be poor and have trees, is to be completely rich in ways that money can never buy.

~ Clarissa Pinkola Estés 

Refreshing

May the blessing of God's soft rain be on you, 

Falling gently on your head, refreshing your soul 

With the sweetness of little flowers newly blooming. 

May the strength of the winds of Heaven bless you, 

Carrying the rain to wash your spirit clean 

Sparkling after in the sunlight. 

May the blessing of God's earth be on you, 

And as you walk the roads, 

May you always have a kind word for those you meet. 

An Irish Blessing

Print Available - HERE 

Join The Dance

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

~ Alan Watts

Butterfly "dances" in the Ground Ivy Wildflowers.

The Artistic Print Available
Here  

 

Unfold and Expand

When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.

 ~ Brenda Ueland

Serenity

Serenity comes when you trade expectations for acceptance. 

~ Unknown
 

Coming Into Yellow

 It is a happiness to wonder; 

-- it is a happiness to dream.

~ Edgar Allan Poe

~ Goldfinch in the pines - starting to get her summer feathers ~

Print Available - HERE 

All Will Be Well

Everything that has a beginning has an ending. 

Make your peace with that and all will be well.

~Buddha

From emptiness, new life begins

  seeds are scattered

blown onto fertile ground

to rise up again

the home of

A Monarch

~ Empty Milkweed Pods whose seeds will become new Milkweed -
which is the host plant of a the Monarch caterpillar/Butterfly ~

     

Bluebird of Happiness

Indeed, this bird seems incapable of uttering a harsh note, or of doing a spiteful, ill-tempered thing. 

John Burroughs, The Bluebird, 1867

~  Heritage Park - Blacksburg, Virginia ~ 

Birds Play Keep Away

Tufted Titmouse plays Keep Away 
with a White-breasted Nuthatch

We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything, than when we are at play.

~ Charles Schaefer 

Inspired

Large or small, our actions forge our futures, hopefully inspiring others along the way.

~ Howard Schultz

Reena at Missing Moments inspired me by posting some awesome images made with DistressedFX. (iphone/ipad ap)  That is what I used on the Vulture above.

Hope you have a wonderful and INSPIRED day!   

inspirational art

View Along the Huckleberry Trail

View from Bridge along the Huckleberry Trail 
More info on this Trail found - HERE 

 When people first discover beauty, they tend to linger. Even if they don’t at first recognize it for what it is.

~ Sherwood Smith

Spring Blooms

Common Field Speedwell

A weed is but an unloved flower.

~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

This one was a hard one to ID - and I am not positive I have it right.

It grows close to the ground and is a TINY bloom.  

Harmony

  
He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the world. 
~Marcus Aurelius

Print Available - HERE 

 

Viper's Bugloss: Blueweed

There is so much beauty in the world, but you must allow yourself to see it.

― Tom Giaquinto

My trusty Field Guide to Wildflowers tells me this flowers from June to October.

This image was taken in June.  This is a Tall plant and grows from 1 to 2 1/2 feet tall. 

Immeasurable

The unknown is not measurable by the known. Time cannot measure the timeless, the eternal, that immensity which has no beginning and no end... when we try to measure something which is not measurable, we only get caught in words. 

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti


Abstract Art Print Available - HERE 

Nightshade

Before the beginning of years 

There came to the making of man 

Time, with a gift of tears; 

Grief, with a glass that ran; 

Pleasure, with pain for leaven; 

Summer, with flowers that fell; 

Remembrance, fallen from heaven, 

And madness risen from hell; 

Strength without hands to smite; 

Love that endures for a breath; 

Night, the shadow of light, 

 And Life, the shadow of death.

~Algernon Charles Swinburne

This is my first time reading anything by this author and I think I could probably read this poem for years and find something "revealing" in it each time I read it.  Sometimes it's like that .... sometimes things just speak to me... is it ever that way with you?

The image is that of the Nightshade family of wildflowers.  My Field Guide to Wildflowers tells me it's called by several names:

Climbing Nightshade, Bittersweet Nightshade and Deadly Nightshade. 

Print Available - HERE 

 

Awakenings

Awake, thou wintry earth - 

Fling off thy sadness! 

Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth 

Your ancient gladness! 

~Thomas Blackburn

 

Southern Gaura Wildflower - Bee Blossom

The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.

~ B.B. King

I'm learning a lot pouring over my Field Guide to Wildflowers 

 I believe I've got this one figured out as Southern Gaura 

also known as Southern Bee Blossom.

If I'm wrong - please let me know!

Poetry Within

 ~Red-spotted Butterfly~

There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it

~ Gustave Flaubert

I like to hope that my images depict just a small part of the poetry of nature. 


A slightly different version - HERE 

Journey with Friends

A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles. 

~ Tim Cahill

Bird Behavior

White-breasted Nuthatch letting the White-throated sparrow know that he is not very keen on sharing.  

Brown-headed Cowbird

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.
 ― Thomas Merton 

Print Available - HERE 

Brown-headed Cowbird shows off his iridescent feathers.
You can learn more about this bird from Wikipedia 
- HERE -

Red-bellied NOT Red-headed

 Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
― Thich Nhat Hanh 

Even though he DOES have a Red head - this shot shows why he's called a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

More of my Woodpecker images - HERE 

Dream and Make It So

Sky Bound

Love calls - everywhere and always. 

We're sky bound. 

Are you coming?

~ Rumi