6-22-06-- Thursday Virginia countryside “behold the plant within the seed, enchanted form, as yet unfreed. growth gently pushes root and shoot, forming leaves, and flowers, and fruit. gaily adorned with colours fair, ornamenting earth and air. so develops, so unfolds all that once its heart did hold.” -- f. ruckert
6-21-06-- Wednesday-- Virginia mountains all of us, by christy barnes “may calm warmth work in us, deep light shine through us, the water’s power sound in us and the ground’s strength live in us. we are all journeying, we are all singing, we are all weeping. we know each other as deeply as we can see. if I do not know you, I am blind or you are bound. let my warmth thaw your bonds. create my eyes with your light. silently and together we are all journeying: like the rivers underground, like trains through the tunnels, like stars through the evening. let us look at each other and know it.”
6-18-06-- Sunday
father's day brunch in the making
in honor of all fathers and their children and their children's children.
"a grandfather was walking through his yard when he heard
his granddaughter repeating the alphabet in a tone of voice that
sounded like a prayer. he asked her what she was doing. the little
girl explained: "I'm praying, but I can't think of exactly the right words,
so I'm just saying all the letters, and God will put them together for me, because He knows what I'm thinking."
-- charles b. vaughan6-12-06-- Monday
pardonnez moi while I add 2 more photos for Monday (egads! that makes 3!) there actually was quite a bit of drama around this bluebird house in the afternoon.
a male/female couple hovered around it a bit, he came with twigs in his beak and then 2 other males came and the 3 males got in a tiff over the house (female?).
here's one bluebird staking his territory on the house.
the rope that the following picture shows the bird using as his perch is just above this fellow.6-12-06-- Monday-- here's one guy hanging from the rope above the bluebird house. will keep you posted on the outcome.
"The population of the Eastern Bluebird declined seriously enough in the past century to reach critical status by the mid-1900s.
The decline was due to:
1. Habitat destruction (loss of fields and nesting cavities in split-rail fences)
2. Pesticide use
3. Nest predation by House Sparrows and European Starlings; both of which are non-native species introduced by humans
Fortunately, the species was rescued by a network of birding enthusiasts who erected nesting boxes for Bluebirds, with close monitoring necessary to prevent House Sparrows from nesting in them. They remain threatened, however, with competition still prevalent from other species (for e.g. Tree Swallows, which are a native species and which also nest in cavities) and in certain states of the US they can still be difficult to spot. It is worth noting that due to the increase in their numbers in the past few decades, they are not protected under the CITES or U.S. Endangered Species Act."
-- from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia6-5-06-- Monday
"bees carry their pollen in small baskets on their hind legs. when full, they're almost as large as a match head. the pollen in a bee basket might be light yellow if gathered from plantain weeds or dark gray if gathered from wild blackberry blossoms. you might also see her abdomen extended beyond the length of her wings, meaning her honey sacs are full of nectar that she's sucked from plants."
"a worker bee may visit up to 1,000 flowers in one trip that lasts three hours or more."
-- "time for bees" from MaryJanesFarm magazine, summer 2004
"it takes honeybee workers ten million trips to gather enough nectar to make one pound of honey."
-- the secret life of bees5-26-06-- Friday- more hay bales.
have created a new gallery for hay bales. see gallery on my home page or go to:
http://butterflites.smugmug.com/gallery/14969355-23-06-- Tuesday "we have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken... the whole human family is bathed with an element of love like a fine ether. how many persons we meet in houses, whom we scarcely speak to, whom yet we honor, and who honor us! how many we see in the street, or sit with in church, whom, though silently, we warmly rejoice to be with! read the language of these wandering eyebeams. the heart knoweth. the effect of the indulgence of this human affection is a certain cordial exhilaration.” -- r. w. emerson, essay on friendship