A Shiny New Year - 2016!

Pop the cork on this New Year.

Drink deeply.

Let the bubbles tickle your nose.

Savour each moment.

Live!

May you be surrounded by warmth, love and light.

Happy 2016!

Christmas Gifts

This Christmas...

Let the world know Peace

Let the sky be full of Hope

Let our hearts overflow with Love

Wishing a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday to all my blogger friends.

Gone To Seed

Seeds are marvellous mini-miracles.

To look at them, one would never suspect

that inside each tiny package,

a seed,

dry and wrinkled,

some no bigger than a grain of sand,

Could contain the power of

Transformation!

If you didn't witness it with your own eyes

would you believe it at all?

To begin this transformation

the plant must first come

completely undone.

It drops this gift-wrapped,

blueprint of itself

to the ground

Where it must remain

buried deep

in the dark

earth

Until the light

calls it back

to life

Miracles occur in the most unlikely places.

~

There are more miracles

in a square yard

of earth

than in all the fables

of the world.

And So It Begins

Winter is playing a game of peek-a-boo with us,

you know how it likes to keep things fun.

A little frost here to decorate the flowers that remain,

a dusting of snow there that disappears by mid-day...

It knows how downright unenthusiastic we can be

when it first arrives so it likes to keep us guessing,

is it here or is it not?

We become increasingly grumpy and morose

as everything around us shrivels up and dies

once the cold temperatures set in.

Our colourful landscape is stripped bare,

reduced to black and white.

And the plants that once brought us such happiness and joy?

They've turned into scary-looking monsters

that shiver in place and haunt our garden.

But, this does happen every year.

Don't lose heart.

In no time, once our eyes lose all memory

of what vibrant spring, summer and fall colours look like,

all that white fluffy stuff

will appear more and more beautiful.

Of course, there are also winter survival strategies:

You can always pretend it's just not happening.

This liar seagull is splashing around

in -1 C sun-dappled water,

but you'd never know it.

Because it's swimming in the balmy waters

of Lake Denial!

Dreaming of warmer temperatures

and soft, flower-scented breezes works well too.

If you do it right
by the time you wake up
it'll be Spring again!

But, probably the best strategy of all

is to find your inner glow,

(we all have one.)

Surround yourself with the warmth and light
of family and friends.

Laugh, complain,
be daring and go outside.

There's plenty to enjoy about every season.

The In-Between

As the season comes to an end
Autumn begins her graceful departure

and for a moment there is a stillness in the air

Geese consult about their migration with noisy honks

and conduct practice flights overhead

Leaves collect on the ground

swept into giant mounds by the increasingly chill wind

Sweaters become everyday items

As all of nature prepares for what lies ahead

And the stillness lingers

Bulrushes poke through the grasses
stiff and silent
ignoring the holes that open up in their furry hides

Small creatures take shelter

While fields of wildflowers borrow the glow of the
setting sun to burst into golden flame

and the stillness lingers

Autumn dips her brush in the
best colours of the season
and gives us something to remember
all winter long.

Autumn Rays

Is there such a thing as a solemn autumn?

How can that be

When trees decorate themselves with baubles

And colourful clouds

Swirl among their branches

When water glows with lights

From somewhere

Deep within

And lemon-yellow leaves wave to us

from crisp blue skies

The forest may darken earlier in the day

But lights are left on for us to find our way as the sun

Wishes us goodnight

And the Autumn winds play a song

Only the heavy-headed grasses can hear

There is no time for solemn days

When the world is painted gold.

A Haunted Halloween

They say, that in the midnight hour,

on the Eve of Halloween

The disembodied have the power

To wander seen, unseen

Up the wizened oaks

And across the fairy stream

They glide through still

And solemn places

With pale, cold, mournful faces

To dream...

Wishing you a happy, h a u n t e d Halloween!

Text modified from Midnight and Moonshine by William Motherwell.