Laine's Blog, Thinking Out Loud

Getting Grounded...

 

Grounded in springtime -

planting and potting and cleaning!

And the Cicadas are due any minute now!

We called them the 17 year Locusts.

 

Magicicada.

 

Living as nymphs, 8 feet below the surface,

feeding on tree root sap in underground bunkers,

(and I thought they were sleeping!),

17 years later,

they emerge through tunnels that they create,

to shed their skins

and reveal the insect that we are familiar with,

the Cicada.

 

 

The males sing their hearts out

waiting for a reply from a willing female.

 

5 weeks later they are gone - deceased- it's over -

except for the thousands of eggs left behind in the bark of their preferred trees.

These eggs become larvae that fall to the ground

and become the hardy nymphs that live quietly underground

for a very long time!

 

Yes, the "song" can be annoying, deafening even,

but it is truly fascinating to ponder such a life

and to witness its Grand Finale!

 

Grounded indeed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

©2021 Laine Quinn

Photo of a bog on a farm nearby!

 

 

Old Cypress

 

Wisdom, Strength, and All the Patience in the World...

Old Cypress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Simons Island, Georgia, 2015.  

 

 

 

Reprinted from Laine's Blog, 2015.

 

Old Cypress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Simons Island, Georgia, 2015.  

 

 

 

Reprinted from Laine's Blog, 2015.

 

Survivors

 

 

Lots of trees down in the Parks

after the Hurricane.

 

But lots more survived!

 

 

 

 

Vail Point Park.

 

 

Surf's Up...

 

Some really good surfers out this morning,

riding the incoming tide.

 

 

 

 

 

Vilano Beach, 1/12/17.

Fallen Trees...

 

 

How many years did this tree stand taller and taller

before a mighty wind took her down?

My 4 year old friend is dwarfed in the cave of her roots,

with his bag of treasures -berries, leaves and feathers.

 

 

 

 

Aden and Oak, Guana Tolomato Matanzas Estuarine Research Reserve trail. That's a mouthful! Wonderful park with a full size Right Whale in the nature center.

Souls Are Mended...

 

 

Where waves break,

souls are mended.

 

 

 

 

 

Reprinted from December 2013.

 

A New Year

 

Anything can happen!

And hopefully we will all be here at the end of it!

 

Throw caution to the wind?

Why not?

It might just be the thing to do.

 

Happy New Year Everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

Sunset, Porpoise Point, St. Augustine, 2016.

 

 

Winter Solstice

 

 

 

The longest night,

the shortest day,

the light returns,

slowly,

but it returns!

 

Celebrate the dark,

Celebrate the light!

 

Happy Winter Solstice!

 

 

 

 

 

Rolling In...

 

 

Christmas day is almost upon us in much the same way as a beautiful fog bank on the shore.

Sneaking up on some of us,

while others have seen it coming for months.

 

Oh, well, it will burn off before you know it

and all will be well.

 

 

 

 

Just a little bah humbug to go with the fog bank engulfing Vilano Beach this morning!! Happy Holidays!

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Grateful for the usual suspects...

dear friends, family, cats, dogs,

blue skies and the moon and stars,

but especially for my time spent in nature.

Time that pulls me out of my head

and back to this beautiful complex world.

I am grateful for that.

 

 

Lights reflecting on the bay by the Bridge of Lions

remind me of sitting on the end of a pier, a long time ago,

and hearing the water lapping gently on the shore,

while being hypnotized by the rippling reflections of the lights from across the way.

 

One of my very favorite things!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

 

Super Moon...

 

 

Our Moon was closest to us last night...

could you feel it?

 

She climbed out of the clouds and was beautiful for the rest of the night.

The tides were crazy high

and the cats were just crazy!

 

Lots of folks out to see the "Super Moon."

 

 

 

 

 

Full Moon over the Harbor in St. Augustine, November 14th, 2016.

 

Life Goes On...

 

 

Ducks still swim in ponds and the sky still reflects beautifully on the water.

The sun rises and sets and the moon too.

 

And so we must also,

rise and set with the rhythms of life.

 

 

 

 

 

Ducks at Treaty Park where a historic treaty was signed with the Natives and subsequently broken.

St. Augustine, Florida.

 

 

Sunset

 

 

Anchored driftwood-

the top completes the bottom

on reflection.

 

 

Yesterday's sunset, yesteryear's tree...St. Augustine Inlet, Vilano Beach.

 

Wild Ocean...

 

 

St. Augustine inlet, Saturday morning...

waves going in all directions!

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, by the way, Laine's blog turns 5 this month!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The Beach...

 

There is a ton of debris and the St. Augustine Beach Pier

is still closed,

but we are survivors,

we, who love the beach...

 

The Atlantic's back porch...

Yoga? Anyone?

 

It's still dangerous to swim, but people were swimming

and surfing and kite surfing.

 

Bless us all.

 

Summer...

 

In St. Augustine,

summertime has been extended...

indefinitely!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Live Oak with tire swing along the marsh of the Matanzas River.

Illusions

 

 

Mountains and valleys in microcosm...

the eroding beach has its own beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Augustine Beach; an astronomical high tide and a stiff North East wind. 9.16.16.

Tidal Pool

 

 

St. Augustine's tiny skyline in the distance

on a warm summer morning

promising

rain.

 

 

 

Vilano Beach at the inlet.

Related articles

Paradise?

The Perfect Wave

The Perfect Wave

 

 

On a day like this,

you can see the wave of energy

underneath the water

rippling toward the beach

like a friendly giant

flexing its mussels.

 

 

 

 

 

St. Augustine Beach, August 2016.

(Just a reminder, HUGE Garage sale at Butterfield Garage, lots of great art at great prices! 137 King Street.

Paradise?

 

 

The Bahamas?

Maybe.

But here in St. Augustine we have the best beaches!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bahamas, and St. Augustine Beach, July 2016.

 

 

 

What the World Needs Now...

 

 

Connection...

with our natural world,

with the beauty that is all around us,

and with each other.

 

Love

and

Kindness

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guana Tolomato Matanzas Research Reserve. Ponte Vedre, Florida.

Summer Solstice

 

 

Yesterday was the first day of summer,

and here in St. Augustine it was a perfect summer day-

clear skies with occasional clouds,

temps in the mid 80's,

and a soft breeze.

 

Later the Full Moon rose large and bright  over the river or ocean or road,

depending on where you were.

 

A perfect day.

 

Appreciated, enjoyed and needed...

 

 

 

Guana Talamato Matanzas Research Reserve.

A Walk in the Woods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Words...

 

 

 

 

 

More From The Turtle Pond...

 

The whole fam-damily...

 

 

Daddy too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birds of a Feather...

 

 

Roseate Spoonbills.

Oh, and a white one.

And a duck.

 

Pals on the edge of the turtle pond.

 

(There's nothing more uncynical than being good to one another.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related articles

Face it! Birds Have Expressive Faces Too.

The Great Egret

In A Hurry?

In Honor of Poetry...

 

 

A Favorite Poem

 

For the Anniversary of My Death

By W. S. Merwin

 

 

Every year without knowing it I have passed the day   

When the last fires will wave to me

And the silence will set out

Tireless traveler

Like the beam of a lightless star

 

Then I will no longer

Find myself in life as in a strange garment

Surprised at the earth

And the love of one woman

And the shamelessness of men

As today writing after three days of rain

Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease

And bowing not knowing to what

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Found at the Poetry Foundation, along with this...

 

Merwin was once asked what social role a poet plays—if any—in America. He commented: “I think there’s a kind of desperate hope built into poetry now that one really wants, hopelessly, to save the world. One is trying to say everything that can be said for the things that one loves while there’s still time. I think that’s a social role, don’t you? ... We keep expressing our anger and our love, and we hope, hopelessly perhaps, that it will have some effect. But I certainly have moved beyond the despair, or the searing, dumb vision that I felt after writing The Lice; one can’t live only in despair and anger without eventually destroying the thing one is angry in defense of. The world is still here, and there are aspects of human life that are not purely destructive, and there is a need to pay attention to the things around us while they are still around us. And you know, in a way, if you don’t pay that attention, the anger is just bitterness.”

 

 

 

 

Anxiety...

 

Do flowers ever experience anxiety?

 

 

Well, probably not the poppy!

(or would it be just the opposite?)

 

Nahhhh.

 

 

 

 

Poppy field of one on my deck!

 

Wild Wind

 

After so many days of a wild wind...

 

 

 

No surfing today.

 

 

 

 

St. Augustine Inlet, April 17, 2016.

 

 

Aldebaran

 

 

And the smiling moon!

(Last night)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Deborah Byrd's Earth and Sky, I could identify the red star, Aldebaran.

It's Happening

 

Again!

 

 

Sea smoke.

 

 

 

 

 

Cold air meets warmish water and voila, sea smoke!

Thanks to David for sharing this beautiful phenomena in the cold hours after sunrise, Sunday morning, January 24th, 2016.

St. Augustine Beach.

 

Related articles

Sea Smoke

Foggy Days

 

 

Warm weather passing through.

Cooler air on the way.

Raining now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Silhouettes at the beach, St. Augustine Beach, Florida.