Laine's Blog, Thinking Out Loud

Lucky...

 

 

Lucky shot!

or

The Visitor.

 

 

 

 

 

Pipe Vine

 

I thought this might be the flower of the eggplant, because of the color,

but it turned out to be a Pipe Vine,

which is host to a certain caterpillar,

which turns into a beautiful

Swallowtail Butterfly!

 

 

 

I will let you know if we get the butterflies!

After last night's rain, the larger caterpillars are missing in action.

But there are still some little ones.

 

 

 

 

 

A Last Time For Everything...

 

 

Last call, last chance
Last song, last dance
Sometimes you just don't know when that's gonna be
Hold me baby, give me a kiss
Like tonight is all there is
Cause there's a last time for everything

 

It's a Brad Paisley  song that someone mentioned in a piece I found somewhere,

and it stuck with me.

Can we really cherish our days and nights like it's the last time?

 

Why not?

This is our life, our time, our blessings,

why not cherish them always?

 

 

 

"Last Time For Everything", by Brad Paisley.

Sunrise at Vilano Beach, St. Augustine.

 

 

 

Smiling Faces

 

 

Happy Flowers!

 

 

 

 

 

Laine's Orchid and daisy!

Castillo in the Sand

 

 

Isn't that sweet?

No, I didn't do it!

 

 

 

 

Replica of the Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine Beach.

April Flowers!

 

 

Hibiscus and Morning Glory on a morning bike ride through the neighborhood.

So many beautiful flowers blooming these days

and wonderful scents...

Ginger, Magnolia, Jasmine...

Hmmmmmmmm...

 

 

 

 

 

A Spider and Her Web...

 

Spiders and webs, what a brilliant idea!

How did Mother Nature come up with these things?

 

This spider is so curious that it is difficult to discern its head from its toe.

There are so many secrets in life to unravel, it's astonishing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reprinted from Laine's Blog, 2012.

Simplicity

 

 

Here today...

gone tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Deck flowers, April colors, 2017.

 

 

 

Good Morning!

 

 

Good Morning!

Actually,

this was a good night!

 

 

 

 

 

Sunset at The St. Augustine inlet.

Just Wonderin'...

 

Worrying...

It's quite a distraction...

and then,

well...

 

 

Wonder on the other hand,

it will lift you up and up and up!

 

 

(I wonder what I will worry about today?)

 

(I worry what I will wonder about tomorrow!)

 

Just wonderin'.

 

 

Here's a line from one of the poems in Mary Oliver's book of poems,

Blue Horses:

 

...It must be a great disappointment

to God if we are not dazzled at least ten

times a day.

                                                       The poem is Good Morning.

 

 

 

This post was first published in March 2015. The Captain rests at Disney and the sunset was off my deck!

 

Lichen...

 

 

You learn something everyday,

even at my advanced age!

 

lichen (li ken), n. an organism composed of a fungus

in union with an alga, commonly forming patches on rocks and trees.

 

What I didn't know was that "alga" is the singular of algae!

 

algae (al je), n.pl., sing. -ga (ge), any of numerous

one-celled or colonial organisms that contain chlorophyll

and usu. flourish in aquatic environments.

 

How about that?

 

 

 

 

 

Vail Point Park, St. Augustine.

Cat Meets Armadillo

 

A possum at the door last night reminded me of this one...

 

 

 

 No worries!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reprinted from Laine's Blog October, 2011.

Nestlings...just like us?

 

Nestlings are so very vulnerable.

This little one endured severe thunderstorms, only to be stalked by a crowd of noisy crows

and survived that too.

 

Nature provides lots of drama for her creatures.

Perhaps we all have a nestling within us...our inner hatchling.

 

It's the part of us that has come through the storms

and evaded or slayed the scary monsters -

sometimes with grace and other times not -

but through it all have come to trust the deep instinct to grow stronger and to thrive.

 

Spring is upon us - a good time to acknowledge our strengths

and our connection to the fragile new arrivals.

 

After all, we were once just like them.

 

 

 

 

 

Baby Robin, reprinted from Laine's Blog, March 2012.

 

Sunny Days

 

A sunny day with my young friend,

and a walk in the park.

Sometimes the trees just take my breath away!

 

 

Yes, there are grander trees in St. Augustine,

but with the sun shining through this relatively young Oak,

it was a delight.

 

 

 

 

 

Lighthouse park, with Aden. 3.16.17.

To My Northern Friends

 

 

Stay safe, my Northern friends,

it will soon be over.

 

 

 

 

 

Valentine's snowstorm, Baltimore 2014.

Be Kind To Your Friends in the Swamp...

 

Be kind

To your web-footed friends,

for a duck may be somebody's Mother.

Be kind to your friends in the swamp,

where the weather is very very damp....

 

The End!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Muscovy Ducks at Treaty Park being very friendly.

 

 

Venus

 

The thing is that Venus has been so bright in the Western sky lately

that she takes my breath away.

 

 

It is difficult to take an interesting photograph of a little white dot of light,

so I borrowed this moon shot with Venus, taken in 2013.

 

But seeing it is the best!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Venus is at it's brightest now, while the moon is waning and visible in the late night or early morning sky.

 

 

Beauty, Love

 

 

Beauty in the world is experienced by the individual as feeling.

 

If we look more closely at beauty and try to describe more carefully the beauty of the world,

we do not arrive at aesthetics, but rather love.

 

Is not beauty the particular way in which the world expresses itself as love?

 

...love, the interior presence of beauty.

 

 

 

 

From the book by Robert Sardello, Love and the Soul, Creating a Future for Earth.

 

Stillness

 

 

Movement in the stillness,

more in the woods behind us,

squirrels and owls,

and under the surface of the water.

 

A balance is struck at the end of the day

as the light fades

and we rush to beat the darkness home.

 

 

 

 

Sunset at Vail Point on Moultrie Creek.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Pigs Fly

 

 

 

Bless us all

on this

unusual

inauguration day.

 

And Bless America.

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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!

 

 

 

If I Were a Dolphin

 

If I were a dolphin I would have to make a lot of changes -

move much more quickly,

eat a steady diet of fish (without the taco!)

talk more, laugh more,

and play more everyday!

 

I'd have to get rid of ALL of my things 

and stop worrying about anything!

 

Hmmmmmmmm...

 

 

 

 

 

Dolphins in the Chesapeake Bay, Cape Charles, Virginia.

This post first appeared in Laine's Blog in December, 2012, and then again in 2013!

It's For You

 

 

Is this the party to whom I am speaking?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resident Lizard at Grover's Gallery!

 

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!

 

 

 

Egret

 

 

Let the beauty that you love,

be what you do.

 

                                 Rumi

 

 

 

Birds of a Feather...

 

Fish together!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vilano Beach, this morning!

Human, Stork, Egrets.

 

 

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.