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Gleanings From Living Long

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Category: Nature

  • Maybe We Are Flowers!

        If you could be a flower, which would you be? One of the brave first bloomers that tempt winter to send a late frost? How about a grand amaryllis, delicate on its long stem, yet stately and beautiful? Or perhaps a lily that lasts only a day?   Would you prefer to bloom in…

  • Hammock Mate

      Sitting in the hammock isn't usually considered hazardous duty, but there is no reason to take needless chances. So, out comes the camera and off you go onto the nearest branch. Oh, you don't like that one? Then the second choice - go! (Must be related to cats.) (Might be going to a beach fire,…

  • Stormy Weather

        A huge burst of energy stormed its way through here on Saturday. The darkest clouds, huge winds and sideways rain scrambled the air.   It was the day of the night when I tried on someone else's shoes, attempting to understand how her life might feel.   An impossible task, especially if the…

  • Who Decides?

        Sunset behind them, daybreak ahead… What will tomorrow bring? More kindness, less worry, sunshine or rain?  

  • All’s Well

    Sunset sentry, overlooking the St. John's River.   All's well with the world.     Great Egret, Welaka, Florida

  • Our Lives are Blooming!

      There is a saying that -  "Life is what happens to us while we are busy making other plans." Life in all of its messy perfection, like wildflowers by the side of the road that escaped the boundaries of the perfect garden years ago to create another version of Eden.   Here it's wild…

  • Vine to Wine or Before the Beginning…

      Everything has a beginning a middle and an end. Sometimes the beginning is obscured by secrets or lies, but it is still there, somewhere.   The middle is the fine tuning of intention. If you are a grapevine, it's simple. For humans it's fraught with trial and error. The middle contains the maturing as…

  • Pollywogs Coming

        The day after this close encounter there were little discs, about half the size of a dime, floating in the pond. Several days later, they were swimming and the little pond was host to hundreds of tadpoles or pollywogs!   After a few weeks… back legs, then front legs, and the tail disappears.  …

  • Sage, It Doesn’t Make You Wiser…

        Sage has been around since ancient times and used for a variety of ailments over the centuries, including in a potion to ward off the plague.   In this window box is one of the ornamental varieties of Salvia.   Modern Chinese herbalists have found that salvia miltiorrhiza helps to prevent heart attack and stroke…

  • Looks Like…?

      "Definitely looks like his father!"     Photo by Paula Post. Shot at the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine.