Second Childhood for a Tree

"It ain't over 'til it's over" Yogi Berra

"You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old." ~George Burns

A Visitor

"Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many ailments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia." ~Joseph Wood Krutch

"You cannot look at a sleeping cat and feel tense." ~Jane Pauley

Reflection

"Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror." - Kahlil Gibran

Hiding

Hiding

by Dorothy Aldis

I’m hiding I’m hiding and no one knows where; For all they can see is my toes and my hair. And I just heard my father say to my mother -“But, darling, he must be somewhere or other;” “Have you looked in the inkwell?” And Mother said, “Where?” “In the inkwell” said Father. But I was not there.
Then “Wait!” cried my mother -“I think that I see him under the carpet.” But it was not me. “Inside the mirror’s a pretty good place,”Said Father and looked, but saw only his face. “We’ve hunted,” sighed Mother, “As hard as we could and I am so afraid that we’ve lost him for good.” Then I laughed out aloud and I wiggled my toes and Father said - “Look, dear,I wonder if those toes could be Benny’s? There are ten of them, see?" And they were so surprised to find out it was me!

February Daffodils

"If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom." - Audra Foveo

McCarron Airport, Las Vegas - 39 degrees

"How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!" - John Muir

Ice Storm, the Sequel

"O, wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? ~Percy Bysshe Shelley

Winter Evening Sky

"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day." ~Vincent Van Gogh

Ice Storm

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Robert Frost

"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice. There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia." Frank Zappa

On Boxing Day

"The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers." ~Basho

Another Gulf of Mexico Sunset

"When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator." - Mohandas Gandhi

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky." - Rabindranath Tagore

"There is nothing more musical than a sunset. He who feels what he sees will find no more beautiful example of development in all that book which, alas, musicians read but too little - the book of Nature." - Claude Debussy

Thanksgiving

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving. - W.T. Purkiser

O Lord that lends me life,Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.~William Shakespeare

The year has turned its circle, the seasons come and go.

The harvest all is gathered in and chilly north winds blow.
Orchards have shared their treasures, the fields, their yellow grain,

So open wide the doorway, Thanksgiving comes again!

Waiting For His Ship to Come In

November in Cozumel.

Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think. ~Robert Henri

Cattails

Reflected here, where no one sees,

The fallen petals find their ease

And lay in tremulous rest among

The cattails and the rippling trees.

-Full Recall by Michael Rudasill

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

How old do you think I am he said

I said well I didn't know

He said I turned sixty five about eleven months ago

I was sittin' in Miami pourin' blended whiskey down

When this old grey black gentleman was cleanin' up the lounge

There wasn't anyone around 'cept this old man and me

The guy who ran the bar was watching Ironsides on TV

Uninvited he sat down and opened up his mind

On old dogs and children and watermelon wine

Ever had a drink of watermelon wine he asked

He told me all about it though I didn't answer back

Ain't but three things in this world that's worth a solitary dime

But old dogs and children and watermelon wine

He said women think about theyselves when menfolk ain't around

And friends are hard to find when they discover that you're down

He said I tried it all when I was young and in my natural prime

Now it's old dogs and children and watermelon wine

Old dogs care about you even when you make mistakes

God bless little children while they're still too young to hate

When he moved away I found my pen and copied down that line

'Bout old dogs and children and watermelon wine

I had to catch a plane up to Atlanta that next day

As I left for my room I saw him pickin' up my change

That night I dreamed in peaceful sleep of shady summertime

Of old dogs and children and watermelon wine - Tom T Hall

Quilt by Ruth Powers

http://www.ruthpowersartquilts.com/gallery.php

The Leaves

"The leaves of memory seemed to make
A mournful rustling in the dark."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Autumn

Red leaves blow in the wind

Leaving home and everything it's known behind

Barren branches wave goodbye

As the red leaves slowly die

Every flower stares and watches

As the wind takes me away

Before the sun shone upon me

Now the wind takes me away

Red leaves fallingthrough the branches

Making their way to the ground

Blowing by the flowers sleeping

No one knows the leaves are leaving

by Haste the Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3B3VV2QWCI&feature=related

Green and Golden

"And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden
I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams."
- Dylan Thomas

A Thing with Wings Running Late

"Monarch butterflies fly from Canada and the U.S. southward for up to 3,500 km and overwinter in Mexico for approximately five months without breeding. Then, at the end of March, they reach sexual maturity and survivors remigrate northward for an additional 1,500 km to the U.S. Gulf Coast states where they lay their eggs and die. The ensuing generation of adults continues the migration northwards into southern Canada and, over the summer, as many as three more generations are born. The annual migration cycle is completed when the adults born in the last summer generation begin the fall migration in late August and early September." Monica Missrie, World Wildlife Foundation/Mexico

November Comes to Lady Lane

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." -George Eliot

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all." -Stanley Horowitz