Tag Archives: flowers
Quietly thrilling
“It is always quietly thrilling to find yourself looking at a world you know well but have never seen from such an angle before.” ― Bill Bryson When I read these words from Bryson, I realized why I love photography so much. Through the lens of my camera, I look at things from all sorts …
The world is full
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” — W. B. Yeats Awhile back we had an interesting discussion with Boomdee in the comments after she mentioned the rabbits in her world changing colors with the seasons. Until then, I didn’t know about the Snowshoe Hare, which turns white …
It really is
“Life is like a flower. You don’t realize how beautiful it really is until you take a closer look.” — Ash Sweeney I wasn’t able to find out anything much about Ash Sweeney other than endless web pages citing quotes from him (or her) such as this one. Perhaps Sweeney is a robot, or a pen …
Power to gather
…he is happiest who hath power To gather wisdom from a flower… — Mary Howitt What is your favorite flower? That’s a tough question to answer; I tend to be fondest of whatever I happen to be seeing at the moment. But if I had to choose, the delightful …
Just too used to it
“I think life is staggering and we’re just too used to it. We are all like spoiled children no longer impressed with the gifts we’re given – it’s just another sunset, just another rainstorm moving in over the mountain, just another child being born, just another funeral.” — Donald Miller Do you ever read the …
Invariably imagined
“…it is not surprising that paradise is invariably imagined as a garden.” — Mac Griswold Autumn is upon us, with all its promise of splendor, but it’s not too late to bid a fond farewell to the green grass and vivid blooms of summer. I hope you are able to spend a few minutes this …
Created for the transcendent
“We were made to enjoy music, to enjoy beautiful sunsets, to enjoy looking at the billows of the sea and to be thrilled with a rose that is bedecked with dew…Human beings are actually created for the transcendent, for the sublime, for the beautiful, for the truthful…and all of us are given the task of …
My garden of thoughts and dreams
“In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful.” — Abram L. Urban This year, the Yorktown Garden Stroll was scheduled a month early, in April instead of May. …
Deep roots
“The old that is strong does not wither. Deep roots are not reached by the frost.” — J. R. R. Tolkien I quoted from this poem in an earlier post, but recently its timeless words have been on my mind again. I was reminded of these particular lines by the daffodils in my yard. Daffodils …
By the window
What life can compare to this? Sitting quietly by the window, I watch the leaves fall and the flowers bloom, As the seasons come and go. — Hsueh-Tou Don’t you love sitting quietly by a window? I don’t make enough time for it. I always find it calming; the combination of sunlight (or moonlight) and …
Blooming most recklessly
“Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.” — Rainer Maria Rilke I probably say this every year, but I can’t remember when I was more eager for spring. Because I was expecting visitors in late March and early April, …
Sweet remembrancers
…Thus in each flower and simple bell, That in our path untrodden lie, Are sweet remembrancers who tell How fast the winged moments fly. Time will steal on with ceaseless pace, Yet lose we not the fleeting hours, Who still their fairy footsteps trace, As light they dance among the flowers. — Charlotte Turner Smith …
The right way
“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” ― Frances Hodgson Burnett Recently on an early evening walk, I was basking in the new cool of September, and as I approached our Alexandria townhome I looked over the expanse behind it and felt almost as if I …
Dressing herself
“September is dressing herself in showy dahlias and splendid marigolds and starry zinnias. October, the extravagant sister, has ordered an immense amount of the most gorgeous forest tapestry for her grand reception.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes I agree with Holmes that the beauty of October is usually more extravagant than the showy displays of September. …
If we only knew
“Good heavens, of what uncostly material is our earthly happiness composed— if we only knew it! What incomes have we not had from a flower, and how unfailing are the dividends of the seasons!” — James Russell Lowell It’s hard to choose a favorite season, but this time of year I’m especially aware of the …
Like poignant land mines
“Nothing is more memorable than a smell…Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines hidden under the weedy mass of years. Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth.”— Diane Ackerman Tangerines smell like Christmas to me, just as onions sauteed in …
Our conscious choice
“Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we shall tend.” — Sarah Ban Breathnach Every day I wake up with a mixture of thoughts, some pleasant and some not. There are always things I look forward to doing that day, and …
Constantly and visibly
“Life, now, was unfolding before me, constantly and visibly, like the flowers of summer that drop fanlike petals on eternal soil.” — Roman Payne I don’t know whether it’s because I’m less than three years from 60, or because of the many life-and-death issues my family has faced in the past 18 months, but I …
Always June
“I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June…I feel that it would take me a long time to get tired of it, if it were all as charming as today.” — L. M. Montgomery There’s a good reason Anne’s sunny personality has won the hearts of …
No way to say no
And it’s going to be a day There is really no way to say no to the morning Yes it’s going to be a day There is really nothing left to say But come on morning — Dan Fogelberg This verse is from “To the Morning,” the first Dan Fogelberg song I ever loved, recorded …
An extra
“Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition …
If you removed the rocks
“The brook would lose its song if you removed the rocks.” — Fred Beck I’ve written about flowers here too many times to remember, but today I’d like to acknowledge that life is also enhanced by those objects and events that are less flashy, less exciting, and maybe somewhat difficult. What, after all, would be …
Sunshine, food and medicine
“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the mind.” — Luther Burbank As a person who tends to be cheap frugal, spending money on fresh flowers is something that doesn’t come easily for me. But the benefits of having them around more than make up for …
Colorful beacons
“Flowers are those little colorful beacons of the sun from which we get sunshine when dark, somber skies blanket our thoughts.” — Dodinsky On the Saturday after Matt had open heart surgery, he seemed to be doing well enough that I decided to take Jeff’s suggestion and go down to the Capitol area to visit …
Defeat Despair 