Yesterday's Stroll + A Poem

I started my Sunday Stroll (suggested by Aisling just click on her name) and I noticed this stunning yellow fire hydrant. I'm sort of glad it isn't in MY yard.

The neighbors who live here, have been working on their roof and I thought they were just replacing rotting shingles, but I was delighted to see this balcony they added. I like to think that someone poetic comes out here at night and dreams big dreams. Notice the glass balls.

This is a bike rickshaw and I have never noticed it before. Pretty, huh?

I have never seen people come in or go out of this house, but it is always dressed so festively and is always in perfect repair. It's a favorite of mine.

And . . . it is the only place I see Shirley Poppies. This year - just this one.

Reality: the fight against the hot weather. Not every one's garden is lush.

Hello, Bunny Number One!

And Bunny Number Two! Please don't hop up to my house and eat my pansies!

Some people make the most of our few bodies of water.

Thank you Dept. of Parks and Recreation, for watering our pretty park!

Let's go over the bridge! Watch out for the troll!

Let's stop and look down at the creek. Maybe we'll see a muskrat. I've only seen one, but let's hope!

Here's the rocky, tumble-y place where the creek falls.

A pretty hide-a-way!

A fun corner for summer yard games!

A small reminder that fall will come.

A house for a grandma

Wild in the suburbs

Let's take this scruffy path to the park!

If you feel like running and skipping (and singing The Hills are Alive) do it here!

Let's have some tea and a tiny muffin, do you want to?

Cool art for the kids, huh?

And here's the EARTH. Climb on!

Let's go over this bridge into the giant tree fort!

If you brought your roller blades, we can do some tricks here. Not me. I broke my wrist that way.

And here we'll stop to play checkers. The board is painted on our table!

And a Lake of Shining Waters!

I love how this landscaping surrounds the house like a fortress.

I think some super stars live here.

I know, I know, school starts soon.

Okay, dear house, I bless you.

A welcoming garden gate

I love the hollyhocks! They are high-flyers!

Up close and personal

Phlox! VERY pretty!

The eye of the squirrel!

Almost home! Hello, pretty tree!

And here's the poem I promised Aisling. It's a gift to her for her good idea of a bunch of Sunday strolls. I hope you'll go and take the other strolls, linked on her comments.

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.


Happy Monday!
xopp

For Hermits

Here's what Knut says:
You are welcome to your intellectual pastimes and books and art and newspapers; welcome, too, to your bars and your whiskey that only makes me ill. Here am I in the forest, quite content. ~Knut Hamsun (Norwegian Novelist)

After driving in traffic yesterday, going to Jenny's doctor's appointment with her, I like Knut's sentiment. It doesn't take me very long to get VERY comfortable holing up in our house, on my little bit of earth (my forest, I guess) and it rattles my soul to drive around in the middle of all the busyness. I am used to my commute when I am teaching, but now that I am home I do not wish to drive around, paying attention to other drivers, getting caught up in the frenzy. I wish to stay home and simply be. Because we had to sit in a few waiting rooms, I read some magazines I don't usually read and my heart experienced some discouragement as I read about selfish, all about me celebrities and as I looked at show homes in other magazines, I decided that I like blogs MUCH better, because the pictures represent creativity and personal stories - so much more meaningful. I do gain a lot more inspiration from books and magazines than nature, I hate to admit. As far as the whiskey goes, that has never been an inclination of mine, but I think I understand Knut's allusion to simple existence, enjoyed without the help of mood altering substances. Rich instruction lies in nature. We can't really control it, it is often difficult to fully appreciate it, and our compulsion to remain busy and industrious just doesn't lend itself to sitting in the middle of the forest. I think I am a bit of a hermit.
I hope you are able to enjoy "your forest" today and simply be. Thank you for your sweet comments. I delight in them.