Sunday Muse

"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks."
~ John Muir

Sunday Muse ~ Happy Winter Solstice

If you have seen the snow
under the lamppost
piled up like a white beaver hat on the picnic table
or somewhere slowly falling
into the brook
to be swallowed by water,
then you have seen beauty
and know it for its transience.
And if you have gone out in the snow
for only the pleasure
of walking barely protected
from the galaxies,
the flakes settling on your parka
like the dust from just-born stars,
the cold waking you
as if from long sleeping,
then you can understand
how, more often than not,
truth is found in silence,
how the natural world comes to you
if you go out to meet it,
its icy ditches filled with dead weeds,
its vacant birdhouses, and dens
full of the sleeping.
But this is the slowed-down season
held fast by darkness
and if no one comes to keep you company
then keep watch over your own solitude.
In that stillness, you will learn
with your whole body
the significance of cold
and the night,
which is otherwise always eluding you.

"Winter Grace' by Patricia Fargnoli

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week.
A simple, special,  extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause,  savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog

Sunday Muse

"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer." 
~ Albert Camus

Sheep Drifts

Weekly Top Shot

This girl... loves the snow... loves her ball-ball

joining Madge at The View From Right Here for Weekly Top Shot

Almost November

Well, the lambs are sheared and the fiber room is full to the brim of lovely fleeces just waiting to be skirted.  We've had our October snow and flirt with winter.  Thankfully it melted quickly.  The ewes are in their second paddock of the hayfield.  The rams have been walking the fence line, just waiting for their ladies to be readied for breeding.  It's almost November, can you believe it?

Sunny

Such a beautiful sunrise on Saturday!  Our unofficial weather forcast for the day was ~ Sunny with a 100% chance of Sparkle, and as you can see we were not disappointed.  Hope your weekend was equally as beautiful.

Weekly Top Shot

Our girl, Bertha, has received a lot of Flickr love this week.  She has been described almost perfectly by one of our Flickr friends ~  "like a rough and tumble child with bits of the wild in her hair".  This is another shot just moments after her pasture greeting.  She is a beauty and looks even more beautiful in a winter landscape.  We're hoping she's growing one or two equally beautiful lambs :)

joining Madge at The View From Right Here for Weekly Top Shot

Friday's Fences

Bella enjoying the 'shade' at the fence line.

We're loving the long, thin shadows of winter... when we've been lucky enough to see a little glimpse of the sun :) 

joining Life According to Jan and Jer for Friday's Fences

Friday's Fences

Happy Fence Friday!

joining Life According to Jan and Jer for Friday's Fences

Winter Sunrise

The snow and wind paused just long enough to grant us a couple days of sunshine.  Sunday arived in a most glorious manner.  Let us share with you a winter sunrise as it comes to the pasture and makes its way into the mountains.



Sunday Muse

As a child, my father helped me dig

a square of dense red clay, mark off rows

where zinnias would grow,

and radishes and tender spinach leaves.

He'd stand with me each night

as daylight drained away

to talk about our crops leaning on his hoe

as I would practice leaning so on mine.

Years later now in my big garden plot,

the soggy remnant stems of plants

flopped over several months ago,

the ground is cold, the berries gone,

the stakes like hungry sentries

stand guarding empty graves. And still

I hear his voice asking what I think

would best be planted once the weather warms.

"Lonely Harvest" from Family Constellation by Margaret S. Mullins

Weekly Top Shot

Perhaps not the finest or best composed shot of the week, but definitely a family favorite as we caught Siar shaking off her blanket of snow.

(Just as she was successful in shaking it off, so too are we hopeful that this is the beginning of the shepherdess/s shaking off a week of winter blues.)

joining The View From Right Here for Weekly Top Shot

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.

A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week

A simple, special extraordinary moment.

A moment to pause, savor and remember.

Participating with the SouleMama blog

Friday's Fences

c o m i n g  h o m e

four :: mosey + plod

It was a week full of plodding, not much moseying.  A week that it was difficult to remember to look for the beauty in small things.  A week that we found the need to remind ourselves to...

"Walk neither faster nor slower than your own soul.  Because it is your soul that will teach you the usefulness of each step you take."  ~Paul Coelho

mosey + plod walkers

Friday's Fence

Evenings have been beautiful.

linking to Friday's Fences with Life According to Jan and Jer

Winter Patterns

snow and ice

light and shadow

father winter continues to amaze

his works of art come and go

with the wind and sun

Friday's Fences

We've finally had a little sunshine, but it's still very cold.  The frigid temperatures have prevented any snow melt.  It's still a beautiful, winter wonderland.

...joining Life According to Jan and Jer for Friday's Fences