"A Light Exist In Spring"

A Light Exists In Spring

By Emily Dickinson

A light exists in spring
Not present on the year
At any other period.
When March is scarcely here

A color stands abroad
On solitary hills
That science cannot overtake,
But human naturefeels.

It waits upon the lawn;
It shows the furthest tree
Upon the furthest slope we know;
It almost speaks to me.

Then, as horizons step,
Or noons report away,
Without the formula of sound,
It passes, and we stay:

A quality of loss
Affecting our content,
As trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a sacrament.                         

In The Morning Glow

          

Flower-Gathering

By Robert Frost

I left you in the morning,

And in the morning glow,
You walked a way beside me
To make me sad to go.
Do you know me in the gloaming,
Gaunt and dusty gray with roaming?
Are you dumb because you know me not,
Or dumb because you know?

All for me And not a question
For the faded flowers gay
That could take me from beside you
For the ages of a day?
They are yours, and be the measure
Of their worth for you to treasure,
The measure of the little while
That I've been long away

Reflections of Trees

 

Not a single tree is perfect in these photos.  They all have grown crooked or have curved branches growing toward sunlight but yet they are each beautiful.  Their graceful limbs reaching out to the light are reflected in the water.   It is their imperfection that makes them so unique and picture perfect for me.

Aslan Shakes his Mane

These are photos of early spring at the Azalea Garden Overlook in Callaway Gardens.  The entire garden is so manicured that it was nice to see one rustic crooked bird house in the mist of such gorgeous flowers.  The golden colors made me think of Aslan in Narnia.  I love the image of the lantern shining against the snow in Narnia.  This is a quote from C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When Aslan "shakes his mane, we shall have spring again."

"Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again."

To A Butterfly

These were a few of the butterflies at the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center.  There were not as many as usual so I did not get photos of  a large variety of butterflies.   I am not sure why the population was so low in early spring when I visited.

To A Butterfly

By William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)

STAY near me---do not take thy flight!
A little longer stay in sight!
Much converse do I find I thee,
Historian of my infancy !
Float near me; do not yet depart!
Dead times revive in thee:
Thou bring'st, gay creature as thou art!
A solemn image to my heart,
My father's family!

Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days,
The time, when, in our childish plays,
My sister Emmeline and I
Together chased the butterfly!
A very hunter did I rush
Upon the prey:---with leaps and spring
I followed on from brake to bush;
But she, God love her, feared to brush
The dust from off its wings.                         

Mountain Creek Lake at Callaway Gardens

Early spring at the Discovery Center on Mountain Creek Lake at Callaway Gardens.  I took my mother there for a afternoon visit.  There were very few people there so we enjoyed a quiet and peaceful walk around the center.

Robin Lake Beach and The Flying HIgh Circus

Early spring is not the season for tourist to be at Robin Lake so it was quiet and peaceful.  Robin Lake Beach is the world's largest man-made, white sand beach.  The beach stretches a mile around 65-acres.  The Florida State University Flying High Circus have taken up residence at the beach every summer since 1961. During the summer, the circus conducts a recreation program and performs seven shows weekly under the big top adjacent to the beach.   twenty five dedicated students from the Flying High Circus live and work at the gardens, working as performers and camp counselors. 


The FSU Flying High Circus

'Well Water' by Randall Jarrell

 

Well Water

  by Randall Jarrell 1969

What a girl called "the dailiness of life"
(Adding an errand to your errand.  Saying,
"Since you're up . . ." Making you a means to
A means to a means to) is well water
Pumped from an old well at the bottom of the world.
The pump you pump the water from is rusty
And hard to move and absurd, a squirrel-wheel
A sick squirrel turns slowly, through the sunny
Inexorable hours.  And yet sometimes
The wheel turns of its own weight, the rusty
Pump pumps over your sweating face the clear
Water, cold, so cold! you cup your hands
And gulp from them the dailiness of life.

From The Complete Poems by Randall Jarrel


In 1914, Randall Jarrell was born in Nashville, Tennessee. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Vanderbilt University. From 1937 to 1939 he taught at Kenyon College, where he met John Crowe Ransom and Robert Lowell, and then at the University of Texas.
His first book of poems, Blood for a Stranger, was published in 1942, the same year he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He soon left the Air Corps for the army and worked as a control tower operator, an experience which provided much material for his poetry.

Following the war, Jarrell accepted a teaching position at the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and remained there, except for occasional absences to teach elsewhere, until his death. Even more than for his poems, Jarrell is highly regarded as a peerless literary essayist, and was considered the most astute (and most feared) poetry critic of his generation.
  

A Heavenly Bath in An Old Wash Bucket

As a child, I visited my grandparents in Sixes, Georgia outside of Canton for the entire summer.  There was no modern plumbing system only well water.  All the water used for cooking and bathing had to be drawn by buckets from the well.   I took my bath in a large tin bucket like the one in the picture hanging on the front porch.  In the evening, I bathed on the back porch and the water had to be heated in a kettle on a old wooden stove.  The tin bucket had many uses.  It was used to wash the freshly picked garden vegetables and it was used to wash my behind.

My grandmother made her own soap for washing clothes.  It was harsh and I never used it.  I always prefer catching rain water for my bath.  There was a delight in knowing I was being bathed from the waters that fell from the heavenly sky. Maybe there was star dust floating in the water or it might have been touched by the moon or kissed by an angel. In other words, it was a heavenly bath for a young child to enjoy.

White Spring Butterfly

 

The white and black color pattern of the White Spring Butterfly is stunning.  It attracts the eye immediately and the green foliage in the background makes a nice frame.

Wedge Spotted Cattleheart

The scientific name of the Wedge Spotted Cattleheart is Parides Panares and it is common to the Americas. I particularly like the green house window background.  The windows have a soft blue hue and accentuates the black coloring of the butterfly wings.

Butterfly Landing Gallery I

I like images of butterflies on various objects such as statues, limbs, chairs. and floors.  The different backgrounds adds more creative interest to the picture.

Orange Slice Butterflies

 

 

Flowers are not the only thing that provides liquid nutrients for the butterfly. They will often feed on fruit, manure piles, sap, and other materials that have dissolved into water.
Even moist sand or dirt often has enough liquid nutrients that the butterfly can get the nutrients it needs. Sometimes even rotting animal flesh will provide the butterfly with food.
If you are out working or playing on a hot day often a butterfly will land on you and drink from your skin. It is drawn to your skin by the salt in your sweat. Sweat has salt, and other minerals that butterflies need.

Mountain Creek Lake

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Trail located in the Meadowlark Garden area is the .6-mile Wildflower Trail, where native plants of Georgia are featured, including many rare, threatened and endangered species. The trail offers a gazebo, waterfall and picturesque bridge overlooking Mountain Creek Lake.

Meadowlark Gardens

We visited Callaway Gardens at Pine Mountain and hiked the Holly Trail and Thornhill Hydrangea Garden Trail in Meadowlark Gardens.

Fly, Fly Butterfly, Fly in the Sky so high

I always enjoy a visit to the Butterfly Center at Callaway Gardens.  There were several bus loads of elementary children at the center so it made it an extradordinary experience watching the children trying to chase and attract the butterflies without touching.

Entrance to Mrs. Callaway's Vegetable Garden