Oh Barbara! This post is fabulous! Thank you for sharing all these incredible photos. I loved the Dove, Clara. I had a dove story too. It was one of my simple nature experiences that inspired me to do my substack. I may post that sometime.
And those bugs in NH! Oy! I remember visiting Lake Winnipesaukee when I was a kid and I couldn't believe how ferociously we were attacked. No wonder everyone was sitting inside those netted gazebos! I hope your dragonfly charm does the trick. That frozen heart at the end is really something!
Thank you, Ronnie! And thanks for always leaving such warm and wonderful comments. They are truly appreciated! I would LOVE to hear your Dove story. Write it!
I live in the Lakes District, and Lake Winnipesaukee is nearby. It makes me smile when I drive by because I always think of the Bill Murray movie, "What About Bob?" Maybe I need a netted gazebo at The Little House! I wish I'd added "a screened-in porch" to my moving mantra!
The frozen heart! 🤍 I know! Such a winter gift. XOXO
Thanks, Barbara! And I mean every word of those comments.
I've already written the story about the Dove. I was just waiting for the right time to post it. Sooner than later, I think. I always loved the title of that movie, but I don't think I ever saw it. Can you imagine?
Yes, to the screened- in porch! My MA relatives and my old college friends all had screened-in porches. Only way to go. Until next time. RR
Hahahahaha!! That's a pretty clever way of getting your message across. And actually, you made me think of another dove incident that I could add to it. I'll see what I can do.
What struck me is the gorgeous post is the ALIVENESS of it all. You dance with a willing partner, Barbara. What you love, loves you back. I don't know how to say it better than that... but hopefully it will make its way into my final series essay, because I KNOW it's related. Such beauty you curate for us, thank you. xox!
Aww, thank you, Mary! I really do think that the trees and the rocks and the water and animals can tell when you love them. I sing to them all the time. They know. And they LOVE having their picture taken. :) XOXO
I love this post so much, perhaps because I know just how much you love winter. Winter here was short, but I enjoyed it so much. I love that you delight in everything around you…from the fallen tree, to otter rock, to the dragonfly in your dappled willow. You really do live life fully present to the magic all around.
You're making me love winter too, Barbara. And the photos! The lumpy one on the ground looks like a tortoise. And the blue crystal is definitely a woman's dress. On black bears, I'm sure you know this Mary Oliver poem, but it came in my email today, so I'm sure it's meant for you:
Tereza...I could cry from your comment. No! I do not know this poem! Thank you so much for sharing it. You can only imagine how much I love Mary Oliver. I was fortunate to hear her give a reading when I lived in NYC. I love this poem so so much.
Are you referring to the mangled tree roots photo above Otter Rock? The tortoise? The photo doesn't do it justice. It's massive! And, I imagine there's all kinds of life going on inside of him.
Thanks for reading, Tereza and for sharing the wonderful poem I will never forget the day I was having breakfast and a bear came right up to my screen door.Standing on his or her hind legs. I had this moment where I realzed that I was feeling excitement rather than fear. That being said, the doors stay locked during their season of wandering. 🐻 XO
Haha, I love that you're locking out the bears! Likely only the screen doors, yes?
The spring spirits knew you needed this poem, to place it so handily in my email. I certainly did imagine you loved Mary Oliver, and to find that true but with this poem absent is too serendipitous to miss. I'm so happy to be able to give you this gift!
And yes, those tree roots seemed like a tortoise in the photo. I had a framed photo from my neighbor that I named Otter Rocks. They looked like far-off otters but were actually rocks in a tidal pool in a blue-magenta sunset. My daughter now put it, with the others, in her bereavement office hallway.
Oh I love that! Will check out the book. It was so funny…eating my breakfast and I saw a shadow cross the door. I glanced up and saw him there looking at me. I stood up and said “Hey! Sorry, you can’t come in here.” He turned around and trotted off down the hill but glanced back a few times! I used to be terrified of bears until I had some amazing dreams of them. 🐻💕
The bears could get into my heavy doors, no problem! The handle pushes down, and voila! It's not a wise choice of door in Bear Country. I have bells on all of my doors, too... :)
I was thinking that I was the bearer of black bears ;-) Who are good news, in this instance.
I've been reading a delicious book called Shantaram, and just finished the scene where he finds a bear at the 'door' of his lean-to shack in the slum. After an eye-to-eye tete-de-tete, he finds he's not afraid but that the bear has a great melancholy. It turns out to be held by bear-handlers with their skin dyed blue--this is in India. A friend has misunderstood when he talked about a 'bear hug' and thought it was a tradition in New Zealand to hug bears. And so he sent this one for a hug, so he wouldn't be lonely.
It's a charming scene and a captivating book, for next winter when your fire and the long nights beckon.
Majestic, Barbara! I greatly enjoyed this winter as well. We didn’t get all that much snow in Chicago, and I so like to play in it with the kids, but am happy spring is here and the birds are occupying a nest (4year in a row!) right above my front door. It’s also hammock time, right under my grapevines where two other nests are waiting for occupants and who knows, maybe we’ll get a new nest in there- there’s no other validation that I’ve built a great vine (autocorrect changes it to ‘vibe’ but that, too!) pergola than the birds coming to make a home there.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful, tree whisperer! I am ever so grateful for you.
Thank you, dear Tonika! I so love the thought of you and your Dove friend/s. I feel like your spirits mesh well. I think of you when I hear them calling. They are so gentle when they nibble under the feeder—very Kapha-like energy. I would love nothing more than to befriend one of them (Clara, of course!)
Just the thought of a hammock makes me swoon. I have one, but finding a place out of a swarm zone is challenging. I did buy a bug net last year.
Please say hello to Lake Michigan for me! I miss her! 💦💦 XO
I also love the Mourning Doves. Lovely calls, beautiful in form, endearing waddle. I fed them ( and dozens of other birds) thru the winter here at the 45th parallel. I’m sure some perished, after all the bald eagle and hawks were often perched waiting. It was a punishingly cold and snowy winter. I took care of some ungrateful roosters no matter how cold it got!!!
Huge snow plow bills due to weather, long driveway, and new, overzealous plow service. ( I think it was his wife )
The neighborhood crows are back, the tips of the tulips are pushing through the snow, and I am so ready for spring!!!!!!🌷
Happy Spring, Kathryn! Thx for sharing. Endearing waddle! Yes, it is so precious. They're so gentle. It sounds like you're in Nature Heaven there, as well. XO
Oh my these photos! I'm in heaven viewing bits of your heaven, Barbara. The LOVE comes through - in your text too. ❤️
Trees. What would we do without them?
Every year I say the same thing - don't bitch too much about the bugs! - but every year, I do. 🦟
And out meandering today, (the lighting was to die for) I was thinking, enjoy this while you can - no bugs yet!
Thank you - there is (as a Lucy Wainwright says in one of her songs) "a part of me that only loves the winter." So I really do get it. Course the way time is speeding by, it's be fall in like 5 minutes. 😂
The sounds of the dove and your forest are just beautiful. And I love the coziness of winter. And your home is lovely.
Here we have our native pintail mourning doves, but there is an invasive Eurasian collared dove. They are bigger, louder and their cry is obnoxious and fast, unlike the slow cooing of our native. And the invader also takes over our native doves habitat and nests. So...they have to go. Thank you Barbara.♥♥♥ I could listen to your video all day.
I agree! I love that sound so much. I guess we don't get to choose the wildlife that shows up. The little red squirrels here are so cute but aggressive. Dare I say Pitta deranged??? 😳 🔥 They'll jump right onto my screens and stare me down.
The Mourning Doves are so gentle—the Kapha birds. I've never heard of the one you have there. Sounds annoying.
Oh Barbara! This post is fabulous! Thank you for sharing all these incredible photos. I loved the Dove, Clara. I had a dove story too. It was one of my simple nature experiences that inspired me to do my substack. I may post that sometime.
And those bugs in NH! Oy! I remember visiting Lake Winnipesaukee when I was a kid and I couldn't believe how ferociously we were attacked. No wonder everyone was sitting inside those netted gazebos! I hope your dragonfly charm does the trick. That frozen heart at the end is really something!
Thank you, Ronnie! And thanks for always leaving such warm and wonderful comments. They are truly appreciated! I would LOVE to hear your Dove story. Write it!
I live in the Lakes District, and Lake Winnipesaukee is nearby. It makes me smile when I drive by because I always think of the Bill Murray movie, "What About Bob?" Maybe I need a netted gazebo at The Little House! I wish I'd added "a screened-in porch" to my moving mantra!
The frozen heart! 🤍 I know! Such a winter gift. XOXO
Thanks, Barbara! And I mean every word of those comments.
I've already written the story about the Dove. I was just waiting for the right time to post it. Sooner than later, I think. I always loved the title of that movie, but I don't think I ever saw it. Can you imagine?
Yes, to the screened- in porch! My MA relatives and my old college friends all had screened-in porches. Only way to go. Until next time. RR
My tea kettle just whistled, and it sounded strangely like a Dove! XOXO
Hahahahaha!! That's a pretty clever way of getting your message across. And actually, you made me think of another dove incident that I could add to it. I'll see what I can do.
Thanks for the nudge. XOXO
What struck me is the gorgeous post is the ALIVENESS of it all. You dance with a willing partner, Barbara. What you love, loves you back. I don't know how to say it better than that... but hopefully it will make its way into my final series essay, because I KNOW it's related. Such beauty you curate for us, thank you. xox!
Aww, thank you, Mary! I really do think that the trees and the rocks and the water and animals can tell when you love them. I sing to them all the time. They know. And they LOVE having their picture taken. :) XOXO
I love this post so much, perhaps because I know just how much you love winter. Winter here was short, but I enjoyed it so much. I love that you delight in everything around you…from the fallen tree, to otter rock, to the dragonfly in your dappled willow. You really do live life fully present to the magic all around.
Thanks, Amanda! Perhaps you'll visit me next winter, and we will enjoy the cold and snow together! Love you, my friend. XOXO
You're making me love winter too, Barbara. And the photos! The lumpy one on the ground looks like a tortoise. And the blue crystal is definitely a woman's dress. On black bears, I'm sure you know this Mary Oliver poem, but it came in my email today, so I'm sure it's meant for you:
Somewhere
a black bear
has just risen from sleep
and is staring
down the mountain.
All night
in the brisk and shallow restlessness
of early spring
I think of her,
her four black fists
flicking the gravel,
her tongue
like a red fire
touching the grass,
the cold water.
There is only one question:
how to love this world.
I think of her
rising
like a black and leafy ledge
to sharpen her claws against
the silence
of the trees.
Whatever else
my life is
with its poems
and its music
and its cities,
it is also this dazzling darkness
coming
down the mountain,
breathing and tasting;
all day I think of her –
her white teeth,
her wordlessness,
her perfect love.
Tereza...I could cry from your comment. No! I do not know this poem! Thank you so much for sharing it. You can only imagine how much I love Mary Oliver. I was fortunate to hear her give a reading when I lived in NYC. I love this poem so so much.
Are you referring to the mangled tree roots photo above Otter Rock? The tortoise? The photo doesn't do it justice. It's massive! And, I imagine there's all kinds of life going on inside of him.
Thanks for reading, Tereza and for sharing the wonderful poem I will never forget the day I was having breakfast and a bear came right up to my screen door.Standing on his or her hind legs. I had this moment where I realzed that I was feeling excitement rather than fear. That being said, the doors stay locked during their season of wandering. 🐻 XO
Haha, I love that you're locking out the bears! Likely only the screen doors, yes?
The spring spirits knew you needed this poem, to place it so handily in my email. I certainly did imagine you loved Mary Oliver, and to find that true but with this poem absent is too serendipitous to miss. I'm so happy to be able to give you this gift!
And yes, those tree roots seemed like a tortoise in the photo. I had a framed photo from my neighbor that I named Otter Rocks. They looked like far-off otters but were actually rocks in a tidal pool in a blue-magenta sunset. My daughter now put it, with the others, in her bereavement office hallway.
Oh I love that! Will check out the book. It was so funny…eating my breakfast and I saw a shadow cross the door. I glanced up and saw him there looking at me. I stood up and said “Hey! Sorry, you can’t come in here.” He turned around and trotted off down the hill but glanced back a few times! I used to be terrified of bears until I had some amazing dreams of them. 🐻💕
The bears could get into my heavy doors, no problem! The handle pushes down, and voila! It's not a wise choice of door in Bear Country. I have bells on all of my doors, too... :)
I was thinking that I was the bearer of black bears ;-) Who are good news, in this instance.
I've been reading a delicious book called Shantaram, and just finished the scene where he finds a bear at the 'door' of his lean-to shack in the slum. After an eye-to-eye tete-de-tete, he finds he's not afraid but that the bear has a great melancholy. It turns out to be held by bear-handlers with their skin dyed blue--this is in India. A friend has misunderstood when he talked about a 'bear hug' and thought it was a tradition in New Zealand to hug bears. And so he sent this one for a hug, so he wouldn't be lonely.
It's a charming scene and a captivating book, for next winter when your fire and the long nights beckon.
Oh, JOY.
You know what, Barbara, I think you could make a living as a photographer.
And: Just READING your posts is a healing experience. Thank you, my dear friend (deer friend) !!!
xo xo xo
100%!
Aww, thanks Jaan! I'm cooking something up right now so stay tuned. :)
Happy Spring! XOXO
Same to you, dear pal!! XO XO
Majestic, Barbara! I greatly enjoyed this winter as well. We didn’t get all that much snow in Chicago, and I so like to play in it with the kids, but am happy spring is here and the birds are occupying a nest (4year in a row!) right above my front door. It’s also hammock time, right under my grapevines where two other nests are waiting for occupants and who knows, maybe we’ll get a new nest in there- there’s no other validation that I’ve built a great vine (autocorrect changes it to ‘vibe’ but that, too!) pergola than the birds coming to make a home there.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful, tree whisperer! I am ever so grateful for you.
I just started to write after leaving the comment for you, and guess what?? Clara is calling! 🕊️💗 Soul sisters...
😍😍😍
Thank you, dear Tonika! I so love the thought of you and your Dove friend/s. I feel like your spirits mesh well. I think of you when I hear them calling. They are so gentle when they nibble under the feeder—very Kapha-like energy. I would love nothing more than to befriend one of them (Clara, of course!)
Just the thought of a hammock makes me swoon. I have one, but finding a place out of a swarm zone is challenging. I did buy a bug net last year.
Please say hello to Lake Michigan for me! I miss her! 💦💦 XO
I was planning a walk by the lake today! How did you know?!? I will definitely say hello.
I also love the Mourning Doves. Lovely calls, beautiful in form, endearing waddle. I fed them ( and dozens of other birds) thru the winter here at the 45th parallel. I’m sure some perished, after all the bald eagle and hawks were often perched waiting. It was a punishingly cold and snowy winter. I took care of some ungrateful roosters no matter how cold it got!!!
Huge snow plow bills due to weather, long driveway, and new, overzealous plow service. ( I think it was his wife )
The neighborhood crows are back, the tips of the tulips are pushing through the snow, and I am so ready for spring!!!!!!🌷
Happy Spring, Kathryn! Thx for sharing. Endearing waddle! Yes, it is so precious. They're so gentle. It sounds like you're in Nature Heaven there, as well. XO
These PHOTOS 😍🤍🤍🤍🤍❄️❄️❄️
I will miss Winter too!!!!
Also, I laughed about 3 times while reading. 🤭🤭🤭😉🤗
Sweet dreams xo!!!!!!
I'm glad someone thinks I'm funny! 😂😂
These long days though... 😭😭
Love you, my beautiful friend. XOXO
Oh my these photos! I'm in heaven viewing bits of your heaven, Barbara. The LOVE comes through - in your text too. ❤️
Trees. What would we do without them?
Every year I say the same thing - don't bitch too much about the bugs! - but every year, I do. 🦟
And out meandering today, (the lighting was to die for) I was thinking, enjoy this while you can - no bugs yet!
Thank you - there is (as a Lucy Wainwright says in one of her songs) "a part of me that only loves the winter." So I really do get it. Course the way time is speeding by, it's be fall in like 5 minutes. 😂
🌳❤️🧚🌻XOX
Yes, yes, yes! Oh, I love that line...I'll have to check the song out!
Time is a-flying by, that's for sure.
Thx for reading, dear Kathleen! I hope you are well, my friend! XOXO
The sounds of the dove and your forest are just beautiful. And I love the coziness of winter. And your home is lovely.
Here we have our native pintail mourning doves, but there is an invasive Eurasian collared dove. They are bigger, louder and their cry is obnoxious and fast, unlike the slow cooing of our native. And the invader also takes over our native doves habitat and nests. So...they have to go. Thank you Barbara.♥♥♥ I could listen to your video all day.
I agree! I love that sound so much. I guess we don't get to choose the wildlife that shows up. The little red squirrels here are so cute but aggressive. Dare I say Pitta deranged??? 😳 🔥 They'll jump right onto my screens and stare me down.
The Mourning Doves are so gentle—the Kapha birds. I've never heard of the one you have there. Sounds annoying.
Thx for reading/listening, Sadie! XO
Beautiful Barbara, thank you
Thank you, Marti! XO