Happy Earth Day

from yesterday's Bonner County Daily Bee

Dear Earth, 

I’m writing to you today to express my gratitude toward you. 

How you're always changing, adapting, demanding. Thank you for the sunshine; it’s been needed. Thank you for the breeze and rain and mud. You’ve brought the birds and fresh air back, too. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love the snow and the cold and cozy we create to combat the ice but what comes after is your most beautiful creation. 

There’s still snow in the hills but there's flowers and dirt and grass in the valleys. Your nights are cold but you always warm us back up in the mid-morning sun. You always know right when to change too. 

Right as we start to feel tired and worn down, we feel you shift. Now we can eat, gather and dance in the daylight. Just as you change, we also must change. 

We go from bundling ourselves in layers to shedding; We cut our hair, clean our homes, swap our skis for bikes, our knee-high boots for trail shoes.

Thank you for teaching us change. You bloom and breathe and flow. Your change signifies life. We watch as fish move up from lakes to streams, as bugs hatch and fly, as your plants bud and grow and bloom.

This season marks a season of abundance. Thank you for providing everything we need, I know we take too much from you, but I promise we’ll try harder to give back.  

I grew up loving you, like most other people do. To be honest, you raised me in your wild lands. I hiked your trails, climbed your rocks, floated your streams, explored deep into the untouched wilderness of your mountains, looked across your vast deserts, canoed your lakes and played in the mud and the water and in the rain.

Sometimes cursing you and your temperamental changes but always grateful for the adventure and classroom you provided. 

Thank you for being our solace, excitement and reverie. We still have so much more of you to see and explore, and love. Hopefully we can take care of you the way you take care of us. 

Happy Earth Day!

SAVANNAH WILLISON

Sandpoint

I love our daffodil show this spring, but the periwinkles are making a run for favored spring flower. 

 They are out in significant numbers this week.

What a thrill but also what a concern it is to see plum blossoms bursting out on all the trees around the yard so early. 

Nice to see them but worrisome that we have a couple of days of freezing temps ahead.  

I hope the trees are hardy enough to withstand the cold. 

The one below is special as it was given to me this time last year by my daughter when I lost a friend.  

She still speaks through the beautiful blossoms. 

Bill proudly donned his Flamingo Jim's T-shirt yesterday when he knew Debbie was coming over for a visit.  

After all, it's nice to please the benefactor of fine shirts. 

I'm still getting used to the fact that my friend Cliff aka the Wild Irishman has a daughter. 

I met her yesterday at The Flower Farm. 

I have no idea why I never knew, but it was a pleasant experience meeting her for the first time. I must say to both Cliff and his wife Patty:  you've done well by Rebecca. 

What a delightful young lady!

Cliff and Patty's son Rusty met Willie when the two were going to daycare together, and then they played baseball together and then they graduated together. 

Apparently, Rebecca was far enough behind in years that I missed her at every turn---until yesterday.

What a nice surprise! 

That's grandpuppy Bailey with Debbie. 

Debbie and the grandpuppies came over for a visit last night, and during our conversation.  

While grandpuppies and Bridie happily raced around the place, we did a little Irish reminiscing from our family trips there. 

This morning I saw the following interesting statistic about our favorite place to visit as often as possible. 

 American applications for Irish citizenship jump 63 percent last year.

--Financial Times

☘☘☘☘☘☘

I think I may know a few reasons why.  

The swallows have been shopping for homes. 

I could not help but notice yesterday while walking down the lane with Foster. 

Suddenly, I felt and heard the swoop of a swallow pair whose ascent had probably been the 7B bird house behind me. 

They did a few aerial acrobats and then checked out the brown bird house at the beginning of the lane.  

While one sat on the fence, the other inspected the house both inside and out. 

A little later, as I walked by the garden, I saw another swallow checking out the blue bird house which hangs from the garden fence. 

I really don't know how many swallows were checking out real estate, but I know their presence was emphatic, both in the air and wherever they decided to land. 

It will be interesting to see if more than one pair will take up residence here at the Lovestead to raise their little ones. 

And, if they do, that's gonna be a lot of fun to watch. 

For now, it think it's simply a matter of swallow speculation. 

Have a good Earth Day. 

Let its wonders overshadow its woes. 

Happy Wednesday. 

Glorious Spring in Selle

 

In a pleasant spring morning all men's sins

are forgiven.

----Henry David Thoreau

 

The first pleasant days of spring come out like a squirrel and go in again.

----Henry David Thoreau

 

It is chiefly the spring birds that I hear at this hour, and in each dawn the spring is thus revived.

----Henry David Thoreau

We are most apt to remember and cherish the flowers which appear earliest in the spring. I look with equal affection on those which are the latest to bloom in the fall.

----Henry David Thoreau

---

What poem is this of spring, so often repeated! 

----Henry David Thoreau

Even a little shining bud which lies sleeping behind its twig and dreaming of spring, perhaps half concealed by ice, is object enough.

                                                             ----Henry David Thoreau

To us snow and cold seem a mere delaying of the spring. 

How far we are from understanding the value of these things in the economy of Nature!

  

----Henry David Thoreau

The day is an epitome of the year. 

The night is the winter, the morning and evening are the spring and fall, and the noon is the summer.

----Henry David Thoreau

On a Monday

 “He who has a why, can bear any how."

I heard this quote repeated two or three times last night while watching a "60 Minutes" segment featuring a mother who had lost her only wonderful son as a result of the Oct. 7 attack.

She had learned from a freed hostage who spent three days with him that her son was following that very mantra while imprisoned after the attacks. 

Learning the anguish this mother suffered while publicly and relentlessly employing every means possible to secure his release, along with other hostages, and later after he was murdered in an underground tunnel was hard to bear. 

We, in America, have no clue what it's like to live entire lives in what seems like constant terror and war. 

Sadly, over the past decades, we have learned through school shootings, church, grocery store, movie theaters and concert massacres, random shootings, etc. that violence, which always seemed so foreign, is making its way into our society. 

And, with it comes anguish, the consequences lead to horrible realities much like Rachel Goldberg-Polin has endured. And, knowing the outcome there's a sad irony in the statement that her son clung to during his imprisonment and subsequent murder. 

Somewhat gratifying to his mother, however, was the moment she learned that her son's "why" was his parents so he did his very best with every moment after his capture to determine the "how."

Knowing this gave her a tangible sense that their connection would be everlasting.  

Hearing the statement left an impact on me.  

I think we have all probably lived by this maxim with any hardship we endure.  It's just that the words for our struggle would not come so simply as they were stated on last night's powerful and heart-wrenching "60 Minutes" segment. 

And, so, with them now etched in my mind, the next time some seemingly formidable situation arises in my life, I will think of Rachel, the mom, and Hersh, son she lost, along with their strength of character and do my best to figure out why and how.

Ironically, sometimes even extreme sadness and tragedies can inspire us to bravely persevere against the forces.   

There's a reason I've been painting the board fence.  

The photo offers a sample. 

What could be prettier than horses with a white fence, green grass and snow-capped mountains and blue sky in the background. 

When CB comes home and the horses are shed off and the barnyard is a muck yard, I'll inspire them to run and buck and rear with that background, and I'll be taking pictures.

All those hours of painting have been worth it when moments like these arise. 

. 

When you see three Heelers in a the back of a pickup truck, ya gotta take a photo. 

This bunch appeared a bit shy about posing too much, but they were cute. 

No apologies for posting so many daffodil photos.  

They're just putting on a show this year, and I'm loving it. 

The next fun color show will be when the columbine pop out. 

Looking forward to that. 

In the meantime, I'll just keep tending to the lawn, the greenhouse garden and anything else that makes the place look "purty." 

Happy Monday.