Our life is on the verge of getting a lot less still, so I take every opportunity I can to capture quiet early morning moments and scenes.  Soon we’ll be scurrying around towering walls of boxes, all the items that make the cut to go with us to our new surroundings.  But for now, we still have peaceful moments (in between the incessant slamming and banging that goes on below).

I suspect we may go on another hike today, so you will no doubt be hearing from me later.  Any excuse to get out of here!

John Bryan P.2, wherein I present way too many (or not enough) wild columbine, among other wonders.

As hinted, we went hiking in John Bryan, where the bridge was more dilapidated than ever, but the wildflowers and fungi were in fabulous form.  There were whole hillsides covered with many types of trillium, phlox, wild geraniums, mayapples, bluebells, jack-in-the-pulpit, and countless others.

The most exciting to me were the rocks full of blooming wild red-and-yellow columbine.  I’ve never seen them in such profusion, hence the redundancy.  You can never have too many wild columbine.

Many trees were also in bloom, most notably the dramatic buckeye, paw paw, redbud, and dogwood.

I’ll post this in two parts; please enjoy both.

I stole the subject header from “West Wing”, toward the end when Santos was campaigning at like a half dozen cities per day, losing all track of where they were or had been.  Sometimes it was all a big blur of exhaustion and self-doubt, but he learned to adapt and regroup.  He remained focused on his  objective, despite deep personal loss and the threat of a looming international conflict.

For my purposes, I just like the notion of “welcome to wherever you are”.  It could read “be here now”—leave the past and its baggage, accept and even embrace the present temporary circumstances for what they are (in this case Ohio), but stay centered on the big picture, the exit strategy if you will.  It is possible to make peace with a deferral of hope, without settling or resignation.  You just tighten the belt some more, grit your teeth, and keep your eye on the prize.  It can be the difference between hope and despair.

So for now, we gaze out past the discouragement and insecurity to our future hope, and make the most of what we do have, which is a lot.  We explore local natural resources and beauty, and visualize our own future garden.  Speaking of which, we’ll be off to our next hike.  Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of…”Wherever You Are”!

Here is some of what’s for erev dinner—BBQ chicken, baked maple/brown sugar/spiced acorn squash, roasted herbed Italian cauliflower and brussels sprouts, and a beet/carrot/greens salad.

Erev cheers!

This morning two mourning doves were hanging out on our window sill.  Sorry about the poor photo quality through the screen.

More outdoor/indoor morning shots:

Erev menu includes a whole BBQ chicken, baked acorn squash, and other veggies.  More later…

The sky was dramatic early this morning, in anticipation of the coming T-storms, which will be a relief after a very dry week.

While E was baking some of her famous loaves, I was busy mowing the lawn, where I took pictures of the neighbor’s peony  and my horseradish from last year.  Lots of garden snakes skedaddled as I puttered around the garden.  They were too fast to capture.

Being lilac-deprived, I “borrowed” a few cuttings from next door, and added some of my bleeding heart.

After our monthly Equitas meeting, we went over Rex’s to help him with more hardware installation, in this case antique doorknobs and faceplates.  E did all the work as usual; I just played with cats, and admired all the beautiful flowers blooming in his garden, and on his newly-painted sunporch.

A few days ago we walked through Glen Helen, home of the irony Yellow Springs.  The number of wildflowers was astounding, some we’ve never seen at this location before.  Another good sign was the new rebuilt bridge.  We’re hoping John Bryan’s disintegrating old bridge will be next.

At the end of our walk, we were entertained by a very happy German Shepherd swimming and chasing sticks in the river (see P.2).

For brevity, I’ll just post pictures of all the wildflowers and plants without their names, though I can ID most of them by now.

Please see GH P.2 for the sequel.