Good Morning

Butterflies are everywhere here at this time of year; bright bits of winged confetti decorating the landscape.  They come in all sizes and colours, from small white moths, to bright monarchs, to the brown beauty seen here.

I love to watch them.  

Pale coloured moths and bright monarchs are often most visible in the shade, like little shards of sunlight against the deep greens and shadows of the foliage around them.  

Conversely, deeply coloured moths and butterflies are often most visible in brightly lit spots, or in drifts of pale coloured flowers that contrast beautifully with the rich hues of their wings.

If you watch them for a while, you get some sense of how much effort goes into the flight of a butterfly; They are not efficient flyers, and their wings - so large in relative comparison to their bodies - take so much work to move that they bob up and down with the sheer effort of it.

Despite the work flight requires of them, butterflies are efficient pollinators, providing us a great service in the course of their search for nectar.  Not only do they decorate the garden with their beauty, they actually make possible many of the flowers and fruits we see there.

And, of course, butterflies are a powerful metaphor for happiness.

Butterflies and happiness have this in common:  When you chase them, they fly away from you, always settling out of reach.  If you sit still and are patient, they will often come to you. Neither happiness nor butterflies will settle on your shoulder unless you are still enough to allow them to do so.

Today, at the beginning of a busy week, I can use this reminder.  It's important to take a little time each day to sit, and watch, and appreciate all the beautiful gifts life brings us.  

There lies happiness. 

I hope that your Monday is off to a good beginning, and that you find some time today to admire your own butterflies, to let happiness settle upon your shoulder, and peace to settle in your heart. 

Have a joyful day.

Good Morning

It's the kind of morning when the water seems to hold more light than the sky above it; its brightness so intense that it hurts my eyes to look at it.  It throws so much light that the trees on the shore are seen in stark silhouette.

Above, the sky is shrouded in a gauzy haze and ringed around the horizon with soft clouds, bright white but shadowed with dove grey.  
It doesn't seem possible that such a sky can produce enough light to cause the brilliant reflection seen in the water below, but there it is: another of Nature's sweet contradictions.

There is an eagle circling out there, riding upward in spirals, riding on the thermals that follow the contour of the steep hillside that rises from the water's edge. He circles up and up and then, quite suddenly, drops again, so low it appears his wingtips might touch the water before he begins his ascent once again.

There's a gentle wind blowing, stirring the flags on the flagpoles and causing the tall foxgloves in the garden to gently sway.

Two fat robins are prospecting for worms on the lawn below and a fat quail, dapper in his blue grey suit, makes his presence known from a perch on the rock wall just above them.

And I am, once again, gazing out the window, transfixed by the beauty of it all.  The world really is a magical place you know.  So much to see if you but pause for long enough to look at it.

Have a happy day today and enjoy all the gifts this Friday brings your way.  There are so many of them!

News of the Day

Here are some of the links I've shared today on my Aunt B's Kitchen page on Facebook.  I share lots more on Twitter, G+, and Pinterest.  Do join me there!  :)

On my blogs:

Good Morning 

Puffy Omelette with Cheddar and Chives 

Antipasto Salad 

Food:

Summertime Beer-Battered Zucchini with Honey-Mustard Ranch Dipping Sauce from Wildflour's Cottage Kitchen

Roasted Carrots from What's for Dinner? Mom

Jeff's Smoked Paprika Onion Rings from ChinDeep

Beautiful Vancouver Island:

Rainbow Salmon Run from Eiko Jones on Vimeo

Inspiration:

Be Kind to Yourself from The 21st Century Housewife

Good Morning

It's often grey in June here, and today is just such a day.  There's beauty in those clouds though:  Ever-changing shapes and textures and a thousand different variations of light and shadow. Who knew there could possibly be so many different shades of grey?

It's a wonderful day to enjoy broad views that afford the watcher a wide expanse of sky.  Flat farm fields become the most incredible theaters, treating us to a seemingly endless panorama of ever changing, constantly moving cloud.  Views across the water do that too, with the drama of the water's reflective surface adding both light and more motion to the mix.

From my office window, I am treated to a pewter sea today, matte in the foreground where the wind has rumpled its surface into low waves, and reflective as glass a little further out, glowing with reflected sunlight that has found its way through the clouds.  A single boat is traveling by, its wake a thin white line drawn across the deep grey of the water, it's bow wave clearly visible even from a distance.

The mountains, teal and blue, recede in ever-paler layers on the coast, their tops limned in pale yellow; diffuse light that is causing the landscape's greens to glow richly in the foreground.

In the flower beds outside, our drifts of lavender are in full bloom now, and so busy with bees that the stems bend and move with no assistance from the wind.  The huge clumps in of blue salvia in the gardens just below are humming too.  I can hear bee song through the open window.

There's a heron resting in the cedar tree across the square. Scarcely visible unless he moves, he nonetheless makes his presence known.  His rusty croak carries clearly across the space and echoes off the walls of the buildings.

It's a day for widow gazing and wool gathering, a day for daydreaming and for cups of tea, a day for letter writing and book reading, but I'm not sure they'd appreciate all that here at the office!  Still, I'm sure I'll be able to sneak in a quiet moment or two.

I hope your morning's been a happy one, and that your afternoon is better still.  Approach the day with a hopeful heart and remember: There's always time for a daydream or two.

News of the Day

Here are some of the links I've shared today on my Aunt B's Kitchen page on Facebook.  I share lots more on Twitter, G+, and Pinterest.  Do join me there!  :)

On my blogs:

Good Morning 

A Work in Progress - A Rule of Threes 

Food:

Triple Chocolate Coffee Peanut Crunch Gelato from Jenni Field's Pastry Chef On Line

Caramel Cashew Ice Cream from Zesty South Indian Kitchen

Porterhouse with Lemon Thyme Butter from Saveur

Grilled Brie with Fresh Cherries from POPSUGAR

Kids:

20 Favourite Must-Do Activities for Summer from Inner Child Fun

Garden Art:

Tic Tac Toe Garden Table from HomeTalk

Good Morning

I had a migraine yesterday and slept through much of the day. As often happens when I do that, I woke in the wee hours of the morning today, while most of the world around me was still sound asleep.

I was awake in the hour before dawn, when the air is full of birdsong as small winged creatures rise before the sun.  I laid there and listened to them chorusing, watching the sky outside my window lighten from deep, clear indigo, to cobalt and charcoal, to denim and chambray, to chambray and mauve, then pink, and - finally - to pale blue peaking through a white and grey blanket, glowing with the softest yellow at its eastern edges.

It was light enough to go for a walk.  

There is something magical about our neighbourhood streets very early on a summer morning:  Evidence of people all around, but almost no people at all.  It's as if for this short interval of time each day, the streets and yards have been givne to other creatures and, they, knowing we are absent, make the most of the opportunity.

Deer, unable to resist the table spread before them, graze at the edges of manicured flower beds.  The fawns are larger now and no longer hide in the shade.  They venture out instead, to breakfast beside their mothers while a single stag stands head raised, vigilant at the edge of the shrubbery, watching the sidewalk as his family dines.  

I know that he sees me so I move as smoothly as I can, careful not to make any sudden gestures that will frighten them.  This is not a time for photographs.  The act of raising my camera would surely send them bounding away, and I want to enjoy their company.

Someone keeps a dovecote nearby.  I've yet to find it, but every morning I am greeted by the doves, who-who-ing in concert from the telephone lines.  Sociable creatures, they gather in groups and settle in for long conversations.  

As I walk, they suddenly fall silent and move from their perch to the foliage of a large chestnut tree.  

I look up in time to see a peregrine flying overhead, circling and watching, predatory in even the outline of his wings. The quiet continues for some moments after he has flown from view and then, a few at a time, small birds resume both voice and flight.

Along the fences, old fashioned roses are in full bloom.  Many as simply flowered as a wild rose but bright with different colours, they scent the air and scatter petals on the pavement.  Bees avail themselves of the cooler morning temperatures and busy themselves among the flowers.  Butterflies light, perhaps to drink the water beaded on the petals, left by sprinklers chut-chut-chut-chut-chutututututtering back and forth across the grass.

I make my way back towards my home, circling around the back of the building to enjoy the coral bells growing in the shade of a red leafed plum tree and there, on the lawn, I find a tiny treasure.   The shell of a robin's egg lies in the grass, it's bright blue jewel-like in the morning light:  A perfect gift with which to start the day.

Whatever your day brings today, I hope it presents you with a moment or two of quiet in which to contemplate its gifts.  Hold the small things close to your heart and treasure them.  In the end, they may well turn out to be the biggest things of all.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

News of the Day

Here are some of the links I've shared today on my Aunt B's Kitchen page on Facebook.  I share lots more on Twitter, G+, and Pinterest.  Do join me there!  :)

On my blogs:

Good Morning 

Meal Plan:  June 16 to 20 

Blushing Beet Salad Dressing 

How to Make an Envelope 

Food:

Greek Tortellini Salad from The Slow Roasted Italian

Veggie Crustless Quiche from Lauren Kelly Nutrition

Rajma Chawal from Arachana's Kitchen

10 Weird Ice Cream Flavours to Ruminate on this Monday Afternoon, from Epicurious

Housekeeping:

6 Dumb Household Rules You Hated Growing Up But Now Totally Understand, from Apartment Therapy

Inspiration:

Home, from Chow and Chatter

Health:

3 Rules to Remember at Every Meal, from POPSUGAR Fitness