Two

 We decided to watch our progress through the years by the crinkle lines by our eyes (which we call 'laugh lines'). So for this 2nd anniversary of our marriage, I thought I'd take a look back through and see how we've changed.

Have we aged at all? Hmmm. My Mom told me sometime in the last year that I have finally begun to look my age. I took that as a compliment. But most people still guess that I'm in my mid to late 20's. Anyway, who cares about our photos- I really care about how my heart ages. I'm happy that it's growing in its identity as a child of God.

H in UK, corresponding with M, Spring 2009

H home from Cameroon Dec 2009

Engaged Winter 2010

Engaged and in Kenya Spring 2010

Wedding Summer 2010

Pittsburgh Winter 2010

Blue Ridge Parkway Spring 2011

 Camping Anniversary #1 Summer 2011

First Anniversary, Summer 2011

Home Fall 2011

Christmas 2011

Chicago Winter 2012 

Incognito on borrowed bike Winter 2012

Bridesmaid Spring 2012

Spring at Home 2012

Camping Anniversary #2 Summer 2012

HEY! Where'd the time go?!

One More Day

This is the view beyond my computer screen today as I finish up my last project for the semester. I have one more day. 

I'm having the typical internal crisis of have I learned anything? Do I have anything to show for this? Why am I such a slow writer?

After a week's break, the summer session shall ensue with an internship and an online class,  a manageable way to finish out the program. July 31st I'm finished!

Looking northwest on a windy day.

Yesterday our online courses met and a lunch is included where we can finally chat with each other live!
Here are three of the professors I've worked with the most closely through my grant job and my studies. The middle one is retiring.

My two bosses for the grant job.

A room-full of nurses.

online

I have very little with which to prove that I'm going to school, since most of it is online. So to add some substance to this educational experience, I opted each semester to take a class on campus instead of online. It has been worth every penny of fuel to drive across the mountain and be 'live.' In addition,  I got a little job assisting with a grant at the school. Here's me, at school.

Last fall I had the fun of having a carpool buddy who is a friend and classmate in the same program. The walk across campus and the mountain commute was chock-full of debriefing and sharing the experience of the program.

In my 4th semester of taking classes, I am more relaxed about how the program runs and am just enjoying what I'm learning. At this point in my track of nursing, we assess the health of populations, instead of individuals. That is one distinguishing aspect of public health. 

My internship is an opportunity to work with an evidence-based course for self-management of chronic diseases. The nurses who facilitate the program want a way to harness the positive outcome data to promote and grow the program. That's where I come in. It's fun!

I tweet

This is my version of twitter: a few vignettes of nature that touched or tickled me in recent days...


1) Black fuzzy Spider innocently poised on sunny railing 12mm from black buzzy Fly who is the same size
Spider 'sneaks' towards Fly in micrometer advances, hoping Fly won't notice in broad daylight
Fly toys with Spider in jittery stillness, I'm laughing
in a subtle flash fuzzy pounces and Fly, not surprisingly, flies!  Spider, fuzzy on the railing, wonders how to improve his subtle strategy.

2) Chickadee and chickadee flutter onto two sides of a circle feeder
And as two strangers struck with the same thought, they suddenly twitter lustily... in perfect unison!
chickadee shook to clear his head and flew off, not sure what just happened. chickadee stayed and beaked black sunflower seeds.

3) Light was gently rolling up and into the morning, the sun was on its way.
and mourning dove cooed in the locust tree like warm coconut pudding. From a few trunks away, came a luring reply of the same tenor... and without an breath of hesitation, the dove in the locust came again...and back...and again, almost overlapping, they cooed and wooed so sweetly. I looked up from the garden bed to a flutter of wings in branches and two doves fly away.

4) I glanced out to the deck where our wedding ribbons flutter and birds thought no one was watching. First a tufted titmouse hopped off the garland and onto the ledge in his playful disheveled pose. Soon, in for a landing came black-capped chickadee. Checking and pecking for seeds and bits, they hopped and chirruped and discovered new treasures, unhurried to leave the other's company and following the other's nose. Fun little friends of different feathers!

5) Murmuration* is an amazing experience. I witnessed one on the way home from a funeral last week at dusk. The show had already begun when I pulled off the road and I stood spellbound for 25 minutes.
Hundreds upon hundreds of birds had taken the air above me by storm as in formation they welled and swelled and exploded and spilled liked fish schools in water. As one, the beating of their wings pounded my ears and dropped my jaw.

Then, almost imperceptibly, the tide went out as each rank gracefully dove into the same shrubbery- easily a thousand birds in company and chittering! The passing farm tractor could not drown them out. Insatiably curious (would they keep this up all night? what was going on at this gathering??), I stayed until I noticed that they were simmering down and drove home breathless.
*Murmuration is just the name for a grouping of Starlings according to wikipedia, so I'm not sure if I've got the right term for this phenomenon that I watched.

5) A poem from 16 feb 2012

That bird made a fool of me--

warbling at the top of an empty tree,

pulling out all of february's stops

and I, legging across grounds, craining,

bumping passersby,

could not lay my gloomy-lifted eyes on

its fluffy little boom box!

--a happy fool

It seems like my blog ends up being only pictures of nature and garden delights. Oh well- the truth is that a part of me thrives on dirt and produce and birds and leaves and the water cycle and I like to share that with others.

This morning, the pink and orange rise lured me out to check on the seeds I planted yesterday. I started weeding things and came home triumphantly with... 

...a fist full of wild spring onions!  I simply plucked and sliced these fresh slender whites that had been planted by wind and water. What a gift! Their powerful flavor will simmer nicely in a wild onion and 'shroom soup.

Six months ago, my father-in-law and I leisurely cast turnip seeds in for a second-season garden

 ... and up thrust a hearty patch of roots and greens that two families haven't yet eaten through. 

I picked one today for a fresh crunch along with wraps for dinner. Here's to amazing root veggies!

snow!

I knew that this lovely fluff would be mostly melted by the time I got home today, so I dashed around and snapped some photos of one of my favorite winter happenings...

This is posted with thoughts of loved ones far away who also love snow.

 our abode

 yesterday these fields were bright green! (see below)

This was actually taken the end of January, so they're greener now.

 love our woodstove...

 Maples at the ready for true spring.

 Fluffy chunks of snow pelted down, about 3 inches in 1.5 hours.

Today it took me 40 minutes to go 4 miles between my house and my internship in locked traffic. 

snow peas!

There said Owl

"There," said Owl. "That does it!" Owl stopped crying.

Any fans of dear Owl know that this was his cry (pardon the pun) upon filing his teapot with tear-water tea.

Last Saturday, at the persuasion of the January sun, and the need for therapy, I did something crazy

... and planted tear-water peas before the first month of the year was up.

Clipping long-dried stalks from summer past, reuniting with the compost, and plunging my piggies in the dirt, I realized that I had a sense of happiness, in some wholesome way. 

That must be what gardening does for me and I needed it...so I didn't stop there!

Gleefully, I pushed in radishes, greens, spinach and beets. Hah ha! Take that!

I liked to think that the seeds were enjoying it too, relieved of their little envelopes and settling happily into where they'd naturally spend a winter. 

If I make time for another blog post in 3 months, I may be munching on veggies :)

But let me be true and say ... that that would only be by a miracle. 

I cannot make a seed shed its coat and grow something entirely new... I simply wait and hope that all the right bacteria just 'happen' to be there where I happen to lay down a seed on a whim ... I lift not a finger to keep the world on its axis ... The water cycle works its vital magic whether I dance in the rain or not ... I have to knee myself out of bed even though these miracles are bursting all around me.

Let me silence the rocks and shout Halleluia!