a man and his hoe

There are so many wonderful things just a few steps away from the front door. An hour doesn’t go by without seeing something that makes me smile. A dog sleeping in the grass, a scented geranium which leaves your fingers smelling like ginger and mint when you rub its leaves, irises blooming in the stream bed, fantastical flower buds, earthworms as long as my hand, and a husband who finds a tiny chicken egg. It must be from one of the chicks which hatched last December.

These are just a fraction of the wonders I encountered on a single day. It’s hard to stay in bed in the morning when so much wonder is waiting just a few steps away from the front door.

If you look at wood drying long enough, you can see it change color. Day by day, the sun, the wind, and the rain, bleach, dry, and stain the wood. The show goes on until this coming winter, when the wood will burn in the wood stove, putting on one last dazzling show of brilliant yellow, white, blue, green and red flames.