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For the past week I have traveled, almost daily, beneath a large, single cherry tree. When this week began, the tree was subtly bedecked in pale buds, but slowly, coaxed by rain showers, sunny days, and a warm spring, the buds have burst into bloom. Today they are glorious pink pompoms, and the first few petals have begun to fall.
In March the soft rains continued, and each storm waited courteously until its predecessor sunk beneath the ground. - John Steinbeck  Red buds and crab apples are blooming too; my walk today is almost entirely beneath pink and white arbors. The sky is grey and towering with storm clouds, as it has been for several afternoons this week. But with the warmth of the spring air, the blooms on the trees above me, and the delightful scent of new grass and damp mulch in the air, the grey skies don't seem threatening at all. It feels instead as though this dim spring day is wrapped in a grey down quilt of clouds, and it makes today the perfect day for a Thoughtful Walk.
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now, / Is hung with bloom along the bough And stands about the woodland ride / Wearing white for Eastertide. - A. E. Housman  
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 This morning I was wakened by a rather portly robin scuttering along the gutter outside my window. Winter is almost gone. Now I sit on a sun-warmed stone with my toes in an icy, chattering creek, sunlight streams through leafless trees, and there are songbirds calling from every side. Though another frost or four will certainly still come, it feels safe to say that spring is on the move.
My thoughtful spot today is a lovely corner off a trail behind a neighborhood. Long ago some kind soul set stepping stones across this busy creek, or at least it looks as thought is was long ago, for the stones are very deeply set and covered in moss. And there is a quiet, thoughtful bench, and a picnic table, slightly the worse for weather, yet somehow made friendlier by that.
Then was winter shaken, and fair was the earth's embrace. - Beowulf Green leaves are peering through the buds on a wild rose bush (Rosa canina), which is currently also home to a little nest. It is clearly last year's handiwork, but I've no doubt it will be made shipshape by new inhabitants in the near future. Chickweed (Stellaria media) and henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) and blue creeping speedwell (Veronica repens), nestled deep in oft-overlooked obscurity, herald in their tiny, joyful way the sunny days and warmth ahead. And a single, bright faced dandelion (Taraxacum officinale,) on a tiny stem is the first brave one of its kind to emerge in this little thoughtful spot.
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Glory be to God for dappled things!
- Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty
If you sit on the ground one of these afternoons, and close your eyes in a sheltered spot where the sun shines through and the wind is stilled, sometime between the frosts of morning and evening, you can almost imagine a whole host of tiny roots slowly waking up in the earth beneath, tempted by the sunshine warmth to rouse from their winter's rest, and beginning to think about sending out new shoots and new life. It feels as though all creation around me is tentatively, half-way waking. Perhaps, when the frost returns tonight, all those curious little roots and sprouts will nestle back down into the warm depths of the soil once more, realizing that winter isn't yet over with that wonderful feeling of waking too early on a Saturday morning, and discovering that there's no need to dash out into the chilly world just yet.
It was one of those days when...
it is summer in the light and winter in the shade.
- Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
Wild daffodil noses are peering up in the dappled patch of woods along the sidewalk. And a cacophonous pair of Canada geese have taken up residence, despite the glowering disapproval of the neighborhood homeowners' association, in the undergrowth of the tidy holly hedge. I've heard these next few weeks referred to as the quickening of the year. What a lovely phrase. It is the season when the first tiny glimpses of waking life are just beginning to appear again.
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... a new year, full of things that never have been...
- Rainer Maria Rilke
Though ice still clings to the grasses around the mouth of a little culvert nearby, and the bushes are still white with frost most mornings, still it seems that perhaps, slowly and happily, the world is indeed beginning to quicken.
It's been a balmy December. The warm, damp, mizzle-filled days have felt almost spring-like, and the scent of moss and old logs is at once new and nostalgic. I'm wandering through the woods today with the people I love best, and finding perfect thoughtful spots around every corner of three winding miles of trails. The green, almost rainforest atmosphere of these woods is deliciously conducive to thoughtful spots, and every other step there is a log or a stump or a lush moss carpet on a stone, just waiting to be comfortably sat upon as a vantage point from which the deep valley and the creek below us might be enjoyed.
Along a stream that raced and ran / Through tangled trees and over stones,
That long had heard the pipes o' Pan / And shared the joys that nature owns,
I met a fellow fisherman, / Who greeted me in cheerful tones.
- Edgar Guest, The Fisherman
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We stumbled upon the foundation of an old home beside the trail. It was settled in a perfect corner between large trees, and just a few steps down the path away from it a bridge led over a small waterfall. What a pleasant place to live it must have been. The dried flowers of the wild hydrangeas still look as though they're blooming, and the mountain laurel is everywhere. In the spring this path must be overwhelmed by their pink and white blooms.
An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
- Henry David Thoreau
 | These are also the sort of woods which provide fairy-house trees in abundance. Hollowed out trunks with tiny violets sprouting at the base, and little ribbon streams leading to puddle-sized lakes. And, oh, the mushrooms! Ruffled white tree ears and tiny toadstools that look as though they've been lifted straight from the illustrations of Beatrix Potter, and dainty umbrellas nestled in the soldier moss. |
Fairy places, fairy things,/Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,
Tiny woods below whose boughs/Shady fairies weave a house...
- Robert Lewis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses
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But then, then we clambered through a creek, rounded a corner, passed a tall ledge of sharp layers of slate and bedrock, and arrived at a waterfall of glorious proportions. No words can do justice to this glassy torrent. It was magnificent.
The landscape sleeps in mist from morn till noon;
- John Clare, A Shepherd's Calendar: November
The morning mist is frosty. The dried seed heads of the iron weed are encased in a feathery shroud of white, and they glitter in the early morning light. The air is cold and bright, and all the world seems awake and gleeful and scattered with twinkling dust. I'm in somewhat unfamiliar woods, I've walked them before but I don't know them like my woods at home, so there's an air of discovery around every turn: a little bridge to span a marshy patch of trail, a bramble of wild roses covered in hips, a little grove of cattails. They all come as a surprise, little gifts of wonder on this most stunning of frosty mornings.
| Listen… With faint dry sound, Like steps of passing ghosts, The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees And fall. - Adelaide Crapsey, November Night |  |
A mocking bird is trying to balance herself on a swaying wild hydrangea, the beautiful dried flower head is tossing even in this gentle breeze, yet she is holding her seat gracefully. Her long grey tail flicks this way and that as the branch moves, the only sign that she is having to exert any energy at all to keep her delicate perch.
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The frost flowers have bloomed in abundance this morning. The delicate tendrils and ribbons that cling to the dead stalks are utterly marvelous, and every one unique. I wonder what it would be like to watch them form, to see that thinnest, most delicate layer of frost twist and curl out from the stalk and create these magical little clusters of ribbon-like ice.
November has always seemed to me the Norway of the year.
-Emily Dickinson
I love how the frost makes everything sparkle, yet at the same time hides things, just a bit, from clear sight. It softens the edges of the dried grasses, and accentuates the broad veins of the fallen leaves, and harmonizes in such a bright yet gentle way all the colors of the landscape. But there are some colors it cannot soften, for here, lurking patiently beneath a twining profusion of grey-green, frost-embroidered leaves, is a spark of red. A brilliant, red, still-blooming honeysuckle, it seems a reminder that summer has only just fallen asleep. This ice-encased flower must be one of the most beautiful discoveries at this misty morning thoughtful spot.
Autumn is a second Spring, when every leaf is a flower.
- Albert Camus
I am sitting on a bench overlooking a small duck pond, which is currently divested of its few waddling inhabitants, as it is late afternoon and they know by habit that if they wander over to a certain house in the neighborhood about this time they are ensured a hearty dinner. This sun in bright and mellow, "the maturing sun," Keats called it, and that seems to describe it perfectly today, it is not exuberant, but constant. Above me is a canopy of brilliant orange, made even more intense by the sunlight, and just across the street is a row a gold.
As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas, and colors
enough to paint the beautiful things I see.
- Vincent van Gogh
Four young ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) trees, resplendent in drooping branches of brilliant yellow leaves stand there, to walk beneath them is to enter a great hall of golden arches, with a golden carpet underfoot. I've always loved ginkgo trees. I love their tenacity and longevity even in harsh environs, their legendary benefits for the mind and memory are fascinating, and their graceful, almost willow-like branches, which earned them the common name "maidenhair tree," are stunning. But I think my favorite thing about them is the curious fact that these leaves must not be harvested while green and thriving, as one might expect, but now, in all their golden glory, just as they fall from the tree.
Lo! I am come to autumn / When all the leaves are gold...
- G. K. Chesterton, Gold Leaves
Along the tops of all the yellow trees,
The golden-yellow trees, the sunshine lies;
- George MacDonald, Autumn's Gold
I cannot resist gathering up a great armful of these brilliant leaves and tossing them into the air to watch them tumble down. This cheerful little thoughtful spot is chilly but bright on this glorious, final shout of color day. What a perfect ending to autumn.
Since I first began to visit it a year ago in midsummer, my Thoughtful Spot has been a haven, a refuge of permanence and rhythm, a place without chaos, and filled with the marvelous. But even as the seasons have changed in my thoughtful spot, so the seasons of life change.
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Another year is upon us and it is time to seek out new challenges, and mine is to find Thoughtful Spots everywhere. I have recently moved from my quite rural nook to the outskirts of a busy downtown, and, though sorely missing my pathless woods and lonely pastures, I am discovering that quiet thoughtful spots, little corners of beauty and wonder, can be found wherever you may be.
Always be on the look out for the presence of wonder.
- E. B. White
So join me on this new adventure of searching for a little hermitage, surrounded by the beauty of nature, to study and observe and marvel at, every month. Whether it be an old log in the hundred acre wood, a mossy rock beside a waterfall, or a path to the grocery store through maples that are just beginning to turn, these thoughtful spots must be sought after and discovered, wondered at and then shared, as they teach us to never take for granted the glorious minutia of daily life, and the overwhelming beauty with which God has filled the world around us.
It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road and, if you don't keep your feet, there's no telling where you might be swept off to.
- J. R. R. Tolkein
Many complaints have been made against the hot and muggy southern summers, but I have always loved them. There's a calm and stillness in the humid air that is not as unpleasant as it's made out to be, and provides a lovely contrast to three other seasons who's scents and breezes are filled with eagerness and expectancy and energy. So I really do love a southern summer, I love the tall iron weed and the garden's abundance and the few, brief months in which there are leaves on the black walnut trees. But this summer I experienced what I have not seen for many years, a New England summer, and it was spectacular.
Great is the sun, and wide he goes /Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days /More thick than rain he showers his rays.
- Robert Lewis Stevenson, The Summer Sun
A few quiet corners of New England beach and bike path became my Thoughtful Spot this August. The colors struck me the most, just the endless, shimmering shades of blue would be enough to instill wonder, but then there is the neon pink of the beach plum flowers and the dusky red of their fruit against deep, green leaves and many-hued pebbles and fallow sand and suddenly this seaside world is a vibrant, exuberant tumult of of perfectly clashing colors.
My grandmother and I went shelling at my New England Thoughtful Spot. This odd promontory of land that wraps around a little harbor has provided us with many treasures in years past, and today it turned up the rarest find yet, a tiny shard of tumbled blue beach glass. The tide nearly trapped us on a cluster of rocks between the beach and the path - isn't it marvelous to watch the tide come in? It seems as though you can see each wave inching just the slightest bit closer, ever so slowly, but if you stop watching for only a moment, the beach is suddenly, all at once, several feet narrower that it was before, as though the waves are playfully teasing you, and creeping up while you aren't looking.
In small proportions we just beauties see;
And in short measures life may perfect be.
- Ben Johnson, The Noble Nature
There's a wonderful feeling of smallness that only the ocean can inspire. I stood at the top of the seawall, staring first down at a gentle surf collapsing against stones and dissolving into clouds of raindrops below me, then out to the indiscernible horizon It is impossible not to think that every worry or trouble is somehow less significant, for if I, in all my vastness and power respond in an instant to His word, the ocean seems to say, how can your cares be too great?
It was summer, and the days were perfectly warm and breezy, the sort of days that seem to demand and deserve to be spent wholly out of doors. On the rare occasion when it seemed necessary to be inside for a while, the sunshine peered in through every window, as if searching for company and wondering why everyone wasn't out enjoying its exuberance. It was a summer of discoveries, adventures, and great wonders, of meandering down wooded trails, and stumbling upon breathtaking mountainscapes with little wooden benches perfectly situated to view them. This was the summer of 2019, two months of which I spent in a tiny town nestled in the Swiss Alps where a rather lovely thoughtful spot can be found.
This thoughtful spot was introduced to me by a friend when a few of us set off for a walk on an early summer evening. We turned by a fountain down in the town and started up a road, quite a steep road and as narrow as a sidewalk. We lumbered up this hill, admiring the views of the town gradually sinking below us to the right, and little chalets built against the supporting mountainside to the left, and then we reached the top, to be met by a barrier of trees and scruffy underbrush, which did not seem a terribly exciting vista at all. But then we rounded a corner.
Settled on the edge of a grassy field, surrounded by foreign pink and yellow wildflowers interspersed with familiar lacy yarrow and tiny self-heal blossoms, just off a little footpath shaded by a still-blooming elder, was a bench. It was one of those perfectly shaped wooden benches, the kind you can sit on comfortably for a long while, and you could smell wild mint every once in a while when you sat there, though I never could discover where it grew. In front of this bench, just two steps away, was a very steep slope down to the little town again, and straight out in front of it was a truly majestic view. That evening we wandered further around the tree line to see a tiny sliver of Lake Geneva, far below and away from us, and stayed to watch it turn to a bright red crescent in the sunset. But that first walk was far from the last time I visited this thoughtful spot. For it was a wondrously beautiful place to pray, to read of great ideals, to write letters to the people I love best, to think, and to marvel. It also became the site of a rather painful injury when I discovered a old metal tram rail hidden in the grass by tripping and cutting my knee on it. The yarrow and self-heal were my faithful friends then, and helped turn an ugly gash into a now fading scar.
I often wonder who is sitting at that thoughtful spot now, though I have no doubt that it is beloved by someone and its peaceful solitude is enjoyed by many. It's easy, though now two years later, to let my thoughts drift to a sweater discarded in the sun's warmth, cheery wildflowers, resplendent purple and blue mountains, and a little wooden bench from which to enjoy it all. A great many memories can be summed up in a photograph, and so it always makes me smile to see that, though still in Switzerland where I sincerely hope it is the favorite spot of many other thinkers, my beloved thoughtful spot of yesteryear also resides, quite happily, at the top of this page.
I often wonder who is sitting at that thoughtful spot now, though I have no doubt that it is beloved by someone and its peaceful solitude is enjoyed by many. It's easy, though now two years later, to let my thoughts drift to a sweater discarded in the sun's warmth, cheery wildflowers, resplendent purple and blue mountains, and a little wooden bench from which to enjoy it all. A great many memories can be summed up in a photograph, and so it always makes me smile to see that, though still in Switzerland where I sincerely hope it is the favorite spot of many other thinkers, my beloved thoughtful spot of yesteryear also resides, quite happily, at the top of this page.
The sky is dark and soft, and the air is filled with the scent of a brewing storm. But the grey of the cloudy sky has its magic, for, in the absence of the blinding summer sunlight, I can look straight upward at the sky. Dozens of songbirds and their fledglings are scattered in a crowded, busy silhouette against the grey. I don't know if there are always so many at the edge of the woods when I walk here, but they are remarkable today.
 | Green is the grass and the leaves of trees, Green is the smell of a country breeze. Green is a coolness you get in the shade Of the tall old woods Where the moss is made. Green is an olive, and a pickle. The sound of green is a water trickle. Green is the world after the rain, Bright and bathed and beautiful again. - Mary O'Neill, What is Green? |
Here at my thoughtful spot the dark sky is hidden by the engulfing, dancing shades of green and growing things. Not a flower bloom is to be seen - the jewelweed is late this year - everything is all rich, deep, multi-hued green. Even the oddly handsome little fellow who has decided to sit next to my mossy rock blends almost invisibly into the green around us. He looks like some sort of Katydid, but I can't seem to identify him concretely.
The earth has donned her mantle of brightest green;
all things are glad and flourishing.
- Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
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There are candy-pink mimosa blooms, and the red and yellow honeysuckle, and the lacy cream blossoms of the elder tree just around the corner, over the hill, and beyond the little bend in the creek. But in this little hollow of moss and tumbling water that I have come to love so well, there seems to be no need for such ornaments, lovely though they be. It is perfect today in its unique, subdued sort of monochrome. How different it looks from midsummer a year ago, when iridescent dancing damselflies and sparkling orange jewelweed blooms met me for the first time at this thoughtful spot. How pleasant it has been to return to it often, and to glimpse the ever changing yet ever present beauty of this little place. How quickly this year in my Thoughtful Spot has passed by.
And so... with the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow fast in movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
The air has cooled in an instant, a rumble of thunder is overhead. Old childhood words dance through my thoughts, as they always do in this particular sort of weather. Wind's in the east, mist's blowing in/Like something is brewing, about to begin...
Over a thousand years ago, in the forests of Germany, a wandering king stumbled across a rose bush. He believed this rose symbolized hope and health and built a cathedral around it, a city soon sprang up around the cathedral and the wildflower grew, undeterred by the passing centuries, until the cathedral was bombed during World War II. The ancient rose, too, was thought to have been destroyed, but the next spring saw it valiantly blooming once again among the ruins. This Hildesheim Rose still flowers every spring and is believed to be the oldest living rose bush in the world, yet throughout its history it has been celebrated for more than just its legendary age, for it, like most roses, also possesses many medicinal benefits. As spring is upon us and wild roses are bursting into bloom in our own back yards, the perfect time has arrived to learn about the medicinal uses for this fragrant herb, and to preserve its healthful properties to be enjoyed throughout the year.
Roses have always held a prized place in the herbalist’s materia medica. Rose petals have strong anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and astringent properties and are very high in antioxidants and vitamin C. They are a valuable first aid herb and can be used topically to soothe and ease inflammation caused poison ivy or similar skin irritations, and the petals have been used for centuries to aid in wound healing, as they relieve pain, prevent infection, and reduce inflammation. An infusion of the petals has been shown to relieve headaches, help lower a fever, and support the immune system, and, of course, the marvelous scent of roses has also gained this herb lasting fame. The essential oil has long been valued for its ability to lift the spirits, and both historical herbalism and recent studies agree that the fragrance of roses can aid in relieving anxiety and stress.
Wild roses, a general phrase for a multitude of unique species, grow throughout most of the United States. Commonly found varieties that are excellent for medicinal use include Rosa mulitflora, Rosa palustris, and Rosa carolina, all of which are thorny shrubs that produce strongly scented, five petaled flowers in the spring, and bright red hips in the late autumn. Many cultivated roses also contain medicinal benefits, particularly older varieties with a strong fragrance, however, roses that do not have a scent or have been sprayed with pesticides should be avoided.
Once you have selected a rose bush, the petals can be harvested by holding the flower over a basket and gently tapping the base of the flower head so that the petals fall. With this method, just the petals are removed, leaving the rose hips on the plant to ripen and be harvested in the autumn. It is best to gather rose petals just after the dew has dried but before mid-day to capture the maximum essential oil content. The harvested petals can be spread out on a rack to allow any insects that might have been hiding in the flowers to make their way out.
There are many ways to preserve medicinal herbs, and one of the simplest methods of preserving rose petals is to simply air dry them on a mesh rack, or in a low dehydrator. They can then be stored in a glass jar with a tightly fitting lid and used for blending teas or making infused oils and vinegars. However, my personal favorite way to preserve fresh rose petals is to steep them in honey. Honey preservation has a long and fascinating history, and as honey is recognized as one of the few foods that has an indefinite shelf life, it is the perfect method to both preserve and enhance the medicinal properties of fresh, low-moisture herbs. It is always best to use raw honey, preferably from a local source, when making herbal preparations.
There are many ways to preserve medicinal herbs, and one of the simplest methods of preserving rose petals is to simply air dry them on a mesh rack, or in a low dehydrator. They can then be stored in a glass jar with a tightly fitting lid and used for blending teas or making infused oils and vinegars. However, my personal favorite way to preserve fresh rose petals is to steep them in honey. Honey preservation has a long and fascinating history, and as honey is recognized as one of the few foods that has an indefinite shelf life, it is the perfect method to both preserve and enhance the medicinal properties of fresh, low-moisture herbs. It is always best to use raw honey, preferably from a local source, when making herbal preparations.
To make rose petal infused honey, fill a jar with the freshly harvested rose petals and cover them with raw honey. Stir gently to remove any air pockets, cover the jar and allow the honey to steep for at least several days before using. The rose petals will break down slightly and the honey will become infused with their flavor. The resulting herbal preparation has a very long shelf life, and can be used in a variety of ways. Rose honey can be stirred into tea or spread on toast to support the immune system and as a daily dose of vitamin C; the combination of roses and raw local honey has also been shown to be a very effective remedy for seasonal allergy symptoms, especially when taken preventatively; and, as both honey and rose petals possess legendary beautifying qualities, rose-infused honey can be used as a moisturizing face mask, either on its own or combined with white or red clay.
These beautiful flowers have delighted gardeners, poets, and herbalists alike for centuries, and the healthful benefits of this herb can be easily infused into daily life. So next time you pass a rambling bramble bush, stop, and smell the roses, and then gather their petals and enjoy the beautiful medicinal properties of this wildflower.
Rose Petal Honey
These beautiful flowers have delighted gardeners, poets, and herbalists alike for centuries, and the healthful benefits of this herb can be easily infused into daily life. So next time you pass a rambling bramble bush, stop, and smell the roses, and then gather their petals and enjoy the beautiful medicinal properties of this wildflower.
Rose Petal Honey
- Fresh rose petals (enough to fill a jar)
- Raw honey
It's a cloudy and chilly day in the midst of a cloudy and chilly spring. The sun has been bashful, the flowers have been reluctant to make the grand entrance we would wish of them, and my little thoughtful spot has remained wrapped in a protective quilt of clouds and downy gray. It's been a peaceful spring, filled with the promise, if not always the actuality, of the season's change. It's this predictable changeableness of the seasons, each time as surprising as the appearance of the first crocus in January and as reassuring as the sunrise, the rhythm of this glorious creation that never ceases to amaze me. What an enchanting, marvelous mingling of the familiar and the new.
Spring is a lovely reminder of how beautiful change can be.
- Anonymous
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
- Albert Camus
Within the clouds and raindrops of this late spring, early summer is showing it's face. It's in the brilliant color of a tiny wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca) that is hiding beneath a clump of violets. It's in the first red clover blooms (Trifolium pratens), which always seem to appear earlier and disappear later than I expect, their lengthy blooming season providing plenty of opportunity to harvest and dry them for a tea to support the lymphatic system.
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
- Lao Tzu
The new season is in the may-apples (podophyllum peltatum), with their tiny yellow fruits forming under the swaying villages of their umbrella leaves. And it's in the massive and delicate fiddlehead fern that almost blocks my view of the waterfall as I sit here, its lacy fragility dances in the slightest wind, yet it is secured so resolutely to the corner of rock on this little ledge.
Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection...
in every leaf of springtime.
- Martin Luther
It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.
- Rainer Maria Rilke
And then there is the garden, the clearest sign of summer's closeness. It is filled with lettuces and radishes that would make Peter rather hungry and Mr. McGregor proud, and a spring bounty of asparagus in beautiful green and purple spears. Isn't it amazing to see how differently plants grow? There's the asparagus, tall and sentry-like straight out of the ground, then the radishes, hiding beneath the soil, yet colored a pinker pink than any crayon box could offer.
Here comes the sun, little darling...
It's been a pleasant spring, in it's dreary quietude. Sometimes it's the hush, the grayness, and the extended season of waiting that makes that expected, surprising change even more beautiful. And there's a whisper, a promise here in my Thoughtful Spot this afternoon, louder than the rippling bubbles of the waterfall, than the birdsongs and the squabbling of squirrels overhead, than the distant rumble of a lawnmower, Courage, Dearheart, life has seasons too.
Sometimes it seems like spring creeps up on me. The crocus and daffodils bloom and are joyously welcomed while the world around them is still brown and frosty, the grass slowly begins to don a hint of green, a pale and subtle cloud of pink or bright lemon-green buds appears around some of the trees. Then one day I look around and realize, all at once, that the sleeping world has wakened, and winter has burst into spring.
Now crystal clear are the falling waters, /And bonnie blue are the sunny skies.
- Robert Burns, The Smiling Spring
My thoughtful spot is cacophonous with the sound of gleeful songbirds. Today, to my utter delight, it is just barely warm enough to walk barefoot in the creek, and so my walk here was through the shallow, sparking water. A very small copperhead startled me along the way, sunning himself on a large rock that wasn't quite underwater. His presence made me reconsider my intentions to clear away the jumble of branches and leaves that was diverting the creek, as it looked like the perfect haven for any of his cousins that might be living nearby, and I didn't particularly like the idea of disturbing them.
Through the woods, along the creek bank, and surrounding this little moss covered seat, all around me, at my feet and clambering up the the slopes above me and down the rocks to the creek below is a tiny, wondrous world of wildflowers.
Through the woods, along the creek bank, and surrounding this little moss covered seat, all around me, at my feet and clambering up the the slopes above me and down the rocks to the creek below is a tiny, wondrous world of wildflowers.
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A violet by a mossy stone, half hidden from the eye
As fair as a star, when only one is shining in the sky.
- William Wordsworth, The Violet
A study of wildflowers could consume a lifetime I think, and a very pleasant lifetime it would be. No two are alike, their miniature faces droop demurely in the shade or toss joyfully heavenward to bask in the sun. Some are five simple petals, like the flowers we first drew as children, some intricate orchids with bright yellow throats. The chickweed blooms (Stellaria media) in starry white clusters beside the pale pink petals of spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) and the fragile but valiant bluets (Houstonia caerulea). And the violets! There are Common Blue violets, (Viola sororia) most denying their name with deep purple shades or pure white blooms; there are the minuscule bearded dwarf violets, so detailed they almost need to be examined with a magnifying glass to be fully appreciated; and yellow violets, their sunny color warning that, unlike their companions, they are inedible.
| Some days are fair, / And some are raw. The timid earth / Decides to thaw. Shy budlets peep / From twigs on trees, And robins join / The chickadees. Pale crocuses / Poke through the ground Like noses come / To sniff around. - John Updike, March |  |
Though its beginnings might be so subtle they slip by if we're not paying close attention, there always comes a moment when spring undeniably, irrepressibly, gloriously takes over the quiet contemplation of the winter season and replaces it with an explosion of joyful celebration. In this little Thoughtful Spot, that moment has just arrived.
I woke this morning and the world was white. From the pale, luminous opacity of the cloudy sky to the soft, glowing blanket on the earth, it's as though the world has become a de-saturated photograph, a vintage world of black and white.
White is not a mere absence of color; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black. God paints in many colors; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.
- G. K. Chesterton
Now it's nearing evening, the white sky has turned a dappled blue, and the slanting light has turned the snow on the pasture above me to the gentlest blush of pink. But my Thoughtful Spot remains, in its shadowed little hollow, a magical world of dark and light. There is so much life in this little corner of the world that I never would have noticed without this snowfall. Among the drooping frozen grasses miniature songbird footprints scamper about in happy disarray, I envy their light-footedness, as they leave the tiniest of impressions in the snow, and I trudge through, digging my boots through a layer of ice beneath the snow to keep from slipping. Wild turkeys have passed by this way too, a straight and plodding trail of three-toed tracks that seem giant beside the dainty prints of cardinals and sparrows and juncos. There are the delicate tracks of a fox, the hand prints of a racoon, and a crowd of coyote tracks are just around the corner.
I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, 'Go to sleep darlings, till the summer comes again.'
- Lewis Carroll
As long shadows grow and the sun begins to set on this downy white world, a splash of color fills the sky. Azalea red, daffodil yellow, and bright peony pink. It's spring in a sunset, bidding farewell to this peaceful, sleepy winter of a day.
Sometimes adventures carry us far away from the familiar, contemplative places that we call home, but, in every faraway place, a Thoughtful Spot is waiting. On an delightfully unexpected journey, I traveled to my birthplace, a little town on a big island in southeast Alaska, and, among a vast array of magnificently beautiful places, I stumbled upon a quiet rocky beach that became, for the last two weeks of the first month of this new year, my Faraway Thoughtful Spot.
It’s the great, big, broad land ’way up yonder,
It’s the forests where silence has lease;
It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.
- The Spell of the Yukon, Robert Service
This beach is home to seagulls, to a content and ever-present paddling of ducks, and to a remarkably chatty herd of sea lions, whose curiously bobbing heads and gregarious barks keep me faithful company. When the tide is low, purple and orange starfish cling to the rocks just below the water's surface, their bright colors bringing a vibrancy to the deep, soft grayness all around me.
The view from this beach is often shrouded in solid mist, an almost tangible wall between the shore and the great unknown of the ocean beyond. But on clear days a majestic mountainscape appears across the narrows, and then the intensity of the light and the breathtaking grandeur of these surroundings is indescribably humbling. This evening, the mist is heavy and the water still, a delicate snow is falling, and there is great peace on this lonely beach.
The waves have a story to tell me, /As I lie on the lonely beach;
Chanting aloft in the pine-tops, / The wind has a lesson to teach;
- The Three Voices, Robert Service
Familiar herbs are few and far between in this wintry temperate rain forest. No plantain, or chickweed, or dandelions appear among the moss and rock and seaweed, but one familiar friend is everywhere - the evergreens. While many evergreen trees have medicinal properties, my favorite will always be the pines. The sweet, crisp scent of a pine forest is at once peaceful and invigorating, they are one of the oldest living things on earth, some of them surviving thousands of years, and there are one hundred and twenty-six known species. They provide a glorious glimpse of green throughout the winter and, in perfect design, these winter greens provide an excellent source of vitamin C that can be freshly harvested to support the immune system through the cold and flu season.
... a lush carpet of pine needles...
is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.
-Helen Keller
Soon I'll return to my familiar Thoughtful Spot, nestled in the pastoral woods of home. One adventure will have drawn to a close, and the next day might bring another, but the splendor of this faraway thoughtful spot in a place that once was my home will linger with me always.
Hovering here between two years, between two cold months of winter, is a joyous shout of spring. After a torrential rain last night, today has dawned bright and warm and breezy, the birds are singing farewells to the old year and welcomes to the new, and the scent of moss and green and growing things is in the air. Here at my thoughtful spot the little waterfall's peaceful splashing has been turned into a roaring cascade of white that seems to slice through the dark, leaf strewn rock. Even the determined mass of roots that normally diverts the water's path is wholly swallowed by these thunderous little falls.
If winter comes, can spring be far behind?
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind"
Drooping ferns and violas, still chilled from a week of frosts, are lifting up their heads to enjoy the unexpected warmth and sunshine. I feel like doing the same - uncurling and thawing out and rejoicing in this extraordinary day. At my feet a lush clump of chickweed seems to have sprung up overnight. This cooling, fresh springtime potherb will be growing prolifically in the wild in a few months. Its leaves are nutrient dense and make a wonderful, mild flavored addition to salads and pesto, and are so high in vitamin C that it is said sailors prized chickweed vinegar to prevent scurvy. When used topically, this tender but hardy little herb is soothing to burns and poison ivy rashes, and healing to minor cuts and scrapes.
...every day is the best day in the year.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is decidedly winter still, and the trees above me are skeleton bare though the skies I see through them are summer's blue. Yet on this brief, beautiful day, here at the close of one year and the opening of a new, my thoughtful spot is alive with the sounds and smells and sights of spring. It seems to me a marvelous gift of a day, filled with hope, joy, and new beginnings.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
- John 1:3
November is departing the year with a grand flourish: it is snowing. Though very beautiful, most of this November has more or less fit the description Emily Dickinson once gave it, “A few prosaic days/A little this side of the snow/And that side of the haze.” Then this day arrives, a day of gentle flurries and white-frosted pastures, of the unexpected and the extraordinary. I can think of no more perfect day on which to bid farewell to autumn and usher in the beautiful season of Advent than this crystalline, frosty, very far from prosaic day.
It sifts from leaden sieves,/It powders all the wood,
It fills with alabaster wool/The wrinkles of the road.
- Emily Dickinson, The Snow
Here at my thoughtful spot the snow has softened the fallen leaves and branches and made the evergreen moss seem brighter. Along the extremities of the waterfall's ledge, a little distance from the fall itself, hangs a row of dazzling, sparkling icicles. If you get close to them, you can see the reflection of the all trees and rocks and branches in this little hollow become warped and wobbled into impressionistic blurs of green and brown and white in the uneven surface of the ice. My favorite winter phenomenon returned this morning - the frost flowers. I've read that the weather conditions must be just right for them to form, they require freezing air temperature but unfrozen, damp soil, so when they do appear in early winter they must be welcomed with great wonderment. They look odd from far away, just uneven little clumps of white dotted through the woods, clinging to the base of tall grasses and plants, but upon closer examination these delicate little clusters of satin-like frost are marvelous. They look something like a paper wasp nest made of ice, or tumbled folds of transparent fabric frozen in movement, or layers of melted sugar as it is being pulled and stretched into candy ribbons.
| | The ground is hard, | And yet the world, | |
- John Updike, November
The tall brown stalks of ironweed and brown-eyed susans (Rudbeckia triloba) are all topped with lovely, prickly seed heads this time of year, and while walking this morning I began to gather a few. Then I stumbled upon a cluster of wild hydrangeas (Hydrangea arborescens) still covered in tiny dried, four-petaled flowers. Soon the beautiful colors of November's "certain loveliness" seemed to appear everywhere in the woods, as the evergreen of ceder branches, the red of rose hips, and the bright blushing pink of beautyberries (Callicarpa americana) joined the brown seed and flower heads. The wild privet (Ligustrum vulgare), whose white flowers fill one short stretch of my walking path with fragrance in the Spring, is now covered in waxy blue berries, poisonous to humans, but delectable to winter songbirds, and they, along with the glossy black berries of the edible greenbriar vine (Smilax rotundifolia), complete a picturesque wintry bouquet. A glorious autumn has ended in this thoughtful spot, and a peaceful winter has begun.
November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.
With night coming early
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.
The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring.
- Clyde Watson
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.
With night coming early
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.
The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring.
- Clyde Watson
Usually I make my way to this thoughtful spot in the afternoon. Late in the day, when the sun is high and warm, it's pleasant to break from the happenings of the day and sit here in the woods for a while. But today it's morning, late morning, it's true, but still well before noon and quite marvelously different from my usual afternoon writing hour. The pasture above me is bright and sunny, but here at my thoughtful spot there is a peaceful sense of morning quietude.
O hushed October morning mild,/Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,/Should waste them all.
- Robert Frost, October
The dew hasn't quite dried in this little valley, it rests still on the rocks in the creek bank, on the drooping ferns that were hardy enough to weather last night's frost, on a few spider's webs that drape between branches, and on the deep, crackling carpet of brown leaves. The sunlight reaches this spot later in the morning than it did earlier in the year, yet with greater ease now that many of the trees are leafless, so at the moment every lingering dew drop, and the splashes from the waterfall, and the ripples in the creek sparkle in the late morning light. Across the creek from me a steady chain of diamonds is dripping from a rock ledge. My thoughtful spot is all a-twinkle, as though it has been dusted in glitter and gemstones and tiny stars.
 Dew Drops photographed by W. A. Bentley |
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From where I'm sitting I can see a bramble bush covered in tiny red rose hips (Rosa canina). These bright little herbs are one of the highest plant sources of vitamin C, and they are ready to be harvested on these cold October days and dried for use in teas and syrups throughout the winter. The wild persimmons (Diospyros virginiana) too, are ripe, and even sweeter now after a frost. While walking this morning I came across a bewildered bunch of blooming violets (Viola papilionacea), who must have mistaken these chilly, sunny days for the beginning of spring. A few of their little purple blossoms are pressing in my dictionary at the moment, waiting to be sent off in letters in the middle of winter as a cheery promise of warmer days.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
- John Keats, To Autumn
On the edge of a field this morning I saw a lingering tassel of goldenrod (Solidago gigantea) that survived the frost. It stood out in beautifully bright yellow against the browns of the bare trees around it. Goldenrod is often accused of causing seasonal allergies, but it is actually ragweed, an unassuming little wildflower that blooms around the same time and in similar areas as goldenrod, that is the true culprit. In fact, goldenrod has been traditionally used to help reduce the symptoms of seasonal ragweed allergies. It's golden flowers can be dried and steeped as an herbal infusion, or its sweet, herbaceous, and slightly bitter flowers can infused in honey. This one last bloom however, will not be dried and turned into an herbal remedy. It is now sitting on my desk in a bright blue vase of crackled glass that sparkles when the sun hits it, a reminder of a beautiful summer.
O hushed October morning mild, / Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief. / Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know... / Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst. / Slow! Slow!
- Robert Frost, October
In recent years as herbalism has gained popularity, one remedy in particular has become very familiar, Elderberry Syrup. But this wonderful remedy is far from new. The elder tree has a long and beautiful herbal history, every part of the plant has been used medicinally, and the flowers and berries have wonderful flavors and healthful benefits to match. But the history of this herb is not only medicinal, the tree’s wood was once prized for making harps and flutes, and the juice of the berries was commonly used as ink and as a dye for fabric, or even hair.
Medicinally speaking, elderberries are very high in vitamin C, and also contain high amounts of antioxidants and minerals. The berries are perhaps most famous as a cold and flu remedy, due to their high vitamin C content and support of healthy immune function. They are known to work especially well in preventing or shortening the duration of upper respiratory infections. Modern medical studies continue to support this traditional use and elderberries have definitely earned their fame as an excellent immune boosting herb. Historical uses and some recent research suggests that elderberries can strengthen eyesight, and the berries are also known to have strong anti-inflammatory properties, which is reflected in their common historical use as a remedy to relive arthritic pain and inflammation.
Medicinally speaking, elderberries are very high in vitamin C, and also contain high amounts of antioxidants and minerals. The berries are perhaps most famous as a cold and flu remedy, due to their high vitamin C content and support of healthy immune function. They are known to work especially well in preventing or shortening the duration of upper respiratory infections. Modern medical studies continue to support this traditional use and elderberries have definitely earned their fame as an excellent immune boosting herb. Historical uses and some recent research suggests that elderberries can strengthen eyesight, and the berries are also known to have strong anti-inflammatory properties, which is reflected in their common historical use as a remedy to relive arthritic pain and inflammation.
Elderflowers contain slightly different medicinal properties than the berries, and are chiefly known for two benefits: lowering fevers, and promoting healthy skin. Warm elderflower tea is an excellent remedy for lowering fevers and helping cool the body, especially when combined with similarly cooling herbs such as peppermint and yarrow. Taking elderflower tea regularly while sick has also been reported to shorten the duration of feverish cold or flu, much like elderberries. But the delicate lace flowers also promote beautiful skin. An elderflower tea wash or an elderflower-infused oil or lotion gently detoxifies the skin and soothes any skin inflammation, such as acne or sunburn. Some studies also show that elderflowers can help protect the skin against damage from UV light, making it the perfect herb to add to a summer lotion.
An old English rhyme says that summer begins with elder flowers, and ends with elder berries. The season of elderberries is upon us, so it’s the perfect time of year to preserve the healthful benefits of this herb for the winter season. And when summer begins again with elderflower, remember that legend claims if one waits patiently under an elder bush on midsummer’s eve, one might see fairies dancing at their midsummer’s feast.
An old English rhyme says that summer begins with elder flowers, and ends with elder berries. The season of elderberries is upon us, so it’s the perfect time of year to preserve the healthful benefits of this herb for the winter season. And when summer begins again with elderflower, remember that legend claims if one waits patiently under an elder bush on midsummer’s eve, one might see fairies dancing at their midsummer’s feast.
Basic Elderberry Syrup Recipe
- 1 cup dried elderberries
- 4 cups water
- 1/2 cup raw honey
The other day my 2-year-old nephew and I went for a walk. Such a walk with a little companion is always bound to be wondrous, and this one was delightfully so. We walked back and forth repeatedly over a patch of grass under the poplar tree, laughing happily as brown and yellow leaves crunched under our bare feet. We were listening to the sound of Fall. My walk here today was full of that sound, and the rustling, crackling, crunching rhythm as I trudge through leaf-covered cow paths is pleasantly companionable and familiar. The trees, too, are rustling, the drying leaves whispering to each other just before they fall. A friend once told me that there is an old word for books in a native American language that translates to "talking trees," a name derived from the sound of turning pages and this autumnal sound of wind in the leaves.
"And all at once, summer collapsed into fall."
- Oscar Wilde
Here at my thoughtful spot, the waterfall drowns out most sounds, certainly the gentle sound of rustling leaves, but not all. A woodpecker is keeping up a happy knocking on a tree across the creek from me, too far away and high up for me to tell what kind, but he's small and I see a little splash of read, so I'm guessing he's a downy. He's hopping in circles back and forth and up and down the trunk, high above me in the yellow leaves where the sunlight hits, he must be quite a happy little fellow.
"Delicious Autumn! ...if I were a bird, I would fly about
the earth seeking successive autumns."
the earth seeking successive autumns."
- George Eliot
A breeze must have blown through those treetops just now, for a marvelous dancing flurry of leaves has just fallen. They look like golden snowflakes falling so slowly, as if trying to defy gravity and enjoy their flight for as long as possible. Though I'm in deep shade here as I write, I have only to look up and the sunlight is all dappled golden above me. That canopy that was such vivid green only a month ago, is now saturated with the warmest light, the tree trunks are creamy white in the sunshine, and the leaves are every imaginable shade of yellow. Isn't it lovely that as the weather cools the colors warm?
"How wonderful yellow is. It stands for the sun."
- Vincent Van Gogh
From the Sketchbook of Beatrix Potter Between the moss and fallen leaves on the forest floor around me, dozens of miniature wonders have sprung up. Patches of delicate, pale pink Lady's Thumb are every where, its new shoots in the spring are edible, and songbirds love the seeds in the autumn. The tiniest toadstools grow in little clusters, they seem very fitting in this setting that is full of the scent of decomposing leaves and rich, damp earth warmed by a companionable and gentle sunshine. Though perhaps they would look more at home in the mists of these early autumn mornings, rather than the warmth of late afternoon. I remember learning once that Beatrix Potter, though best known for her beloved watercolors of rabbits in jackets, was a mycologist, and loved to paint fungi. She would have been very happy in this little thoughtful spot, I think, with such a plethora of interesting subjects to paint. One day I hope to distinguish with confidence between the poisonous and nutritious varieties of of these odd little plants, but for now I believe I shall content myself with attempting to sketch them in their native habitat, rather than bringing them home for dinner!
