Winter and spring have been duking it out but, I think spring has finally won. I love to walk into the woods this time of year. In general, I prefer walking in the fields and woods rather than on the roads, but they're usually too overgrown to enjoy in the warmer seasons and I don't feel safe out there during hunting season. Spring is the perfect time with the forest floor clear of brambles and weeds and hunters. I spotted plenty of new growth beginning to peek out from under the leaves.
I entered the woods through the graveyard behind our property. I hadn't visited it in a long while and I wondered about its condition. Someone used to keep it trimmed but we haven't heard anyone back there for a couple of years now. I'm afraid it's fallen into a state of neglect. As I walked around the tombstones I thought how sad it was to see the place forgotten like this. On the other hand, I thought how appropriate for nature to slowly cover it over and entomb it completely.
From this rise, the graves are sentinels over the field and our house below.
The prettiest tombstone here.
Counting a life in years, months, and days.
Several of the graves are marked simply like this. The newest stone is dated 1919. Everything else dates backwards from there. The surface of the graveyard is covered in Periwinkle. It is a carpet of blue when in bloom.
Traces of love. This is a beautiful ruffled variety of daffodil.
Unfurling
This was right on a deer path. I wonder of they eat this and if so, it must be a spring delicacy.
Next to the graveyard is an old animal enclosure. Based on its size, I'm guessing it may have been a pigpen.
I'm reminded that everything is in a constant state of entropy. (Is it we who have created the entropy and God simply calls it back to himself through his perfect creation of nature? Hmm. Although nature is in a fallen state, so... There's a good theological discussion in there.)
I see a beautiful walking stick here.
Do these hinges go in two different directions and how would that have worked? There is only one opening to the pigpen. Would the farmer who built this please come and explain this to me?
The routine, humdrum days are sprinkled with odds and ends of activity now and then. All together, it keeps life interesting. Underlying everything right now is some extreme back pain that I'm experiencing. It fogs my brain and prevents me from forming cohesive thoughts, hence the title of this post. Anyway, here's what's been going on.
First off, I finished my latest rug! It's fairly large and I will hang it on a wall for now because Henri likes to...well, ruin them. Poor little man.
I celebrated another birthday. I had a combination of older folks extolling my youth and younger folks thinking I'm getting rather old. My six-year-old granddaughter guessed my age to be a crotchety thirty-three. It's all a matter of perspective.
Audrey and I took a trip down to Raleigh to shop for maternity things
and to have some fun in general. There is SO much to do in Raleigh and
Claire is the perfect hostess. I like to visit the grandchildren in
their own home where they can share their daily life with us on their
own turf. We had a girl's day out at the coffee shop with shopping
afterward. It was perfect in every way (except for the back pain- it
even hurts to laugh). Audrey and I stopped at a couple of antique shops
between Roanoke and Raleigh. She found an adorable little antique hutch.
The shop owner knocked the price down to one that we couldn't refuse
and he even managed to fit it into my car! Mind you, we had suitcases
and shopping bags to boot. What fun it was. Audrey is satisfying some of
that nesting urge.
Sola coffee shop.The place was packed with customers except for this little corner.
Where there's a will, there's a way. The bottom of the hutch went on the back seat and the glass cupboard top went in the trunk.
Tess' boyfriend lost his mom to pneumonia last week. Our family grieved with him and I still grieve today. I did not know this lady well, but I know her son and I know what it's like to lose a mother. She had just turned fifty years old the week before her passing. It is too sad for words.
Our two daughters who are expecting babies this summer include me in their photo texts of baby bump comparisons. Our family is certainly entering a new phase of growth and there is much joy to share as we celebrate each phase. In quieter moments, we discuss motherhood and some of the sadder aspects of parenting that our various careers expose us to. We see cases of child abuse, families struggling with addiction and poverty, immigrant families settling into a strange, new country, and we know intimately about abortion. I know we can do better as a society. But for now, we do what we can individually in our own communities. It begins by talking, though. We need to keep talking.
It is now 5:28 AM. I have been up since 3:15, unable to sleep from the back pain. I plan to cook a belated St. Patrick's Day dinner later today: corned beef and cabbage, of course! I'll add the prized pepperoni sticks, some potatoes and carrots and we will have a feast. First, I will go back to bed for a spell. Thank goodness for Motrin.
Steve has to work this weekend and I won't be able to get myself to worship at church this morning. Here is a verse that I've been reading and re-reading since last Sunday along with a song for Sunday singing. I'm singing as one today : )
1John: 15-17
"Neither love the world nor the things in the world. Whoever loves the world has not the Father's love in his heart, because everything in the world, the passions of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the proud display of life have their origin not from the Father but from the world. And the world with its lust passes away, but he who does the will of God remains forever. "
