Good morning!

"In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary. " 

~Aaron Rose

After several days of rain, I was happy to see the sun return last week. 

Not that I wasn't grateful for the rain - it raised the level of our pond a couple of feet - but I much prefer starting my day with a gorgeous sunrise.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from my morning walks last week...

(juniper pollen buds ... waiting for just the right breeze to wreak havoc with my allergies!)

And of course Belle was right by my side. 

"In this holy moment before the day begins,

I turn to you, O Lord, and ask:

shape the words in my mouth,

the actions of my body, 

the thoughts of my mind.

Let everything that comes from me

reflect the light that comes from you.

Amen."

-        Patricia Leonard-Pasley

Horizons...

Every year, soon after school starts, I travel to the coast with a group of women. 

It started as a "mom retreat"... a chance to take a deep breath so the craziness of a new school year didn't drive us all...well, crazy.

My kids are all grown, but I find I need that deep breath of salty air just as much now as I did then.

It will be here in just a few weeks.

The only problem with the weekend is my addiction...to photography.

Everywhere I look, I see something I want to capture, and I'm never satisfied taking just one shot.  

It's intimidating when I get back home to the real world, where there's no time for editing a billion photos. 

And that's why it took until now to edit them, when I'm feeling like that weekend can't get here soon enough.

Here's the first batch...

Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; 

only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road.

Dag Hammarskjold

A dream is the bearer of a new possibility, the enlarged horizon, the great hope.

Howard Thurman

The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, 

and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, 

for each day to have a new and different sun.

Christopher McCandless

You must learn day by day, year by year to broaden your horizon. 

The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about,

 the more you have left when anything happens.

Ethel Barrymore

We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction

 that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon.

 We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

When you grow up by the sea, you spend a good deal of time looking at the horizon. 

You wonder what on Earth the waves might bring - and where the sea might deposit you - 

until one day you know you have lived between two places, 

the scene of arrival and the point of departure.

Andrew O'Hagan

The cloud never comes from the quarter of the horizon from which we watch for it.

Elizabeth Gaskell

When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.

Thomas Paine

Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? 

Better make the horizon your goal; it will always be ahead of you.

William Makepeace Thackeray

Tequila Sunrises (and Sunsets)

I just spent four sunshine-filled days on the coast with twenty women and my camera...

...with some dancing and ping-pong thrown in. 

That's pretty dang close to heaven for me.

I tried my best to get up in time to capture the sunrises, 

which is always in direct conflict with my desire to catch up on rest - and go dancing!

But the sunrises just called me every morning. 

No alarm clocks are necessary when you don't want to waste a single moment of a weekend you wait for all year. 

(The sunsets were captured purely by accident and more glorious because of it.)

"What more pleasant sensation than sunshine on skin, 

Spirit and flesh drinking in the light 

Of God and energy itself." 

~ Terri Guillemets

Ten from January

Do you ever get bogged down by photos? 

I haven't had a lot of time to post, but I never stop snapping.

It can be a problem!

Here are a few I want to share with you from the past few weeks... 

My sweet Belle. A pile of sand is heaven to her!

Is it just me or is there a person trying to get out of this dead tree?

It reminds me of a ship's masthead.

Winery gift shop wisdom

If these Diva wine koozies were for sale, I'd buy them all!

Sunset on the way home from work, (iPhone 3 via Instagram)

I stood and watched the sun bring the colors of these trees to life, by way of their reflection in the pond.

Max is running!

I just love old cedar posts and barbed wire.

And silhouettes of trees against the sky.

This is how we heat our whole house, even on frosty mornings, thanks to my design-genius husband.

Shy

"Good morning, gorgeous," the sun said with a wink.

And the hollow blushed. 

(Mindful Writing Challenge small stone #6)

Fire in the Sky

"With each sunrise, we start anew."

My days have gotten longer and longer; I stay busy from before the sunrise until long after sunset.

I still snap photo after photo, but haven't had time to share them here.

But this morning I stepped out just as the sun touched the clouds, setting the sky on fire.

I had to share.

 (no editing of this photo at all - this was truly the color that met me. Sigh.)

"You don't need somebody to interpret for you what a beautiful sunrise it is." 

~ Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

I looked the other direction and saw this ... splashes of sunlight way over there ... again, no editing.

A few minutes later, the fire was out, but look what was left behind - like sheets billowing in the wind.

I felt I could reach up and touch them ... 

I imagined they'd feel soft as silk ...

There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope. 

~ Bern Williams

Last week I captured these shots in the morning...

But just a few seconds later, the magic was gone.

Timing is everything.

"Sunrise doesn't last all morning, a cloudburst doesn't last all day.

Seems my love is up and has left you with no warning. It's not always going to be this grey. 

All things must past, all things must pass away." 

~ George Harrison

But look what appeared that evening.

Glorious sunrise.

Glorious sunset.

And then one morning I saw this...

...and on another, this...

As you can see, I spend a lot of time looking up.

But if I have to be up this early, at least I get to see a wonderful show.

What is the good of your stars and trees, 

your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives? 

 ~ E.M. Forster