Splendor in the Grass

Oh yes, my heart leaps up too, William.




"I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o're vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodil's;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."

Alice came over early, brought a bag of food, odds and ends, and we walked the hills of Cliffs of the Brazos. About three miles, a loop with Pathfinder Rd. With her Dashhound Levi, and my Sally and Iago. Trying to keep the bods strong and the useless fat down. I love to see the flowers pop up so regularly after rains in March, April adds showers (sometimes!) and in regular procession, the spring beauties open up to the sun and the bees and butterflies. This area is barely developed. We make fun of most of the houses, so inappropriate for these rural, wild settings. Sales are slow, it seems. And the most beautiful site will soon be crowned by a clumsy, ugly mansion. One of the few "Cliffs", actually, the lot has the most spectacular view. But the land is supported by some of the weakest, most fragile rock, which keeps sliding down the cliff onto the road below. Does not bode well.

I took some flower pictures, put them together hastily, in Mac Works, came up with the above. Caught as it were, in a matrix of wild mustard, are evening primrose, fringed piccune, on top, and fresh, green oak gauls, and Englemann Daisies, on bottom. There were the beginnings of paintbrush too, which I must go back for, as my picture did not pan out very well. We were sore from the second day of walking after a winter break.

I looked in the bag she brought, and there was sausage, mushrooms, red bell pepper, an avocado yet. Stir fried these up with garlic, herbs from the garden like oregano, garlic chives and rosemary. I even found a small onion. It looked pretty good. I took it out, put in a couple spicy red corn tortillas, Alice gets from somewhere like San Antonio, then poached a couple eggs my chickens laid. Cut the avocado into chunks, seasoned with Louisiana style hot sauce, et voila: breakfast, washed down by some Mexican roasted coffee. Who could ask for anything more????? God is great!





Wordsworth is the ultimate nature poet. "Intimations of Immortality" is one of the greatest poems to live close to. It has something for your intire life. Now that I enter dotage I revel in such:

"What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now forever taken from my sight.
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
we will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
which having been must ever be;
in the soothing thoughts that spring
out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
in years that bring the philosophic mind...."