A Courtyard Full of Trees

All in a Row

Planted All in a Row

In the Highest Field

Seed Heads

Snow Capped Seed Heads

I think continually of those who were truly great
Who from the womb,
Remembered the soul’s history
Through corridors of light
where the hours are suns,
Endless singing
Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips
still touched with fire
Should tell the spirit
Clothed from head to foot in song
and who hoarded from the spring branches.

The desires falling
across their bodies like blossoms.
What is precious is never to forget
The delight of the blood
drawn from ageless springs
Breaking through rocks
in words before our earth;
Never to deny pleasure
in the simple morning light,
Not its grave evening demand for love;
Never to allow gradually
the traffic to smother
With noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.

Near the snow, near the sun,
in the highest field
See how those names are feted
by the wavering grass,
And whispers of wind in the listening sky;
The names of those
who in their lives fought for life,
Who wore at their hearts the fire’s centre
Born of the sun, they traveled
a short while towards the sun
And left the vivid air
Signed with their honor.

Sir Stephen Spender

Three Leaves

December Fog

December Fog

Madison has already had 35 inches of snowfall, and until today most of it was on the ground. Then a warm front moved in and a heavy fog settled on everything. Now there are bare patches of muddy earth peeking from the patches of snow.  But it made for a fun afternoon of photography.

Until the rain began to pour.

Picnic, Anyone?

Devils Lake State Park

Devil's Lake State Park

This is the very popular picnic area at Devil’s Lake State Park near Baraboo, Wisconsin. Today there are plenty of picnic tables available with a great view of the lake. These tables are usually at a premium. If you want to picnic here in July or August, you must set up your area at dawn.

Of course, if you’d prefer picnicking in December and don’t mind air temps about 7˚F or the wind chill below 20˚, then getting a table is no problem.

Enjoy.

Mailbox, Suspended in Winter

Rural Mail

Rural Mail

This mailbox photo may become one in a series of photographs – the kind of series where one takes the same shot every season of the year.

We were driving home from a nature break at Devil’s Lake State Park near Baraboo, Wisconsin, when I saw the very mailbox I captured this autumn. It was an easy hop out of the car and a quick shot, especially since I was half frozen from tramping in the park, and the windchill was in the frostbite zone. It wasn’t until I downloaded my photos on my Mac, that I realized the mailbox looks as if I caught it mid-flight, ready to hurtle itself into my camera lens.