“A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.” ~ Hermann Hesse
A beloved 800 year old oak tree – The Klopstock Oak
A person should go out on the water on a fine day to a small distance from a beautiful coast, if he would see Nature really smile. Never does she look so delightful, as when the sun is brightly reflected by the water, while the waves are gently rippling, and the prospect receives life and animation from the glancing transit of an occasional row-boat, and the quieter motion of a few small vessels. But the land must be well in sight; not only for its own sake, but because the immensity and awfulness of a mere sea-view would ill accord with the other parts of the glittering and joyous scene.
~ Augustus William Hare
The snow began to fall again, drifting against the windows, politely begging entrance and then falling with disappointment to the ground.
Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
We grasp a few apples from a wooden box, on our way down the stairs. The snowy roads are quiet, and the snow sparkles in the low sun. We park our bikes up against the trees leaning over the frozen lake.
There are all kind of people out skating. Old and youngsters and those in between.
We can hear the children screaming when one of them gets caught on the frozen lake.
It’s a unified image of joy and desire for life.
The only light on the lake is the sun setting in the horizon and a few street lamps up upon the hill. Yet, it never gets completely dark. Later on the moon lights up the snow, and makes the evening unforgettable.
It is only when the cold overwhelms us that we find our way home after an experience of a lifetime.
This wonderful evocative painting from the Danish painter Anders Andersen-Lundby, refreshed one of many outings I had with my brother, when we were children.
When we had given our bodies to the wind,
And all the shadowy banks, on either side,
Came sweeping through the darkness, spinning still
The rapid line of motion; then at once
Have I, reclining back upon my heels,
Stopp’d short, yet still the solitary Cliffs
Wheeled by me, even as if the earth had roll’d
With visible motion her diurnal round;
Behind me did they stretch in solemn train
Feebler and feebler, and I stood and watch’d
Till all was tranquil as a dreamless sleep.
William Wordsworth from “The Prelude”
When the day grew dark, a rosy glow coloured the sky. A subdued but beautiful fireworks.
It has turned into some memorable walks throughout the year. Snow and clear weather provided us with a wonderful light. Beautiful spring days followed with an abundance of flowering trees and shrubs. Then came summer with a great intensity of bird song and a few weeks of hot weather. In the middle of September the rain sat in and it did’t stop again until Christmas. Well, it has varied between overcast, misty weather, fog and no sun. But it does good to think about the first half because it was infinitely beautiful.
An Irish Blessing:
May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live.
I did this walk with awe on a hard winter day in 2011. Every part of the landscape had turned itself into an adventure due to a heavy snowfall during the night.
Happy Winter Solstice
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, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
High upon a forest slope tucked between the trees stands a bench. Sometimes I climb up the slope just to sit in silence on that bench. A seep emerges at the foot of the hill and all kind of birds come here to drink. Even Hugin and Munin ⚡🙂 A temple of nature.
“And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” ~ William Shakespeare
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Nothing gold can stay ~ Robert Frost
HANNA'S WALK 
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