“As much as I converse with sages and heroes, they have very little of my love and admiration. I long for rural and domestic scene, for the warbling of birds and the prattling of my children.”
~John Adams (1735-1826), 2nd President of the United States of America
(Quote Source: quotegarden.com)
I agree wholeheartedly with John Adams!
“The farther one gets into the wilderness, the greater is the attraction of its lonely freedom.”
~Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 26th President of the United States of America
(Quote Source: quoteaddicts.com)
Autumn colors begin to make their annual appearance in northern Wisconsin.
“Everything has seasons, and we have to be able to recognize when something’s time has passed and be able to move into the next season. Everything that is alive requires pruning as well, which is a great metaphor for endings.”
~ Dr. Henry Cloud (1956- ), American psychologist
(Quote Source: brainyquote.com)
Maple leaves showing off their color for this first day of fall.
“Summer is always the best of what might be.”
~Charles Bowden (1945-2014), American author and journalist
(Quote Source: goodreads.com)
A last of summer dahlia that is blooming in my garden.
“A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children.”
~John James Audubon (1785-1851), American scientist
(Quote Source: brainyquote.com)
A great blue heron flies gracefully across a Minnesota lake as the sun dips lower into the horizon.
“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
~Dolly Parton (1946- ), American musician
(Quote Source: brainyquote.com)
Beautiful rainbow colors against a stormy sky.
“The marvels of daily life are exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street.”
~Robert Doisneau (1912-1994), French photographer
(Quote Source: brainyquote.com)
While some may debate the “excitement” of this photo, I encourage viewers to consider the way the vine has wound its way around the dead branches of an old tree. It was the lovely pink blossom of this wild morning glory that caught my eye as I walked. Note the blossoms yet to open during these lovely fall days of September – an unexpected find that brought a smile to my face.
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
~Albert Camus (1913-1960), French philosopher
(Quote Source: brainyquote.com)
One of the first leaves that I have come across on my property in northern Minnesota to change color. Autumn is here.
“Whatever we are waiting for – peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance – it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart.”
~ Sarah Ban Breathnach (1947- ), American author
(Quote Source: brainyquote.com)
A swan flies over the wild rice beds of the Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge located in McGregor, Minnesota.
To learn more about the refuge, please visit their website.
“The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The songs of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.”
~ Dorothy Frances Gurney (1858-1932), “God’s Garden” lines 13–16, Poems, by Dorothy Frances Gurney
A freshly emerged monarch butterfly flits about a garden in Duluth, Minnesota.
“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.”
~ Henry Ford (1863-1947), American businessman
(Quote Source: brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/henryford122851.html)
I like woodpeckers because they always use their heads!
“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we only tune in.”
~George Washington Carver (1860s-1943), American botanist and inventor
(Quote Source: smithsonianmag.com)
A lovely walkway at Burwell Park in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
~Maya Angelou (1928-2014), American poet, memoirist, actress and an important figure in the American Civil Rights Movement
(Quote Source: goodreads.com)
An Eastern Tiger Swallowtail enjoying the nectar of a zinnia in my backyard.
This is my lovable companion and rescue dog, Emmet.
Happy National Dog Day!
“The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs.”
~ Vince Havner (1901-1986), American Baptist preacher
(Quote Source: thinkexist.com)
These beautiful old stone steps are found at Jay Cooke State Park in Carlton, Minnesota.
“I find standing and posing for photos very awkward.”
~Nicole Kidman (1967- ), Actress
(Quote Source: brainyquote.com)
This American Bittern apparently does not share Nicole Kidman’s discomfort. It stood still for quite some time, almost seeming to pose for the picture.
“Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. The quality of cranes lies, I think, in this higher gamut, as yet beyond the reach of words.”
~ Aldo Leopold (1887-1948), A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There
I was startled to come upon this juvenile Sandhill Crane standing alone in a clearing. No doubt the parents had taken cover by hiding among the trees in the background.
“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”
~Willie Nelson (1933- ), American country music singer-songwriter
(Quote source: brainyquote.com)
A yellow wildflower adorns a country fence.
“For most gulls it was not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight.”
~Richard Bach, (1936- ) Jonathan Livingston Seagull
(Quote Source: goodreads.com)
A Ring-billed Gull that flew steadily alongside our pontoon as we traveled across the water.
“The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), Poet
(Quote Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/johannwolf104256.html?src=t_beauty)
A lone Great Egret at twilight, patiently on the hunt for frogs or fish in a Minnesota wetland. I sat by myself on the shore and quietly watched this graceful bird.
