Rock solid

We are so busy. Consequently, we do the same things every day, seemingly cut off from the world around us.

As New Englanders, we live in a winter climate that is constantly in flux -- snow, sleet, ice, repeat. But most times, we travel from house to car to workplace, then from workplace to car to house, oblivious to anything but the cold.

On Saturday mornings, I seek to take the blinders off and really see. Sometimes I notice the things I omit.

Take rocks, for example. Here at the summer place they are everywhere. Stones are furniture to people who live by the seashore. I can honestly say that some of the best times in my life have been spent sitting on a stone by the sea with my mom.

Yet if I really focus, I realize that they are the vantage point to view the Creator's art.

Standing stones lead the way to the beach.

Don't fence me in. Millions of stones make up this paddock.

Rocks encircle the beach. Sit a spell or cast a line.

Someone walking the beach stacked stones on a picnic table.

This stone wall marks the boundary of our back yard.

Summer house beckons in springtime

Awaiting the start of the season, we wander around the summer house, glimpsing the natural world around us. 

Signs of the Creator's handiwork are everywhere: in the brilliant yellow petals of daffodils, the drumming of a woodpecker's bill boring into a tree, and the contented munching of a pair of horses dining on nature's bounty. 

While we soon will awaken the summer house from its long winter's nap, we count the days until we fling open the windows, mow the lawn and roll the barbecue grill out of the shed.

Meanwhile, we sit on the picnic table and dream of sunny days, soft breezes and the soothing sounds of the sea...

A welcoming sight -- daffodils bloom along the
stone wall, while clay pots wait to be filled.

A male downy woodpecker clings to the trunk of our tree,
 while he digs a nest hole with his long pointed bill.

Our quintessential New England seaside town with
 its stone walls, farmland and sea beyond.

Horses graze in a pasture dotted with yellow wildflowers.

Melted snow and abundant spring rains created wetlands, where trees
 stand tall, partly submerged in the middle of a pond.