summerlike

The weekend was more like July than May in Vermont. Doors and windows open day and night. Eliza and Erin spent time in the little plastic pool and the creek. Iced coffee!

phlox

Ordinary, ubiquitous, beautiful.

May

jack-in-the-pulpit

Wood rack up in the attic. Patio furniture down from the attic. Kayaks for sale at Dicks. Grass comes up to the back of the fox as he hunts in the back field.

jewels

Dandelions in the yard. There are thousands of them. I remember a day at work some years ago at this time of year. I was walking over to production, and a dandelion puff caught my eye. I stopped and glanced at it, walked some more and looked, walked some more, bent down and really scrutinized it. I have no idea why I did that.
The seeds were in themselves an amazing example of aeronautical design, but the way they were arranged in the familiar circular pattern was also remarkable. The was a pattern to the way they were all arrayed around each other, economical, complicated yet simple, elegant. On the one hand it was truly a miracle of design, on the other hand, what could me more humble or mundane? After all, there were thousands of them all over the place.
I don't know how long I sat there looking at it. Eventually a co-worker came by, and I called out to her to take a look at it. She said, "Oh yeah, I have those all over my lawn. Now I have to mow it on Saturday to get rid of them." That wasn't the reaction I was looking for.

On Sunday during the talk, Roshi spoke about Indra's Net, a Buddhist metaphor for reality. She talked about how every person, every thing is a jewel in the web of Indra's net.

Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of dieties, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each "eye" of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering like stars of the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there in an infinite reflecting process occurring.
Avatamsaka Sutra

always

columbine

There are always flowers for those who want to see them.

Henri Matisse

Zen page a day calendar

on the town

So this is what passes for a night on the town in rural Vermont. We went over to a friend's house for a simple yet very tasty dinner of pizza and salad. After dinner, we went outside and roasted marshmallows for s'mores. The full moon was shining. The hostess provided a paper lantern that was released in memory of my father. Very grateful.

asparagus!

consider

Trout Lily

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil or spin; yet I tell you, Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Matthew 6:25

turning

wake robin

I've been gone for a couple of weeks, but the wheel turns. Lawn has been mowed for the first time. House wrens are busy in the mornings. Apple blossoms appearing.

back

Glad to be back where it's green again.

winds of spring

success

We are always trying to find new things to keep Eliza interested/occupied. The other day I got Eliza a net to catch things with. We went up to the vernal pool in the back to see what we could find. It was a little early yet, but Erin spotted a red salamander which was briefly captured in the net so the trip was a success. We picked ramps on the way back home, and had them with spaghetti for dinner.