A. Walden's photostream  

For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

-- Herman Hesse

[The entire brief essay if you'd like: www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/27688]

Unseasonably warm temperatures hovering right around the freezing point have resulted in some unusual circumstances around the house...such as these fascinating, if not somewhat threatening protruberances from the roof. While certainly unwise to loiter below...even for the purposes of taking photos...this phenomenon has also produced other sensory stimulation in the form of regular loud thuds as portions have deposited themselves on my deck which is now covered with about 3 feet of transferred roof snow. These irregular thumps are sufficient to send the cat flying into safety zones and well away from the windows from which they seem to originate. After allowing sufficient time for the danger to pass, and peeking around the corner to insure that it is safe, she will venture cautiously out to investigate the cause of her discomfort...only to be sent zooming off again when another segment detaches itself, slamming into the deck once more.

And the two shall be as one...

Happy Anniversary, Nic and Sigi...

[A rework of a previous effort, but appropriate I thought...]

As the woods are the same, the trees standing in their places, the rocks and the earth... they are always different too, as lights and shadows and seasons and moods pass through them.

-- Emily Carr

[Good larger and on black, perhaps...]

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth...

-- Robert Frost