Sunday Dinner: Transposition

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“The divine laws are quite simple –

they state that every ending is the new beginning.

This world isn’t ruled only by two forces –

the Creation and the Destruction.

The third force – Transformation –

the force of Nature, exists too,

and is, in fact, the blend of the other two.”

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Tamuna Tsertsvadze

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“What transforms this world is — knowledge.

Do you see what I mean? Nothing else

can change anything in this world.

Knowledge alone is capable of transforming the world,

while at the same time leaving it exactly as it is.

When you look at the world with knowledge,

you realize that things are unchangeable

and at the same time are constantly being transformed.”

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Yukio Mishima

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“Scared and sacred are spelled with the same letters.

Awful proceeds from the same root word as awesome.

Terrify and terrific.

Every negative experience holds the seed of transformation.”

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Alan Cohen

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“He was trying to find his footing

in a world both familiar and foreign”

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H.W. Brands

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“Nobody really metamorphoses.

Cinderella is always Cinderella, just in a nicer dress.

The Ugly Duckling was always a swan, just a smaller version.

And I bet the tadpole and the caterpillar

still feel the same, even when they’re jumping and flying,

swimming and floating.

Just like I am now.”

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Holly Smale

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“Light precedes every transition.

Whether at the end of a tunnel,

through a crack in the door or the flash of an idea,

it is always there,

heralding a new beginning.”

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Teresa Tsalaky

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2018

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“We must live in the radiance of tomorrow,

as our ancestors have suggested in their tales.

For what is yet to come tomorrow has possibilities,

and we must think of it, the simplest glimpse

of that possibility of goodness.

That will be our strength.

That has always been our strength.”

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Ishmael Beah

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Blossom XXXIX: Hydrangea

Oakleaf Hydrangea ‘Snow Queen’

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Watching the Hydrangeas bloom can keep me entertained for a long time.  This is a slow-motion feast for the eyes as the flowers unfold and subtly change over a period of weeks each spring.

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Oakleaf Hydrangea ‘Ruby Slippers’ is a smaller shrub, and its flowers turn a rosy dusky pink in summer.

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The flowers are barely noticeable as they begin to appear, small, tight and creamy green against the shrub’s large leaves.

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H. quercifolia ‘Snow Queen’ four years on from planting.

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As the panicles lengthen and swell, the buds open, one by one,  into pure white flowers.

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Even as they open, the flowers remain subtle in early summer, allowing the shrub’s beautiful leaves to garner equal admiration.

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Texture remains more interesting than color in these early stages of the oakleaf Hydrangea’s annual show.

As the flowers mature, they will become more noticeably white before fading to shades of cream, pink, mauve, and finally caramel.  By October, the leaves will still command our attention as they turn scarlet.

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But in May, these beautiful native Hydrangeas emerge lush and green, blending into the lush, leafy enveloping green of our early summer garden.

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Woodland Gnome 2018

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“Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally.

Make it the object of pursuit,

and it leads us a wild-goose chase,

and is never attained.”

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Nathaniel Hawthorne

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“At last came the golden month of the wild folk-

– honey-sweet May,

when the birds come back, and the flowers come out,

and the air is full of the sunrise scents and songs

of the dawning year.”
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Samuel Scoville Jr.