Ladybug's Landing

2008 is here!

2008-01-05T10:17:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year . . . I have high hopes for 2008. We plan on moving at the end of May, which is the biggest thing on my mind. We haven't found a new place yet, but we desperately want to end our long commutes to and from work. We've lived in Bridgewater for about 15 years now, which is a really long time! The house in which I grew up I lived in for 15 years before we moved down the street to our new house. It's amazing how old I am now... I'm proud of some things I did in 2007, and I'm excited about the upcoming year. I hope to do much more photography, more yoga and other wonderful things. I also hope to make new friends. May the winding road lead to all that's good.

The holidays are upon us

2007-11-21T13:55:00.000-05:00

I don't know if anyone other than myself is looking at this blog, but I decided to use it rather than it just sit here not doing anything. This used to be the site for my photoblog "Ladybug's Leaf", which moved a year ago last May. I kept this place around because my account with Photoblogs.org is still associated with this site. Hopefully he'll fix that at some point. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving ~ the holiday that brings on the Christmas crazyness. I'm trying hard this year to not get overwhelmed or depressed. No matter how wonderful the holidays are, there's always a lot of stuff that makes it difficult. But I will try not to dwell on the past, or worry about how this years' will turn out. I've been thinking a lot lately about what things fill my heart with gratitude. What I've decided is that I'm most grateful for my good health, the good sense to change my bad habits (or at least try my best), my sweet sweet husband, my family, and I'm especially grateful that my mom is home from the hospital and doing better. Tomorrow I'll be watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on TV, cooking dinner and relaxing. I've started thinking about what gifts to buy for my family, and I have good ideas already. I'm also planning on making another train cake with the special pan I got last year. Last year's cake was a big success, and I've already lost sleep planning on how to decorate this years' version. This is the one I made last year as seen on flickr: I think this year I'll do a chocolate cake, dusted with powdered sugar, and decorated with some candies. I can't wait!

Moving On

2006-05-30T07:26:00.000-04:00

As of May 30, 2006, my site is at: http://leaf.slpro.com/. Comments here will be turned off, but feel free to browse through my archives. Many more of my photos can of course be found on flickr. Thanks so much to everyone who has visited me here! :)

Family Outing

2006-05-28T10:30:00.000-04:00

Family Outing
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug.

"The family is one of nature's masterpieces."

~George Santayana

Don't be shy

2006-05-26T07:26:00.000-04:00

Don't be shy
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug.

"One's own self is well hidden from one's own self; of all mines of treasure, one's own is the last to be dug up."

~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Green Meadow

2006-05-24T07:48:00.000-04:00

Green Meadow
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug.

“The woods, the meadows and the three worlds are rendered green. The Doer of all did this in an instant.”

~Sri Guru Granth Sahib

A Rusty Road

2006-05-23T07:27:00.000-04:00

A Rusty Road
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug.

"You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world."

~William Hazlitt

Sweet Sunlight

2006-05-22T15:21:00.000-04:00

Sweet Sunlight
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug.

“Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow them.”

~Louisa May Alcott

Sweeping the Sky

2006-05-21T10:26:00.000-04:00

"Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather."
~Martha Graham

Divine Harmony

2006-05-20T09:23:00.000-04:00

"The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace. A persistent simplification will create an inner and outer well-being that places harmony in one's life."
~Peace Pilgrim

Heaven in a Zen Garden

2006-05-19T09:09:00.000-04:00

"Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire
with God:
but only he who sees takes off his shoes."
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

My, what a big LENS you have!

2006-05-18T09:43:00.000-04:00

"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer."
~Ansel Adams

Takin' a Spin

2006-05-16T10:12:00.000-04:00

"Happiness is a direction, not a place."
~Sydney J. Harris

Let It Rain

2006-05-15T07:42:00.000-04:00

"A rainy day is the perfect time for a walk in the woods."
~Rachel Carson

Happy Mother's Day

2006-05-14T08:48:00.000-04:00

"If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden."
~Attributed to Claudia Ghandi

Two Buds Just Hanging Out

2006-05-13T12:07:00.000-04:00

"The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart."
~Elisabeth Foley

Luminous Bloom

2006-05-11T09:22:00.000-04:00

"People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong...
Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?"
~Thich Nhat Hanh

A Moment by the River

2006-05-10T07:38:00.000-04:00

"When you do things from your soul you feel a river moving in you, a joy. When action come from another section, the feeling disappears."
~Jalal ad-Din Rumi

Hold Dear Those You Love

2006-05-09T07:49:00.000-04:00

The heart that truly loves never forgets.
~Proverb

Loving the Sun

2006-05-08T09:15:00.000-04:00

"The windows of my soul I throw
Wide open to the sun."
~John Greenleaf Whittier

A Wee Butterfly

2006-05-07T08:29:00.000-04:00

"Love is like a butterfly: It goes where it pleases and it pleases wherever it goes."
~Author Unknown

Green Lights

2006-05-06T09:20:00.000-04:00

“Knowledge does not come to us in details, but in flashes of light from heaven.”
~Henry David Thoreau

Where Henry Stood

2006-05-05T07:44:00.000-04:00

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived..."
~Henry David Thoreau

Wonderful Walden

2006-05-04T07:38:00.000-04:00

"It is no dream of mine,
To ornament a line;
I cannot come nearer to God and Heaven
Than I live to Walden even.
I am its stony shore,
And the breeze that passes o'er;
In the hollow of my hand
Are its water and its sand,
And its deepest resort
Lies high in my thought."

~Henry David Thoreau

2006-05-02T09:36:00.000-04:00

"The language of friendship is not words but meanings."
~Henry David Thoreau

Spring Inspiration

2006-04-30T11:00:00.000-04:00

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."
~Henry David Thoreau

The First Butterfly

2006-04-28T07:43:00.000-04:00

"Just like the butterfly, I too will awaken in my own time."
~Deborah Chaskin

Love Is All Around

2006-04-27T07:42:00.000-04:00

"Sometimes it's better to put love into hugs than to put it into words".
~Author Unknown

Nature's Tears

2006-04-26T07:39:00.000-04:00

"The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears."
~John Vance Cheney

The Path to Peace

2006-04-25T07:35:00.000-04:00

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”
~Henry David Thoreau

May I Borrow a Blue Sky?

2006-04-24T07:44:00.000-04:00

"If we shall take the good we find, asking no questions, we shall have heaping measures."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mini Spaceships

2006-04-23T08:57:00.000-04:00

"There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew."
~Marshall McLuhan, 1964

Happy Earth Day

2006-04-22T09:17:00.000-04:00

"Every day is Earth Day"
~Author Unknown

Balancing Act

2006-04-20T07:41:00.000-04:00

“No man fails who does his best.”
~Orison Swett Marden

Shimmering Bay

2006-04-18T09:10:00.000-04:00

"The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea."
~Isak Dinesen

Happy Easter

2006-04-16T08:49:00.000-04:00

"It is the hour to rend thy chains,
The blossom time of souls."

~Katherine Lee Bates

Gratitude

2006-04-15T08:52:00.000-04:00

"Thou hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more, - a grateful heart;
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if Thy blessings had spare days,
But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise."

~George Herbert

Blessed Bee

2006-04-14T07:47:00.000-04:00

"If you let the bee be, the bee will let you be."
-Unknown

Hello, Angel

2006-04-11T07:37:00.000-04:00

"Angels are all around us, all the time, in the very air we breathe."
~Eileen Elias Freeman

A Profusion of Petals

2006-04-10T09:31:00.000-04:00

"Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night."
~Rainer Maria Rilke

In Between Dreams

2006-04-07T11:10:00.000-04:00

“Ah, there are so many things betwixt heaven and earth of which only the poets have dreamed!”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Birds of a Feather

2006-04-05T07:35:00.000-04:00

“How blessings brighten as they take their flight.”
~Edward Young

Fenced In

2006-04-04T20:08:00.000-04:00

"The same fence that shuts others out shuts you in."
~Bill Copeland

Promising Green

2006-04-03T07:41:00.000-04:00

"April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks Go."
~Christopher Morley

A Sunday Kind of Love

2006-04-02T10:26:00.000-04:00

"For you see, each day I love you more ...
Today more than yesterday, and less than tomorrow."
~Rosemonde Gerard

Tree Spirits Come Out At Night

2006-04-01T09:15:00.000-05:00

"Other echoes
Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?"
~T.S. Eliot

Happy Itchy Furry Friday :)

2006-03-31T07:43:00.000-05:00

"Humor results when society says you can't scratch certain things in public, but they itch in public."
~Tom Walsh

'Scuse me, is it furry Friday, yet?

2006-03-30T07:43:00.000-05:00

Please excuse my lack of posts and visits, folks. It's that crazy time of year in the office, and I just can't wait for it to be Friday. I felt bad that I didn't have a treat for this furry squirrel found in the Boston Public Garden the other day. Right after this shot was taken, he was spooked by an approaching dog, and ran away as fast as squirrelly possible.

The Course of Life

2006-03-27T11:14:00.000-05:00

"The future is always beginning now."
~Mark Strand

Forever Flowing

2006-03-26T08:40:00.000-05:00

“Relaxation means releasing all concern and tension and letting the natural order of life flow through one's being”
~Donald Curtis

Dreaming of Sunshine

2006-03-25T10:30:00.000-05:00

"Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you."
~Maori Proverb

Surveying the Sky

2006-03-24T09:10:00.000-05:00

“Don't tell me the sky is the limit, there are footprints on the moon!”
~Unknown

Breathe In Life

2006-03-23T07:47:00.000-05:00

Breathe In Life
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug.

"Sometimes I go about in pity for myself,
and all the while
A great wind is bearing me across the sky."

~Ojibwa saying

Beyond the Surface

2006-03-22T07:37:00.000-05:00

"We think in generalities, but we live in detail."
~Alfred North Whitehead

Silent Sentinels

2006-03-21T07:41:00.000-05:00

"The oaks and the pines, and their brethren of the wood, have seen so many suns rise and set, so many seasons come and go, and so many generations pass into silence, that we may well wonder what "the story of the trees" would be to us if they had tongues to tell it, or we ears fine enough to understand."
~Author Unknown, quoted in "Quotations for Special Occasions" by Maud van Buren, 1938

Soulful

2006-03-19T08:09:00.000-05:00

Soulful
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug.

"Inside each one of us is a beautiful flower garden.
This is the garden of the soul. With each lesson
we learn, the garden grows. As we learn together,
our individual gardens form a tranquil paradise."

~Sri Chinmoy

About to Bloom

2006-03-18T09:58:00.000-05:00

"Silently a flower blooms,
In silence it falls away;
Yet here now, at this moment, at this place,
The world of the flower, the whole of the world is blooming.
This is the talk of the flower, the truth of the blossom:
The glory of eternal life is fully shining here."

~Zenkei Shibayama

Watching the Grass Grow

2006-03-17T07:52:00.000-05:00

“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself” ~Zen Proverb

The Poetry of Nature

2006-03-15T09:34:00.000-05:00

“My spirits were elevated by the enchanting appearance of nature; the past was blotted from my memory, the present was tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope and anticipations of joy.”
~Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Sky Feather

2006-03-14T09:52:00.000-05:00

“You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds.”
~Henry David Thoreau

Clear Perspective

2006-03-13T07:45:00.000-05:00

“Perhaps our eyes need to be washed by our tears once in a while, so that we can see life with a clearer view again.”
~Alex Tan

Magic World

2006-03-12T09:02:00.000-05:00

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”
~Roald Dahl

Music Sets You on Fire

2006-03-10T09:25:00.000-05:00

"Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn."
~Charlie Parker

Blowing a Kiss

2006-03-09T07:39:00.000-05:00

Blowing a Kiss
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug.

"Friends are kisses blown to us by angels."

~Author Unknown

Enchantment

2006-03-08T07:35:00.000-05:00

Enchantment
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug.

One of several lovely statues outside my favorite shop ~ Hope Fairy Shop in Boston.

"May your eyes be always open
May your hearts overflow
That which enchants will also protect ~~
May this you always know"

-Ted Andrews

A Fraction of Franklin

2006-03-06T09:32:00.000-05:00

For the Macroday challenge: Money
You can see all the entries and vote here
"It's good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven't lost the things that money can't buy."
~George Horace Lorimer

Circles of Life

2006-03-05T09:55:00.000-05:00

"God is a circle whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere."
~Timaeus of Locris

Tree Fantasy

2006-03-04T11:21:00.000-05:00

"The world is incomprehensible. We won’t ever understand it; we won’t ever unravel its secrets. Thus we must treat the world as it is: a sheer mystery."
~Carlos Castaneda

Made with: http://krazydad.com/makeyourown/index.php

The Whole World Belongs to You

2006-02-28T09:15:00.000-05:00

"Earth Mother, let me show gratitude,
For the abundance you freely give,
By pledging to be a caretaker,
Respecting all things that live."

~Jamie Sams

Blowing Bubbles

2006-02-27T11:48:00.000-05:00

“Flattery is like chewing gum. Enjoy it but don't swallow it.”
~Hank Ketcham

Goddess of Mercy

2006-02-25T09:50:00.000-05:00

"Life eternal is what we are, wisdom is what we possess, love is what our nature is . . . "
~ The Supreme Master Ching Hai

City Symmetry

2006-02-23T07:45:00.000-05:00

"The axis of the earth sticks out visibly through the centre of each and every town or city."
~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

This is a variation on the "Amazing Circles" formula. This website tells you how to make them:
http://brilliantdays.com/how-to-create-amazing-circles/
It's extremely addictive! Don't say I didn't warn you.

A Graceful Gathering

2006-02-22T07:29:00.000-05:00

"My heart knows what the wild goose knows
And I must go where the wild goose goes
Wild goose, brother goose, which is best
A wanderin' foot or a heart at rest . . ."
~From the song "Cry of the Wild Goose", composed by Terry Gilkyson

Buds in a Bubble

2006-02-21T07:28:00.000-05:00

“One day I shall burst my buds of calm and blossom into hysteria.”
~Barbara Johnson

A New Beginning

2006-02-20T08:18:00.000-05:00

"Teach us to delight in simple things,
And mirth that has no bitter springs;
Forgiveness free of evil done,
And love to all men 'neath the sun."

~Rudyard Kipling

Phillis Wheatley

2006-02-19T09:08:00.000-05:00

Written on the stone of which the statue rests upon:
Phillis Wheatley Ca. 1753-1784
Born in West Africa and sold as a slave from the ship “Phillis” in colonial Boston, she was a literary prodigy whose 1773 volume “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral” was the first work published by an African writer in America.

“Imagination! Who can sing thy force?
Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?
Soaring through air to find the bright abode,
Th' empyreal palace of the thund'ring God,
We on thy pinions can surpass the wind,
And leave the rolling universe behind:
From star to star the mental optics rove,
Measure the skies, and range the realms above.
There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,
Or with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul.”

(From the poem “On Imagination”)

Illumination Door

2006-02-18T10:25:00.000-05:00

“For the wise man looks into space and he knows there is no limited dimensions.”
~Lao Tzu

Perfectly Perched

2006-02-17T09:20:00.000-05:00

"The essence of pleasure is spontaneity."
~Germaine Greer
Enjoy the weekend, everyone!

Meet Watermelon Helen

2006-02-16T11:58:00.000-05:00

She was seen yesterday in the Prudential Center in Boston, advertising the Cow Parade event this summer. The artist of this particular cow is Kate Royal.
www.cowparade.com
“All the good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.”
~Grant Wood (American Painter)

Growing Together

2006-02-15T07:46:00.000-05:00

"I believe that the reason of life is for each of us simply to grow in love.”
~Leo Tolstoy

A Light on Love

2006-02-14T07:28:00.000-05:00

“All Love is sweet. Given or returned. Common as light is love, And its familiar voice wearies not ever.”
~Percy Bysshe Shelley

Hang on to your dreams

2006-02-13T07:36:00.000-05:00

"There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream."
~Author Unknown

Windows to the Imagination

2006-02-12T10:47:00.000-05:00

"No object is mysterious. The mystery is your eye."
~Elizabeth Bowen

An Opening . . .

2006-02-10T07:44:00.000-05:00

"Every exit is an entrance somewhere else."
~Tom Stoppard

Sweet Solitude

2006-02-09T07:29:00.000-05:00

"By all means use sometimes to be alone.
Salute thyself; see what thy soul doth wear."
~George Herbert

What About Bob?

2006-02-08T10:58:00.000-05:00

"Baby step to four o'clock. Baby step to four o'clock."
~ Bill Murray in the movie "What About Bob", playing character Bob Wiley

Ripples of Light

2006-02-07T09:16:00.000-05:00

"So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth."
~Bahá'u'lláh

Duck, duck, goose

2006-02-06T07:42:00.000-05:00

My husband and I took a long walk to a little pond yesterday afternoon, and enjoyed watching these little domestic ducks and a goose who swam by to check us out.
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air…”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Tree

2006-02-05T10:18:00.000-05:00

"The tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk, and then dead timber. The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky."
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Love Keeps on Blossoming

2006-02-02T07:45:00.000-05:00

“Love is the only flower that grows and blossoms
Without the aid of the seasons.”
~Kahlil Gibran

Today is my wedding anniversary ~ I've been married for 15 years to this guy. :-)

Honeyed Horizon

2006-02-01T07:26:00.000-05:00

“It is the eye which makes the horizon.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pointing in the Right Direction

2006-01-31T07:37:00.000-05:00

If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.
~Buddhist Saying

What is Life?

2006-01-30T07:26:00.000-05:00

“What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”
~Crowfoot, Native American warrior and orator (1821-1890)

Choices . . .

2006-01-27T09:21:00.000-05:00

"The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn."
~David Russell

Radiance

2006-01-26T07:38:00.000-05:00

"Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart."
~Kahlil Gibran

Sea Reverie

2006-01-25T07:40:00.000-05:00

"For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
It's always our self we find in the sea."
~e.e. cummings

The Powder Point Bridge

2006-01-24T07:44:00.000-05:00

"In giving you are throwing a bridge across the chasm of your solitude."
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

A Lovely Gaze

2006-01-22T10:13:00.000-05:00

"We gaze
even at horses
this morn of snow.
~Basho

Beauty

2006-01-21T09:16:00.000-05:00

Reflect on the beauty of the day.

Happy Furry Friday!

2006-01-20T07:41:00.000-05:00

This is Lexi, the young donkey who was so eager to steal kisses (see "Gimme a Kiss" picture from last Sunday). She and I wish everyone a lovely Furry Friday, and a wonderful weekend!