Spring Treasures (JM)

This is a Trillium/Easter lily, spotted along a small stream while hiking on Mary's Peak, here in the middle of the Oregon coastal mountain range. I never pick them, but each year always look to spot them. Also found an interesting Ojibwa legend, about 400 years old, from Canada about this plant, see here  https://gift.lovingly.com/featured-content/flower-meanings/great-white-trillium/ near bottom of page. Wishing everyone a Happy Easter...part 1! Part 2 coming up May 5 for Orthodox Easter...

Christ is risen!

Truly, He is risen!

--traditional Orthodox

Easter greeting

Equilibrium (WC)

 

(March 28, Holy Thursday, 2024, feast day of Our Lady of Panecillo (see Winged Heart image here), Our Lady of Castelbruedo (miracle of Lights, related image above), Saint Alkelda of Middleham, Saint Gundelindis of Niedermünster and Blessed Margherita of Verona. Image from here.)

Equilibrium

Oregon's temperate rainforests are also home 

to a wide range of wildlife, including black bears, 

elk, cougars, and bald eagles. The rivers and 

streams that flow through the forests provide…

–Richard Wong, photographer

Thanks to a bear (or a partner part bear) 

I live in a rainforest zone, here along the Alsea.

Thanks to a partner (or a bear part partner) 

a rainforest lives in me,

space for snow 

                   and stars, flame and bloom.

Plenty of room, it happens, for mull and turn

as hands brush these past months, find bounty

and betrayal both

find a journey still trudging homeward

(or a journey that’s part home).  

*From combined prompts: Freewrite as inspired by excerpt from “The Lost Breath of Trees”

by Colleen J. McElroy, and by “Morning” by Frank O'Hara. From Lisa Freedman’s

BreathReadWrite, March 28, 2023. 

Teaching Forestry, Herbalogy, and Storytelling at Camp Tadmore (JM)

A picture drawn by student Nola, of a logging scene. Based on one of the classes I taught on March 6, 2024. 

 

Pictures of Camp Tadmore, in the hills of the Cascades, Lebanon, Oregon: