Music and Nature

I have created a music video that pairs my photos with some of my current favorite piano music.  I have been playing classical piano since age 6.

Music:

• John Field – Nocturne No. 5 in B flat major
• (Smetana) Song / Chanson Op.2 No.2. This song is the second of six movements/sections from Album Leaves op.2 by Bedřich Smetana

I am addicted to the Smetana piece.

The photos are from various places I’ve lived/visited over the past few years:  Washington state, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

I hope you enjoy.  I will be doing another one shortly.

 

 

 

The Colorado Lilypad!

It’s been a while since I have posted.  I’ve been busy.

First the home.  It’s a place of peace and warmth.  Thus far I have filled it with all the things I love: my music, my art, and warm natural woods and sounds.

As I type this I’m watching two yellow-tailed hawks circle outside my window.  Thus far I’ve seen cougar tracks, dozens of deer, a whole flock of turkey, rabbits, foxes, and a bazillion birds who have taken up residence because I feed them.  There is no sound here but the chirping sounds of birds and the wind in the trees.

I am going to be doing all sorts of land and garden improvements to the home.   I am turning the pond into a Monet pond, I’m doing a large labyrinth in the front yard, there will be a salsa garden this year, and I’m turning the backyard into a rock garden. I will be sharing with you as I do these.  I take any and all suggestions for ways to do things better so I hope you will follow me and chime in with your expertise as you see fit!

I have fallen into Heaven.

Please take a moment to add me to your Instagram friend list! @Froggey007

The Center of the labyrinth.

View from the front East side. I’m standing near the massive ponderosa.

View from the loft lobby

This may be my favorite room. This sunroom is south facing and faces the pond

Greenhouse filled tothe brim with plants for the salsa garden

Basement bedroom

Dream Catcher dead center in the middle of the home.

Sunset meditations

 

 

 

 

 

Cabin.2

And then there was music. A lovely white baby grand Young Chang.  The sound rises up to fill the entire open interior.

The Road Less Traveled

Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. ~Robert Frost

Flowing Water

“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”

― Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad

Bird on a Barbed Wire

 

“Like a bird on a wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir,
I have tried in my way to be free!!”

~Leonard Cohen

 

 

Gilgal Gardens

http://gilgalgarden.org/

What an adventure hidden near downtown SLC!  You have to know what you are looking for to find it.  I have seen lots of photos of the sculptures in this garden but was fascinated by the scriptures, songs, poems, etc etched in stone around the sculptures.  They more completely tell the story of how the sculptures came to be, and the thought processes by Child (the creator) that contributed to his faith/spiritual journey.  It is one eclectic Mormon journey.  It isn’t every block that reveals a Joseph Smith sphinx. I loved the symbolism of stars (aka Masonic symboism).

Child named the garden Gilgal after the Biblical location where Joshua ordered the Israelistes to place twelve stones as a memorial. The name ‘Gilgal’ is sometimes translate to mean ‘circle of standing stones,’ an appropriate appellation for a sculpture garden. Gilgal is also the name of a city and a valley in The Book of Mormon, a sacred scripture in Mormonism.

Because I am a rock lover and a storyteller, I’m including a lot of these stone verses that enhance the meaning behind the actual sculptures.

What a Wonderful World

I’ve compiled a brief slideshow of some of my favorite photos.  I hope you will enjoy them.  Sometimes in this world reminders are needed that life can truly be an amazing experience.

 

What a Wonderful World

 

The Silky Veils of Ardor

I am a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through all these highs and lows
I heard there was no sickness
And no toil or danger
Just mercy and plenty
Where peaceful waters flow
Where peaceful waters flow

Come all you fair and tender school girls
Be careful now–when you court young men
They are like the stars
On a summer morning
They sparkle up the night
And they’re gone again
Daybreak, gone again

If I’d only seen through the silky veils of ardor
What a killing crime this love can be
I would have locked up my heart
In a golden sheath of armor
And kept its crazy beating
Under strictest secrecy
High security

I wish I had the wings
Of Noah’s pretty little white dove
So I could fly this raging river
To reach the one I love
But I have no wings
And the water is so wide
We’ll have to row a little harder
It’s just in dreams we fly
In my dreams we fly!

~Joni Mitchell

Sound of Silence

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

~Khalil Gibran