This Little Muse

A fragment of thought 

fluttered into the light, 

lit on my finger,

rested long enough 

to pen this little muse. 

Fluttering away into 

the cool night air, 

I could only wish it well.

“Words are but pictures of our thoughts”

~ John Dryden, poet

(1631 ~ 1700)

Warm Sun, Warm Friends

Over the Hill Orchards and Winery, 
Lumsden, Saskatchewan

On a patio overlooking 

the Qu’Appelle Valley 

in the warm sun, 

we shared a lovely afternoon. 

Cold drinks and fresh desserts

 - saskatoon pie, 

    crepes stuffed with cherries, 

      rhubarb crumble, 

         apple pie kept conversation 

to a minimum for a short time. 

If we didn’t eat quickly 

our ice cream or 

  whipped cream toppings 

would melt!

Discussions ranged from travels 

throughout the world to 

   one member's garden with monarch butterflies 

then it was a walk down to explore  

     Over the Hill Orchards and Winery.

“Friendship is unnecessary, 

like philosophy, and art…It has no survival value; 

rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.”

~ C.S.Lewis,  The Four Loves

Contact: Over the Hill Orchards and Winery at

   overthehillorchards.ca

In the Wildness

Milk Thistle
Royal Saskatchewan Museum

Roaming the gardens 

sets my prairie heart 

beside bees and butterflies

gathering nectar and pollen 

from native wild flowers,

while bugs and beetles 

hide their busyness 

in the wildness.

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”

~ Mary Oliver, Yes!No!

The Flower Bed

Gardens at Royal Saskatchewan Museum,
Regina ~ September 08, 2025

A flower bed ~ 

true marriage of nature 

and the human hand. 

Glorious colours and patterns 

planted carefully, welcome bees, 

butterflies (and cameras) 

to these bright and bold displays.

“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature.

To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.”

~ Alfred Austin, English poet

(1835 - 1913)

Why Not

Kindness shows up 

in the strangest places. 

The first was while 

I took out the trash. 

The second came while 

I took a seat on the bus. 

What could be more strange? 

Two days in a row! 

In these unsettled days of 

cultural upheaval and 

mudslinging, it was a

very welcome warmth. 

I wonder. Could random acts of kindness 

and the soul softening they bring 

waft upwards through the layers 

of harsh political jousting?

“If the flap of a butterfly’s wings can be instrumental in generating a tornado, 

it can equally well be instrumental in preventing a tornado”

~ Edward Lorenz, mathematician and meteorologist

A Dusty Garden Path

Along the dusty garden

path, wild flowers 

welcomed me. No English 

country garden but a Nature 

Garden of native wildflowers. 

Only the organized chaos 

of the prairies, welcoming 

bees and butterflies. These 

clusters of gold attracted me along with the bees. Their long fingers, decorated with tiny golden flowers, called 

the bees and butterflies to relieve them of nectar. I was going to remember

their name but alas, that memory 

only lasted a second or two.

“They are wildflowers. They would not want a name.”

~ Silas House & Neela Vaswani, Same Sun Here

Author's note: Native Prairie Plant Garden at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum entrance

Namaste

It is only an image I see ~

diaphanous white robes held 

up to the sun in Namaste

while purple carpets roll forth

waiting for raindrops or butterflies

its beauty open to bees, welcome

to gather nectar while this short life

gives thanks to the universe for its being.

“Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.”

~ Gérard de Nerval, French poet

(1808 - 1855)

Quote from southernliving.com

On an Afternoon Walk ~ On the Wing

Incandescent mirages are magic, scenes of far away lifted by the sun from the heat of the land and the heat of the sun

When the heat of the land has cooled, only a butterflies wing will glow with the soft warmth of the sun. 

“Just living isn’t enough,” said the butterfly, 

“one must have sunshine, freedom and 

a little flower.”- Hans Christian Anderson”

~ Louisa Thomsen Brits, The Book of Hygge: 

The Danish Art of Living Well

*Author’s note: because of the sun lighting up the little butterfly, I couldn’t tell what kind, but I suspect it was an ordinary white butterfly.

On an Afternoon Walk - An Attack!

So lovely. This little white butterfly sitting on a leaf in the late afternoon sun. Suddenly, a wicked wasp headed straight for it. The butterfly took off before the attack was in full waspishness. 

“A power of Butterfly must be ~ 

The Aptitude to fly……”

~ Emily Dickinson

Sitting Pretty Sea Holly - An Update

Sea Holly

 

Sweetly tolerant of heat and dry,

    pretty sea holly promises

nurture for bee and butterflies.

“When the flower blossoms, the bee will come.”

~ Srikumar Rao, 

Author of Happiness at Work

Authors note:

My error of last evening was misnaming this lovely little plant a thistle. I have learned since that it is Sea Holly (botanical name Eryngium planet). While it has similar attributes to the thistle, it is apparently not botanically related.

The Magic Pendant ~ A Writing Exercise

Writing from a different exercise today, I have a short story for you. The story title ~ The Magic Pendant ~ is from the same website that I often use. (www.writingexercises.co.uk) However, to change things up a bit for my writer’s brain I went to the Children’s Section under Story Title Ideas. My goal really was to find more creativity with my words. Writing from this section really tasks me to be playful, a task that I quite enjoy. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to photograph the real Magic Pendant so have obtained only a poor imitation of it. Please enjoy:  The Magic Pendant

The Magic Pendant

The magic pendant lay in her hand. Made of burnished gold, with curlicues and diamonds, it should have felt heavy but there was no weight to be felt. Gliandra pushed on a tiny button on the side of the pendant, not knowing what would happen. She jumped ~ just a little ~ when it popped open. Butterflies and hummingbirds flew up, up into the air. She should have been frightened but they glistened with gold and all the colours of the rainbow. Gliandra had been very sad. Her beautiful grandmother, whose hair was as white as a beautiful cloud, whose skin was as soft as Gliandra’s bunny rabbit and whose smile was a brilliant as the golden locket that she held in her hand, had gone from this earth. Gliandra didn’t really know what that meant, but she knew she would not see her again. Especially when her mother, Lady Héloise placed the locket in her small hand. 

‘This is what your grandmother wanted me to give to you, my child. It holds much magic and you are to wear it always close to your heart. Do not open it when others are in the room as there are many who would want to take from you what your grandmother has left to you.’ 

Gliandra heard footsteps coming towards her door. She quickly closed the locket and held it gently in her small hand. The butterflies and hummingbirds had disappeared as quickly as they had come, leaving only a faint scent of lavender behind. The footsteps passed by her room. Gliandra knew, that although her grandmother was gone from this earth, she had never really left the hearts of those who loved her. 

Years later, Gliandra’s grand-daughter, Persephone, stood in a different room and at a different time. She wore the same magic pendant ~ the beautiful gold locket full of butterflies and hummingbirds that only appeared when, alone in her room, Persephone opened it. Her mother, Lady Angelica, had given the locket to her with the same message.

‘This is what your grandmother wanted me to give to you, my child. It holds much magic and you are to wear it always close to your heart. Do not open it when others are in the room as there are many who would want to take from you what your grandmother has left to you.’ 

And so it went. With each generation, the gift of love and memories passed from one to another. Sadness was crumbled and joy remembered. What is your ‘magic locket’?

“The humblest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.”

Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Pie

Energy focused on 

Sensational sensations

Magnificent medals

Amazing adventures

       ~ feels like a delicious pie     

     in the sky

Energy focused on 

Commitment to learning more

Confident knowledge of self

Curiosity for more exploration

      ~ feels like a butterfly in the palm of my hand.

“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it.”

~ Lloyd Alexander, American author (1924 - 2007)