Rain On My Window

Last night I was sleeping peacefully, and after my knee surgery that is quite a statement!  While lost in dreamland, I heard the rain hitting my bedroom window.  Out of nowhere I had a childhood flashback and wondered what I'd left out in the rain and would it be okay.........    I haven't had this thought in years.  I mentally went through my yesterday to see if I'd left something outside to get wet and possibly ruined. 

Well, I have nothing left outside from yesterday, all my dogs are accounted for and are snoring nearby.  I haven't been playing baseball with the neighbors, so my glove isn't sitting on the lawn chair at the back door.  My bike is no longer tied to the tree, as it was my horse before I got my first horse, and my exercise bike is in the living room taunting me now.  I haven't left my shoes at the door because I was to lazy to clean the mud off of them before coming in the house and all of my layers of clothing did find their way to the house as I slowly removed the scarf, the vest and sweatshirt because the day warmed up nicely.

So at 4:30 AM, I am awake, listening to the rain, watching the lightening and hearing the thunder.  I love spring rains!

This morning the sun is trying to shine, everything looks washed clean, green things are more abundant than they were last week.  Soon the daffodils will be blooming.  The robins have joined in the spring chorus of song birds that spend their winter in our back yard.  Everyday I watch for the red-winged blackbirds and listen for their song.  I have noticed the geese are paired up now, they are looking for the perfect nesting area and will start laying eggs very soon.  The sparrows are already trying to lay claim on the bluebird boxes and I am going to have to start cleaning out their nests in hopes of a bluebird pair moving in.

My goal this year is to round up all of my old bluebird boxes.  I had 50 out on neighbors fence posts throughout the years and I will need to repair them.  Then I am going to put them on posts in my empty horse pasture and begin to monitor them again on a weekly basis.  I am hoping to make the empty horse pasture a meadow filled with  birds nesting and a natural habitat for butterflies and other critters to enjoy.  Now I have to figure out how to explain this to my farmer husband..........

Seven Years Ago......

a few of my collection....

I LOVE the Native American style flute.  There, I have said it and now you will find that I am totally addicted to flutes, the sound of flutes, flute circles, and anything else that involves the Native American flute.  I am a fan of musicians that play and go to concerts all over the country to hear them play their songs.  Many of these players have taught classes and given personal one on one tips, and become friends.  I can't say that I am talented or amazing, but I love to play my songs, the ones from my heart and that is all that is necessary to make me happy.  I am honored to have many friends around the country that play the flute and we are all a big family, one that understands the need for flutes in our life.



The flute and I are coming on an anniversary of sorts.  It has been SEVEN years since I tried to play my first flute.  (the number seven is special alone)  I went to my first flute circle in February of 2005, only to listen to others play flute music.  At that circle they "just happened" to have some flutes that were made and brought to another to use for teaching students elsewhere.  Having those flutes available that day, we were ask (told) to pick one and would be taught to play.  I hesitated, I have no previous musical ability, played no instruments, could not read music, lacked any ability to carry a tune, I am totally rhythm challenged and someone thinks I can play a flute!

Well after discovering I could cover the finger holes and the right warm sweet breath blown into the air chamber of the flute would produce a wonderful full sound coming from the humble wooden flute I was holding was the most magical moment of my life.  I couldn't believe I made that sound.........   I was hooked immediately, I am sure my eyes were wide in disbelief, only because as I have since taught others, I have seen that look on their faces.  It is a moment of truth when your breath and the flute join together, you have music at your fingertips.   I believe with all my heart, if I can play, anyone can play!!!! 

Massie Creek Flute Circle.... 

I came home from that flute circle and ordered my first flute from a friend.   I'd know him from doing same art show and he makes and plays Native American style flutes.  From there the song inside me began to sing.  I began to hear notes, I didn't know where they were coming from, just notes of music in the air, in my dreams and I felt they were my musical notes slowing revealing themselves to me.  Later I would hear a song.  I still hear it, as real as if the cd player was on, I find myself looking around for where it might be coming.  It is there, surrounding me, tumbling through the leaves,  a thread of wonder around me, weaving its sound into my heart and connecting it to nature, to love and peacefulness. 

Many of my flutes are very special, they each have their own story, their own history.  The wood ranges from traditional cedar, to maple, walnut, oak or bamboo.  Some are crooked branches that were picked from the ground, one is a leg bone from a deer, another an antler.  I have classic plain flutes and beautiful carved end flutes that look like my favorite birds.  I have flutes made from men and from women.  Each flute has a story and as I play them I add to the story of that flute. 

My Elk Flute, Key F, it's all about the heart.....

The spirit in which these flutes were made by their maker, carries a part of that maker to me and becomes a part of my spirit songs.  Anyone who honors me with a song on my flute also adds to the spirit of my flute.  And so the history and spirit of the flute grows as it is played and shared with the public world or with the trees.  The song tumbles out into the universe creating peace as it ripples forward, touching the grasses, the tree leaves, and the flowing stream of water.  Can you hear the song?  Can you feel the peace coming to your heart?  It's there, take a moment, close your eyes and just listen.

The Six Senses and Fairies

Only a few days ago I wrote of winter and spring, the great battle between cold and warm.  Well, yesterday and today spring is winning big time.  Your senses are filled with the wonder. 

Just a breath deep, the earth is coming alive, like a wonderful perfume the earth has a special scent in the spring.  I inhale deeply and savor the earthy scent.

Listen, the songs of the birds is more exciting. I hear joyful new songs of birds flocking back after being gone all winter.  Yesterday I heard the killdeer as I took my walk.   You know of course with each changing season the birds also change their songs.  Spring is all about courting, song and plumage change to attract their mates for the coming season. 

Look at the flowers pushing their way toward sunlight.  My daffodils are pushing through leaves of fall to become the highlight of my early spring garden.  I see Iris leaves pushing up, the colors of the ground plants are changing their dormant dark green to a newer brighter green. 

Touch the soft catkins of the pussy willows, they are just starting to reveal themselves.  I love bringing branches into the house so that spring comes inside.
Touch the ground, still cold, but no longer ice cold.  If it snows now the earth is warmer and it melts off more quickly.

The last sense, little known or acknowledged is the kinesthetic sense........  this is the unconscious sense of knowledge.  You just know something, I call this instinct.  People lived with it long before there were clocks or calendars.  I know spring is closer than normal this year.  I feel it.  Sure we may still get some winter days, but they are fewer and fewer as we move quickly through February. 

My gardens sparkle in the sunshine this morning.  I have wonderful little strings with mirrors and stain glass shards hanging from branches and hooks.  I have beautiful crystals hanging in unusual places, catching the light of the sun they change colors as they spin on their string with the slightest breeze.  I can see the fairies dancing with the sparkles of light, their magic is already working in the gardens.  They gather around the plants and cheer them on, the cover the seeds that the milkweed scattered in the fall so the Monarchs have a place to lay their eggs.  The Fairies linger in the sunshine with their bright gossamer wings, their magic is renewed and the gardens are happy, and so am I, it is spring today.......... 

The Battle Has Begun

Rabbits enjoy greens and sunshine!

Is it winter?  Is it spring?





                                                                         




Sap is moving throug the trees.

Last week I worked in the studio with the garage door open, sunlight streamed into my space, birds were singing and my little dogs lay in the sun.  I walked past a clump of snowbells that were blooming and I heard the honeybees singing as they moved from bloom to bloom.  I also noticed as I drove through a forest of old trees that the ground was beginning to show green.  All the little signs of spring around the corner.  The trees are also coming alive as the sap slowly moves from the ground upward toward the branches.

Snowbells and no snow (this day)

deer are easier to see when snow is on the ground....

Then it happened, as sunrise came it revealed the tell tale sign that winter had visited in the night.  We were reminded that it is only February.  Snow lay on the ground, covering those tender signs of spring sprouts.  At last after a very mild winter, we have some measurable snow.  It is pretty as sunlight creates sparkles on the landscape. The wind blows across the open fields, causing momentary white outs.  And as the wind picks up it shakes the all snow from the pines and the needles whistle a haunting song of winter.  The birds are eagerly at the feeder, their activity makes the trees alive with fluttering movement.  I do love watching the birds.  While most were hungry for seeds, a larger bird came calling.  A Coopers Hawk came to sit in the tree branches near our back door, hoping for his own special breakfast this day.  All the little birds sounded an alert and took cover and they waited until he left, still hungry.


hungry birds....

I linger a little longer with a cup of coffee and pull my afghan around me, my fuzzy socks peeking out and think I would like to hibernate just a little longer.  I'll wait to see who wins today, winter or spring...................