"No Sane Man...."

No sane man in the hands of Nature can doubt the doubleness of his life. Soul and body receive separate nourishment and separate exercise, and speedily reach a stage of development wherein each is easily known apart from the other. Living artificially we seldom see much of our real selves, our torpid souls are hopelessly entangled with our torpid bodies, and not only in there a confused mingling of our own souls with our own bodies, but we hardly possess a separate existence from our neighbors.
John Muir, John of the Mountains, p. 77

(This is probably one of my most favorite quotes....I learned when I was a teenager and was known then for quoting it to anyone that would listen. I believe it as much today, no, probably even more now than I did so many years ago.)

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.--Kahlil Gibran..

To the attentive eye, each movement of the year has it's own beauty, and in the fame field it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before and which shall never be seen again.--Ralph Waldo Emerson

The greatest wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more.--Ralph Waldo Emerson, from a conversation with John Muir

our Italian pine tree, that has a heavenly scent to it

our heat for the winter

master builders

sun shining through the burr oak tree

lavender, freshly picked this afternoon, drying off the cedar beam in the living room