'Footprints on the Sands of Time'

 

A Psalm of Life

Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solenm main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"The Phantom Horsewoman" by Thomas Hardy

 

The Phantom Horsewoman. by Thomas Hardy

Queer are the ways of a man I know:
He comes and stands
In a careworn craze,
And looks at the sands
And in the seaward haze
With moveless hands
And face and gaze,
Then turns to go...
And what does he see when he gazes so?

They say he sees as an instant thing
More clear than today,
A sweet soft scene
That once was in play
By that briny green;
Yes, notes alway
Warm, real, and keen,
What his back years bring-
A phantom of his own figuring.

Of this vision of his they might say more:
Not only there
Does he see this sight,
But everywhere
In his brain-day, night,
As if on the air
It were drawn rose bright-
Yea, far from that shore
Does he carry this vision of heretofore:

A ghost-girl-rider. And though, toil-tried,
He withers daily,
Time touches her not,
But she still rides gaily
In his rapt thought
On that shagged and shaly
Atlantic spot,
And as when first eyed
Draws rein and sings to the swing of the tide.

Cumberland Ents Protector of Wild Horses

 

The horses feed on the grass under the protective shade of the Cumberland Ents.  These ancient trees spread their branches in a protective guard around the horses.  They help to shield them from rain and heavy winds and provide shade from the hot sun that beats down on the island.  These horses roam the island freely and they get the right of way to the island and tourist do not get in their way.  Particularly, when there is a herd stampeding down the dirt roads.  You will move out of their way! Where in Middle Earth do horses rule the land and are allowed to run free? 

Cumberland Island's Ancient Ents of the Forest

Middle Earth is not the only place where you can find Ents.  The oldest living things that still live beneath the sun.  In The Hobbit, Ents are tree like creatures in the forest of Fangom.  These "Ents" live on Cumberland Island, Georgia.  Protectors of wild horses and the forest. Their branches spread out like twisted long arms and fingers across the sky and land. They cast wicked shadows in the moonlight.

Golden Wings Flew Into My Path

A walk in Vail Point Park still has a few butterflies swirling around.  This one was unusually large and I liked the way it tried to hang on to a small branch.  It looks so large on that slim branch but it held on.  The top image shows the sun rays reflecting the light against it's back. The wings are so delicate that the sun rays shined through the wings like stain glass and outlined the body of the butterfly down to the tip of it's tail.

Solomon in All His Glory was not Arrayed Like One of These

A canter from Mary Hillhouse's flower garden.  Seeds were given to her from her mother 50 years ago.  A living family heirloom. 

A Tide for All Seasons Under the Sun

There are few leaves turning colors for fall in Saint Augustine so the beach it is for us Floridians.  It is still warm and the ocean waves are still rolling in as in the summer, the spring, the winter and now the fall.  "There is a tide for all seasons under the sun."

Fall Waves at the Pier

Are the waves different from fall to summer?  Does the ocean have seasons as land?  I know the ocean water is colder during the winter months in Florida so the water temperature is different.  I should educated myself and look up the answer.  Other then temperature, the tide and appearance is the same.  

The Fields of Fall in Withee Village

Withee, Wisconsin is a village in Clark Co. Wisconsin.  The village population is 487 as of 2010.  There is some beautiful farms around the area.  The fall foliage is a beautiful backdrop for the farm fields.

Fall Blooms at Cumberland River

It is surprising that there are wild flowers still blooming this late in the fall.  Still feels like summer.

Caney Fork-Flowers Along the River Bank



The photos were taken along the banks of the Caney Fork River where it merges with the Cumberland River in Smith, Tennessee.

Old Stage Coach Behavior Rules - A Long Walk back

Old stage coach in Mosinee, Wisconsin.  Passengers crowded into coaches caused conditions that prompted Wells Fargo to post these rules in each coach for passenger behavior:

• Abstinence from liquor is requested, but if you must drink share the bottle. To do otherwise makes you appear selfish and unneighborly.
• If ladies are present, gentlemen are urged to forego smoking cigars and pipes as the odor of same is repugnant to the gentler sex. Chewing tobacco is permitted, but spit with the wind, not against it.
• Gentlemen must refrain from the use of rough language in the presence of ladies and children.
• Buffalo robes are provided for your comfort in cold weather. Hogging robes will not be tolerated and the offender will be made to ride with the driver.
• Don't snore loudly while sleeping or use your fellow passenger's shoulder for a pillow; he or she may not understand and friction may result.
• Firearms may be kept on your person for use in emergencies. Do not fire them for pleasure or shoot at wild animals as the sound riles the horses.
• In the event of runaway horses remain calm. Leaping from the coach in panic will leave you injured, at the mercy of the elements, hostile Indians and hungry coyotes.
• Forbidden topics of conversation are: stagecoach robberies and Indian uprisings.
• Gents guilty of unchivalrous behavior toward lady passengers will be put off the stage. It's a long walk back. A word to the wise is sufficient.

Island of Wagon Wheels & Horse Pulled Carriages

 

Mackinac Island is a very unique place to visit if you want to get away from cars and motor vehicles and traffic noise.  If you want to see what it is like using horse and buggies for traveling around town, then this is the place to visit.  Everything and everyone is transported by horses, carriages, and wagons including the trash pickup and taxi services. Of course you can always walk or ride bikes. The streets can smell from all the horse traffic so clean up after the horses is also important. I cannot even imagine what the stench was like in a large city like New York or London in horse and carriage days.

PL Fallin Butterfly Wings Gallery

A gallery of some of my favorite butterfly wings from this summer.  I lament that summer is gone and so are these precious butterflies.  Hopefully, I captured their beauty and they will live on through these images.  Life is so short.

Raining Like Ducks

 

 It has been raining like ducks today.  Normally, the saying is cats and dogs but here in Florida we have a lot of ducks and other bird so "Raining like ducks" fits better.  These ducks are enduring the rain and walking around patiently waiting for the rain to stop so they can go back into the pond.  I never paid much attention to the habits of ducks when it rains but on my drive to get a Latte, I noticed all the ducks were out of the pond so I stopped to observe and take pictures.  Of course, I got soaking wet doing it.  I felt like a "duck out of water."

Chasing a Dancing Swallowtail

Walking in the woods I am always searching for the uniqueness and beauty of the surroundings.  This Swallowtail butterfly was dancing from one flower to the next.  I tried to get as many close up shots as I could but his wings were fluttering so fast it was hard for me to catch him for a still life.

Summer Days are Gone as the Faded Flower

 Where have all the flowers gone?  Summer flowers in the woods at Mio, Michigan are now withered.  Summer days are now gone as the faded flower "and all its budded charm."  Reminds me of English Romantic poet John Keats who compared departure at the end of day from his love as a faded flower.

"The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!"

The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!
 Sweet voice, sweet lips, soft hand, and softer breast,
Warm breath, light whisper, tender semi-tone,
Bright eyes, accomplish’d shape, and lang’rous waist!
Faded the flower and all its budded charms,
Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes,
Faded the shape of beauty from my arms,
Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise –
Vanish’d unseasonably at shut of eve,
When the dusk holiday – or holinight
Of fragrant-curtain’d love begins to weave
The woof of darkness thick, for hid delight,
But, as I’ve read love’s missal through to-day,
He’ll let me sleep, seeing I fast and pray. 

By John Keats 1795–1821 

Mother Turtle Took a Stroll

On a afternoon walk, I encountered another walker at the park, a very large turtle heading into the brush.  She definitely stopped traffic when she walked across the parking lot.

Storm and Sunlight at the Marsh

The Marsh at Matanzas Inlet has storm clouds brewing overhead but in the east is a blue sky and bright sunlight.  This is so typical in this sub-tropical region.  Rain and sunlight can be brother and sister playing games on us poor creatures stuck on the earth's floor.

Old Pioneer Covered Wagon Escaped the Fires

We drove around Pikes Peak and looked at the fires that had destroyed 1,000s of acres on the mountains around Colorado Springs.  One block away, the trees were destroyed but the fire did not reach this covered wagon. A symbol of hope and a new life for the pioneers of yester-year and today!

Blue on Blue for a Rainy Day at the River

Took a walk on Shore Drive and it started raining.  The Matanzas River is beautiful in the rain. It makes up for not having trees with the brilliant color leaves of fall.  Different shades of blue you can't find in the mountains so it not so bad here.  Blue on Blue for a rainy day.  "River in the Rain, Sometimes at night you look like a long white train, winding your way away somewhere, River I love you. don't you care" (Roger Miller).

'The Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost

 

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

By Robert Frost

'Fall, Leaves, fall' by Emily Jane Bronte`

'Fall, leaves, fall'

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf sparks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.

I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night's decay
Ushers in a drearier day.

By Emily Jane Bronte

"The Mountain" - Excerpts of Poem by Robert Frost

"The mountain held the town as in a shadow

I saw so much before I slept there once:
I noticed that I missed stars in the west,
Where its black body cut into the sky.
Near me it seemed: I felt it like a wall
Behind which I was sheltered from a wind.
And yet between the town and it I found,
When I walked forth at dawn to see new things,
Were fields, a river, and beyond, more fields.
The river at the time was fallen away,
And made a widespread brawl on cobble-stones;
But the signs showed what it had done in spring;
Good grass-land gullied out, and in the grass
Ridges of sand, and driftwood stripped of bark."

By Robert Frost "The Mountain"



Moose Traffic Jams Are the Best!

At Columbine Lake, there was plenty of wildlife that would walk up to the cabins.  Particularly, moose, bears, and birds of all kinds.  Every morning there would be a traffic jam of cars stopped for Moose to cross the road.  I really like that kind of traffic jam.

Beauty in the Soul of a Haggard Tree

This image struck a chord with me about survival.  The harsh winter storms, snow, rain and winds have torn off this tree's top and branches.  All that is left standing is a torn and haggard trunk.  The roots are still intact receiving some nourishment and up the side is a beautiful rustic aura of reddish-gold bark. There is beauty in the soul of the remains of this tree and if you look closer, you will see she is as vibrant as the meadows that surround her.  It as if she is saying to hikers that past her by: " Even through hash winter snows, I'm still standing here in this wilderness, alone but surviving .  Respect me as you walk-by and may you have the perseverance, strenght, courage, and fortitude to endure hardships that come your way.  Remember me."